Richie Hogan brings the magic when Kilkenny steals the first epic of the year



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Kilkenny 2-20 Galway 0-24

In all things, there must be little room for genius. Richie Hogan ended 2019 by walking from the field at Croke Park, bitterly shaking his head after being sent off in the final in Ireland. Anyone who imagined they had finished with him got their answer here. And with it, a reminder that the game is still about magic.

Hogan came in 10 minutes after the break, right in the middle of a period where Galway seemed about to stretch his legs and leave Kilkenny to dust. It took him a little while to get into the game, but when it happened, you couldn’t take your eyes off him. He finished 1-2 against his name, set up a pinned scoring opportunity for Martin Keoghan, and overall jumped up making Galway’s defense look like he was trying to cut the front lawn with a threshing machine.

His goal was the kind of things a father does to his son, to remind both of them that he was once useful. Hogan was the second favorite to land a fumble on Kilkenny’s full forward line, but he managed to throw it around Galway goalkeeper Éanna Ryan, run the other way to pick it up, throw it up and then pick it up. . back over his shoulder towards the empty net.

Never has an empty stadium felt less appropriate. We hadn’t started to find a formulation of words to describe it to those who weren’t lucky enough to be here when Kilkenny had a second green flag. TJ Reid stayed one by one on top of the D and his side step and ping in the top corner would have had us raving for days if we hadn’t been thinking about what Richie did.

Conor Fogarty closes Galway's Johnny Coen in Croke Park.  Photograph: Ken Sutton / Inpho

Conor Fogarty closes Galway’s Johnny Coen in Croke Park. Photograph: Ken Sutton / Inpho

The hurling championship had missed an epic. He is no longer missing one. Those two goals turned this Leinster final upside down and threw the championship to the winds. Galway had been creeping towards a Leinster title and then suddenly like thunder, they were behind for the first time in the match. They never moved on again.

For the first three quarters, Galway was generally the more fluid side and the stronger side. But they couldn’t get rid of Kilkenny. Mostly, this was because they gave Reid the kind of free session that he would reward himself if he wanted to take it by hand some night in Nowlan Park. He had eight free on the scoreboard before the break, none of them from a particularly difficult distance or angle.

Reid hadn’t been too involved in open play at that stage and both Walter Walsh and Colin Fennelly had been kept under wraps by the Galway defense. Beyond those free, then, it was the lesser Kilkenny lights that kept them in him. Eoin Cody scored a point and set up another, both times winning his own ball under pressure as Kilkenny cleared his lines. Martin Keoghan jumped off his shoulder for one, John Donnelly also threw the boat. Everything was necessary.

It meant that instead of taking what should have been a three or four point lead at the break, Galway was only 0-13 to 0-12 up. They put the pedal to the metal in the third quarter, fine, with Joe Canning spreading his shoulders and Jason Flynn causing trouble from the bench. Canning’s customary sideline put them two ahead in 48 minutes and after Flynn pulled a save from Eoin Murphy shortly after, a Canning 65 stretched him to three. By the time Brian Concannon released his only power score in 54 minutes, Galway was up five and deservedly.

TJ Reid scores a goal for Kilkenny during their final victory over Galway.  Photograph: Ken Sutton / Inpho

TJ Reid scores a goal for Kilkenny during their final victory over Galway. Photograph: Ken Sutton / Inpho

Richie enters. He had already sent Keoghan for a scoring opportunity with a superb hand pass and put Liam Blanchfield up by a point. But Kilkenny wasn’t going to get into this again with the odd point here and the occasional setup there. They needed goals. They have two in a minute.

Galway was shocked. David Burke came off the bench to nail two much-needed points from midfield, but they were on another list. Hogan snuck in behind to score another point with four minutes to go; the goal was on but it narrowly cleared the crossbar. It seemed correct and true that the last score was his, a dizzying and imposing effort from the left.

He hit the air before the ball reached 20 yards from the posts. Redemption will take a little longer than this. But it was a privilege to see him deposit such a memorable deposit.

Galway: Enda Murphy; Sean Loftus, David Burke, Shane Cooney; Fintan Burke, Gearóid McInerney, Joseph Cooney (0-1); Patrick Mannion, Johnny Coen (0-2); Conor Cooney, Cathal Mannion (0-1), Joe Canning (0-14, 0-9 free, 0-1 on the wing, 0-1 65); Conor Whelan (0-2), Niall Burke, Brian Concannon (0-1). Subs: Aidan Harte for Loftus, part time; Jason Flynn (0-1) by N Burke, 40 minutes; David Burke (0-2) by C Cooney, 59 minutes; Adrian Tuohey for Coen, 70 minutes; Sean Linanne for S Cooney, 70 minutes

Kilkenny: Eoin Murphy; Conor Delaney; Huw Lawlor, Tommy Walsh; Cillian Buckley, Pádraig Walsh (0-1), Conor Fogarty; Richie Leahy, Conor Browne (0-2); John Donnelly (0-1), Martin Keoghan (0-2), Walter Walsh; TJ Reid (1-9, 0-8 free), Eoin Cody (0-1), Colin Fennelly. Subs: Joey Holden for Buckley (blood), 43-47 minutes; Richie Hogan (1-2) for Walsh, 45 minutes; Liam Blanchfield (0-1) by Fennelly, 52 minutes; Richie Reid for Fogarty, 56 minutes; Niall Brassil for Cody, 61 minutes; Alan Murphy for Leahy, 62 minutes

Referee: Fergal horgan

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