Leinster Senior Hurling Championship semi-final:
Kilkenny 5-25 Wexford 0-16
IT’S hard to know exactly what the greatest affront to Wexford hurling was at Nowlan Park, but Brian Cody’s decision to roll on a troop of greenhorn Kilkenny substitutes in the final 15 minutes was surely a contender.
By that stage, the game was long over as Cody’s Kilkenny, reputedly in a transition year following a multitude of retirements, simply returned to business as usual by steamrolling their outclassed opposition.
Nobody did more to batter Wexford’s ego than Ger Aylward, whose 3-5 haul, all from play, will go down as one of the great full Championship debuts. It’s safe to assume his chance only arrived because of the retirements of Henry Shefflin and Aidan Fogarty and the injuries that ruled out Richie Power and Colin Fennelly. But after three seasons on Brian Cody’s panel, Aylward spotted the opening and dived through it to virtually secure his starting place for the July 5 Leinster final.
Kilkenny will meet Galway in that decider and, bearing in mind the battles the two counties have had in the last five years alone, it is shaping up as a classic. Mind you, it may say something about the Leinster Championship’s competitiveness that Galway and Kilkenny had a combined 44 points to spare on their semi-final opponents over the weekend.
Wexford knocked then-holders Clare out of last year’s Championship and had a middling first half performance on Sunday that left them 3-7 to 0-10 down at the break. But if leaking three goals to the excellent Richie Hogan, Aylward and TJ Reid wasn’t worrying enough, they’d also failed to take advantage of the stiff wind.
Kilkenny didn’t make the same mistake in the second half as they rode the breeze and a wave of confidence to a huge win. Aylward secured a hat-trick of goals with 48th and 53rd minute net blasts, though neither manager nor player were about to run their mouths off afterwards.
“It’s hard to get in there to the team, but thank God I got the chance and hopefully I can kick on from here now,” said Aylward.
“We’ve lost a few guys so it’s up to us as players ourselves to step up to it. That’s all we can do now, push on again from last year.”
As for Cody, he offered a typically understated assessment of Glenmore man Aylward’s performance, labelling it "decent".
“Ger had a decent game, there is no doubt about that,” said the 10-time All-Ireland winning manager.
“Ger would have been on the panel for a few years now and was a very good underage player as well. He has worked hard to put himself in contention and he is now in contention. But it’s up to himself now to drive things forward again.”
Wexford scored just seven points in total from open play and were easily marshalled by a robust Kilkenny defence brilliantly led by Joey Holden and Kieran Joyce. Liam Dunne accepted his Wexford team were "hurled out the door" and he lamented the absence of marquee forward Jack Guiney, who was dropped for a breach of team discipline.
“You want your best players all the time,” said Dunne.
“The player in question has the potential to be one of the best players in Ireland, let alone in Wexford.”
Kilkenny: E Murphy; P Murphy, J Holden, J Tyrrell; P Walsh, K Joyce, C Buckley (0-1); M Fennelly (0-1), C Fogarty; W Walsh, R Hogan (1-5), J Power (0-2); G Aylward (3-5), TJ Reid (1-7, 1-0 pen, 0-2 65, 0-2 frees), E Larkin (0-3); Subs: K Kelly (0-1) for Power (56); S Prendergast for Tyrrell (60); R Lennon for Murphy (61); M Kelly for Larkin (63).
Wexford: M Fanning; C Kenny, L Ryan, E Moore; L Chin, M O’Hanlon, A Shore (0-1); D Redmond (0-2), D Waters; I Byrne (0-11, 0-9 frees), S Tomkins, D O’Keeffe; P Morris, C McDonald, L Óg McGovern (0-2); Subs: K Foley for Morris (18, blood sub); A Nolan for Moore (32); H Kehoe for Tomkins (h-t); P Doran for Waters (h-t); E Martin for Shore (62); G Sinnott for McGovern (65).
Referee: Diarmuid Kirwan (Cork).
