Paul Murphy Column- Plenty of Kilkenny positives ahead of trip to Belfast

Kilkenny and Galway will have been happy with a certain amount of their play on Sunday, but I think both sides will also come away from the game thinking there is lots of room for improvement. At this stage of the season that’s not a bad place to be.

Teams are looking to peak for provincial and All-Ireland finals and even you see Derek Lyng’s comments after the game where he said that they’d chances to close out the game. That’s obviously something that they will be working on over the next few weeks.

But Galway also showed a bit of resolve to come back. They were six points down at one stage and they still came back at Kilkenny, so both teams will take a lot from it without having shown their full hand or without peaking just yet.

Both teams will also see plenty of areas for improvement.

It was hard to hold back for the two teams and it would have been very difficult to go onto the pitch and not show their hand.

I do believe that both teams went to win the game though, and maybe win a psychological battle too. To be fair Kilkenny started really well before Galway got a foothold in the game.

Galway were getting really good ball into the forwards and Kilkenny struggled to get that same quality of ball in the first half, but then Kilkenny came out all guns blazing in the second half. They really showed the firepower that they have with a few lads coming in off the bench and getting on a good few balls.

Coming down the home stretch, when Galway managed to stay in touch, it was the lads who came off the bench including Declan McLoughlin who got the levelling point that really told.

Henry Shefflin will have been delighted at the lads that he introduced from the bench. He made some really big calls too, including taking off Conor Whelan in the 69th minute.

Both teams are aware that they are likely to meet again in a few weeks but nevertheless I still think both teams went out to win a game that turned into a stalemate in the end.

I was pleased with how Kilkenny generally performed - they were moving the ball really well.

I know people can have their concerns when teams are working the ball out of defence, but that’s the modern game.

Kilkenny were really calm on the ball and they moved it up the pitch really well. They kept their composure too, which was something I was delighted with.

When you consider the likes of Walter Walsh, Billy Drennan and Paddy Deegan are still to come back in and put their hand up for a jersey, it’s great to see that the forwards are moving so well.

Eoin Cody got six points too so there’s so many positives to take from it. Although Brian Concannon got through for a goal, I thought we held up well defensively.

There’s a lot of good things going forward and Kilkenny are still building, but there’s still a few more challenges ahead that we will need to build on. Improving performances will be the main target for Derek and his backroom team.

We are now used to seeing Henry Shefflin on the sideline for Galway and we are used to seeing Derek Lyng on the Kilkenny side, so I don’t think either of those aspects really mattered too much at the weekend.

It’s definitely strange seeing Henry wear the Galway top inside at Nowlan Park but again he was there to try and get a win for the Tribesmen.

His job at the minute is to try and get his team over the line. Derek wasn’t fazed by any means when replacing Brian Cody either and those are just little side stories at the moment and that’s just the new norm now.

Kilkenny now go on to face Antrim this weekend. They had a good win in the league in Corrigan Park but when we were looking at Dublin playing Antrim there a few weeks ago it looked like a tricky one on paper for the Dubs and that’s how it played out.

The longer you leave Antrim in a game up there, the more belief they get and the crowd really get behind them.

It’s not an easy place to go and after taking a draw off Dublin in their first game, Antrim will be looking at this match and thinking if they can get another draw, maybe even squeeze a win out of Kilkenny, then that would be enormous for them.

Kilkenny will be aware of all that. They’ll want to go out and get a few points up as they won’t want to leave Antrim in the game too long because it’s a dangerous position to leave yourself in.

I’d have no doubt that having played there earlier in the year Kilkenny will be well warned for that - they’ll want to get any doubt on who’s going to win the game out of Antrim’s head very early.

You’d still expect Kilkenny’s experience to tell. They should come through in the end but it will be a difficult game and it’s sure to be a big occasion for Antrim hurling as well so the lads will need to be on their guard.