Pupil can thwart master once again with Henry Shefflin set to inflict more misery on Brian Cody’s Cats

John Mullane

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, left, and Galway manager Henry Shefflin shake hands after their Leinster SHC Round 3 clash. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody and Henry Shefflin celebrate after the 2014 All-Ireland final replay. Photo by: David Maher/Sportsfile

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, left, and Galway manager Henry Shefflin shake hands after the Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 3 match between Galway and Kilkenny at Pearse Stadium in Galway. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, left, and Galway manager Henry Shefflin shake hands after their Leinster SHC Round 3 clash. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody and Henry Shefflin celebrate after the 2014 All-Ireland final replay. Photo by: David Maher/Sportsfile

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, left, and Galway manager Henry Shefflin shake hands after the Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 3 match between Galway and Kilkenny at Pearse Stadium in Galway. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, left, and Galway manager Henry Shefflin shake hands after their Leinster SHC Round 3 clash. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

June 04 2022 02:51 AM

The sequel is rarely as thrilling as the original, but tonight’s Leinster hurling final has blockbuster written all over it as the pupil tries to thwart his old master again.

Henry Shefflin versus Brian Cody II is fascinating and while the hullabaloo surrounding the frosty handshake after their first clash has died down, you can guarantee that neither will want to lose a battle of hurling icons.

Only Jimmy Barry-Murphy, Liam Sheedy and Micheál Donoghue have secured successive championship wins over Cody during his 24 seasons in black and amber and he will have little interest in Shefflin joining that select crew.

Kilkenny were too bad to be true against Wexford and Cody simply won’t tolerate that type of display again while team selection will be intriguing with their best midfield pairing still unknown, which is not the case for any other All-Ireland contenders given the importance of that war zone.

Will Conor Browne be recalled to pick up Tom Monaghan, who is in All-Star form, and could David Blanchfield be thrown in to curb the influence of Joseph Cooney? Huw Lawlor is touch and go to feature but if he doesn’t, his loss at the edge of the square will be sorely felt against the high-flying Conor Whelan.

Harsh words surely followed after the Wexford game where the Cats continuously lamped ball into a packed defence. There will have to be a mix of long and short ball if they are to win their third Leinster in succession.

While the talk coming from Noreside is that it’s too soon to throw in any of the All-Ireland U-20 winners and that it’s not the norm for Cody to fire a lad in without serving their time, that was in the golden years when the conveyor belt was overflowing.

Cody picking dummy teams or utilising short puck-outs wasn’t the done thing either, but things change and he won’t need much persuasion to throw Billy Drennan or Denis Walsh in soon.

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As Cork’s Ciarán Joyce has shown, if you’re good enough, you’re old enough. TJ Reid was not himself when these sides last met, but Cody knows that his most trusted lieutenant usually saves his best for Croke Park and he will need him firing on all cylinders.

Will Henry put Pádraic Mannion back on Eoin Cody again? His nephew did untold damage the last day and Henry won’t allow that to happen again while it will be interesting to see who Cody assigns for Cathal Mannion.

There was a whirlwind of emotion around their first meeting, but Shefflin will really relish this opportunity. Not alone is the Bob O’Keeffe Cup at stake, but getting a golden ticket to the All-Ireland semi-final is also dangling overhead.

The winners avoid a potential All-Ireland quarter-final against a dangerous Cork side while victory also means avoiding Limerick until a final if results go that way.

Galway don’t need reminding that it took the last puck of the ball to put Kilkenny away on home soil in the round-robin. They will have to bring their ‘A’ game to prevail but with so many of their top players in form, they get the nod to capture a fourth Leinster title, and Shefflin’s first as a manager to add to the 13 he won as a player.

Tomorrow’s Munster final will be another barnburner. It’s a real throwback to the good old days – a 46,000 sell-out in Thurles and what we’ve all been longing for since crowds returned.

It’ll have shades of 1995 when these two sides last met in a provincial final. There’s nothing like a full house in the home of hurling and it takes me back to 2004 when we beat Cork there. Limerick are chasing four in a row, while Clare are trying to end a famine stretching back to ’98 so it’s perfectly poised with Brian Lohan’s Banner men getting better with every game.

They won’t fear the challenge of trying to take down this Limerick machine in any way and they have no inferiority complex to their neighbours. In fact, they will relish this test of character. Lohan has a unique charisma about him, they are different characters but there’s a hint of Ger Loughnane about him. He’s a fella that you can totally get behind and the Clare public have bought into what he’s selling.

Even in 2013 when they last lifted Liam MacCarthy, I don’t know if the county had bought in to the same extent and a Munster title would see them go wild with scenes something similar to ’95.

It’s hard to see Tony Kelly replicating the flawless display which saw him fire over 16 points the last time they met but if he can still have a big influence and the other Clare forwards keep the scoreboard ticking over, then the Banner have every chance.

Unheralded players like Ryan Taylor, Cathal Malone and Robin Mounsey will make the difference and it will be fascinating to see if the Clare half-back line can hold up against Gearóid Hegarty, potentially Cian Lynch or Cathal O’Neill, and Tom Morrissey.

Diarmuid Ryan, John Conlon and David McInerney are a bit like Liam Doyle, Seánie McMahon and Anthony Daly of yesteryear while the battles between Conor Cleary and Aaron Gillane, as well as Rory Hayes on Séamus Flanagan, will tip the scales either way.

Clare will bring one hell of a performance, but Limerick will do what they do best and close out the game in the last quarter to prevail by three or four points.

Elsewhere, Stephen Molumphy’s Kerry bid to make it third time lucky in this evening’s Joe McDonagh Cup final and they’ll push Antrim all the way – maybe even to extra-time – but the Saffrons can still prevail.