A strange day at Nowlan Park:
Kilkenny rocked by a driven Deise side

By Micheal O Muircheartaigh

It was a strange day in many ways at Nowlan Park, Kilkenny, on Sunday last. It was a beautiful spring morning and there was an atmosphere about town from early on - more akin to a Championship clash than a league encounter.

I suppose contests among neighbours pull in the crowds and it was obvious that they started out early enough.

An interesting Leinster Vocational Schools final between Johnstown and Ballyhale kept the early comers absorbed. And there was a second source of conversation on site as well; a Leinster flag to commemorate 100 years of the Provincial Council was billowing softly in the mild breeze on the Ollie Walshe Stand side of the ground.

The talk was of Jim Nowlan, its first chairman, after whom the park is named. In no time, a discussion developed about the pronunciation of his name. Was it Nowlan as in `now' or Nowlan as in `no'? They were the questions posed.

Naturally, a Kerry opinion would not be authentic, even if evidence of the effects of Gaelic influences could be thrown in. So, in the circumstances, I said little but noticed that a strong majority favoured the `now' version.

But then the opinion poll could be rated invalid as it was confined to early comers entirely! However, it became apparent shortly after 2 pm that a far bigger crowd than expected was converging on the ground.

They poured in and soon the seated sections were filling up rapidly and `word' arrived that cars were queued back as far as the rugby ground.

We were told that the Gardai were in action to speed the flow and eventually the `anticipated' fogra was made; the starting time was being put back by 10 minutes.

By then the Kilkenny players had spent 15 minutes loosening up on the pitch, but neither they nor the spectators worried about the postponed start.

You see, spring was in the air, the sun was shining and Nowlan's grass was greener than ever.

Eventually, the game started before a crowd of some 18,000, and before long Kilkenny followers were ecstatic due to the quality of their favourites' play.

Stephen Grehan sprinted through to score a point and a goal before the popular Henry Shefflin added another point. The Kilkenny backs were looking superb in dealing with a baffled Waterford attack and, on the other side of the pitch, the Kilkenny forwards were simply `playing' with the Deise defenders.

Charlie Carter was like the Charlie of old - darting around, ever on the move and combining well with O'Shea and McEvoy.

Little wonder that the Cats raced into a 10-point lead and sympathy for Waterford was rampant off the pitch.

But the first shaky step towards recovery was taken earlier by the Waterford selectors with the introduction of Dan Shanahan.

Dan is big and willing, and proceeded to have an enormous bearing on the trend of play. A full 27 minutes had gone by before Peter Queally got Waterford's first point and, almost unnoticed, Paul Flynn tacked on another three before half-time.

Still there was no interval talk about a real recovery materialising but the second half underlined that innate uncertainty which often characterises sport.

Significantly, this half began with Peter Queally at centreback for Waterford, and the switch worked out to perfection. The Garda played as never before and his power and enthusiasm rubbed off on wing man Brian Flannery, who gave a scintillating and often heroic display.

For 15 minutes the team hurled well but failed to haul back much of Kilkenny's half-time lead of eight points. Another major decision was taken during that opening quarter, and that involved bringing on the classy Tony Browne. He too was to play a substantial role in the subsequent rocking of Kilkenny.

From the eighteenth to the thirty fourth minute, Kilkenny were held scoreless while a battling and driven Deise side totted up a goal and five points.

Captain Paul Flynn supplied three of the points and started the move which brought a goal from Dan Shanahan following in between play by Micheal White, who seemed to travel more than four steps before passing to Tony Browne.

The goal brought the teams on level terms, and such was Waterford's momentum then that they quickly surged two points ahead.

A Kilkenny point from Charlie Carter in the thirty fourth minute kindled home hopes temporarily but, before the end, Tony Browne flighted a fine shot from the wing over the bar and an amazing game soon came to an end.

By the way, only 25 seconds of injury time were allowed by referee Willie Barrett when an extra two minutes might not have wronged anybody, considering that there was one reasonably long break in play during that second half.

Does it state the case once again of the desirability of introducing the clock method of timing games as is successfully done in ladies football?