Ruthless Kilkenny are already looking unstoppable

WHAT unfolded in Thurles last Sunday was more than a little scary. It was a humiliating day for Cork, and, to be honest, the National League final mis-match has worrying consequences for hurling in a wider sense too. Nothing that Kilkenny do should surprise us anymore, but their ongoing superiority could indirectly cause the sport to lose some of its appeal in the short term.

Having won seven of the last ten All-Ireland championships and, now, four of the last eight National League titles, Kilkenny are turning hurling into a one horse town. We have never seen dominance like it before and only for Lar Corbett and Tipperary having a dream-like experience in Croke Park last September 12 months, the Cats would be going for an incredible seventh Liam McCarthy Cup on the trot this summer.

There is no shortage of admiration for Kilkenny’s unprecedented exploits and, especially, their continuing manic levels of desire and hunger given all they have won over the past decade, but the current inter-county hurling landscape must be becoming increasingly demoralising for the sport’s other strongholds who are all being routinely swept aside, particularly when Brian Cody’s troops are in one of those vengeful moods.

This Spring alone, Kilkenny have shown no mercy to Tipperary, Galway and, now, Cork, in turn. When they have a cause and are determined to teach a particular team a lesson for whatever motivation, they generally carry out a ruthless demolition job. Nothing stirs the Cats’ emotion more than when the opposition is being talked up and when they themselves are perceived to be vulnerable . . . as was the backdrop to Sunday’s league decider.

With Henry Shefflin, Richie Power, Michael Rice, Aidan Fogarty and Noel Hickey all on the casualty list, Kilkenny had a few holes to plug but such was their mastery in Thurles those elite players weren’t missed in the slightest. Newcomers Richie Doyle and Cillian Buckley blended in seamlessly while the slightly more experienced Paddy Hogan, Matthew Ruth and Paul Murphy were all key links of a team which cantered to victory by a whopping 14 points.

To be honest, Kilkenny have an aura of invincibility about them again. With JJ Delaney, Brian Hogan, Tommy Walsh, Michael Fennelly, Jackie Tyrell and Noel Larkin, who led the demolition of Cork, continuing to drive them in different sectors of the field, the All-Ireland champions are currently in a different league to everyone else at present and, frankly, they already look unstoppable in the months ahead.

Any mentors or players from Kilkenny’s leading challengers who were viewing the events in Thurles last Sunday must have got a shiver down the spine. They had Cork beaten after only ten minutes and though losing both Delaney and Fennelly to injury during the course of the match, it didn’t disrupt them one iota. The winners’ inherent physicality helped them to make short work of the Rebels who had come into the final with high hopes, especially after their swashbuckling finish against Tipperary in the league semi-final.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.