Paul Murphy Column- "It’s a missed opportunity for Kilkenny, but still many positives"

Kilkenny started the game really well last Sunday and it looked like the writing was on the wall for Wexford.

Kilkenny came out of the blocks really strong and I suppose a mixture of Wexford coming back into it but also Kilkenny allowing them to do so ensured it was a really exciting match.

Even listening to Derek Lyng’s comments afterwards he was disappointed with the manner in which they lost the game.

Grand, they got five goals down one end but at the same time the goals going in down the other end will be a small cause for concern.

Wexford’s backs were to the wall and they had to come out fighting and they did that in fairness to win by the smallest of margins.

That’s all Wexford will be concerned with, but for Derek and the Kilkenny team they’ll see it as a missed opportunity to put their opponents to the sword and they’ll be disappointed by that.

There was an air of tension around the place and there was certainly a different atmosphere to anything Kilkenny played in this year and there was a lot on the line.

Playing in that type of cauldron of a match is definitely good going forward and particularly before a Leinster final as, for a lot of the players, it would have been the most high profile game they would have played this year and that’s including the league final. You could feel the atmosphere in the first 10 minutes and even when Kilkenny got two early goals , the Wexford crowd was very quiet at that stage as their fate looked sealed.

But as soon as they crept back into it, the energy built and the Wexford supporters really got behind their team.

You could cut the tension with a knife in Wexford Park and that’s what we really wanted.

For a neutral watching on, it was an absolutely brilliant match to watch as it had everything but you have to give credit to Wexford and their supporters for doing what was needed on the day - getting out of jail.

I suppose Leinster does need Wexford as well as they’re an exciting team to watch when they are going well.

It was a great game and while Kilkenny will be disappointed to lose, nevertheless if you stand back and look at it you’d have to be happy for Wexford as well as they managed to pull it out of the bag when they needed it the most.

Kilkenny have kind of struggled to hit the net at times this year so the fact they managed to unlock the Wexford defence and score five goals was brilliant.

That will hopefully open a few more opportunities for Kilkenny to get goals in the coming games and when you look at it Eoin Cody was brilliant at the weekend as was Tom Phelan in scoring 1-4.

Tom is a great player out on the wing and whatever about getting points, it was huge for him to get forward and score a goal and we know that TJ will grow into the year as it goes on.

When you have lots of players firing like that and you’ve the few reliables chipping in that you know will perform when it comes to a Leinster final or an All-Ireland semi-final, it’s good news.

The spread of scorers was also a big positive and that, added to the high number of goals that we are now racking up, means there are positives. I know they’ll be glossed over a bit when not winning the game but it was still an encouraging performance from Kilkenny.

One of the big complaints people have had about the Leinster championship recently is that it’s bit too predictable. When you turned your attention to Croke Park and saw that Dublin were leading by 12 points at one stage and Galway had to fight back, it certainly made for an entertaining game.

Even when you look at the game in Mullingar, with Antrim doing what they needed to do in getting a victory against a Westmeath team that were only off a big win against Wexford the previous week, these results were important for the Leinster championship. They were also important for teams like Westmeath and Antrim as it gives the competition that competitive edge when they are able to take some scalps along the way.

It was a great final day and we know that Munster had a great conclusion too but for Leinster it was great to see as maybe we’ve been a bit short of these exciting games.

At the start of the year teams would have targeted their provincial championship. If you can go and win in Leinster or Munster it’s a big box ticked as you’ll be able to say that we are on track for what we want to achieve.

It’s also saving yourself an extra game at this time of the year when you’ve already played an arduous round-robin. It means you can go win your match and let the other teams battle it out in the backdoor while you’re waiting in an All-Ireland semi-final.

We saw it even last year when Kilkenny played Clare and they were by far the best team but I suppose a lot of people would have pointed to Clare running out of legs in the Munster Championship so that’s the main benefit of Kilkenny trying to beat Galway on Sunday week.

Kilkenny will be all guns blazing to try and win the Leinster final and if they can win it, there’s an extra few weeks for injuries to rest up.