Kilkenny claimed their fifth Leinster Hurling title in succession on Sunday when they beat a youthful Dublin side 2-18 to 0-18 at Croke Park, in Dublin.
Kilkenny’s experienced squad, who have only lost one Leinster final in the last ten years, were able to counter a credible Dublin performance. The two goals scored by Martin Comerford, man of the match, made the difference when the final whistle blew. The Kilkenny Number Eleven’s second goal on 55 minutes silenced Dublin just as they were starting to build the pressure on the Leinster champions.
Dublin never gave up and battled to the end, however, one could sense that Kilkenny were in the driving seat from then on.
Both sides started out slowly with a lot of shots off target, but as the game progressed the accuracy increased on both sides.
Kilkenny were by no means in control for the whole game. Dublin may have a second chance to play Kilkenny in the All-Ireland; next time they will certainly have more confidence that they can get the better of Kilkenny.
Dublin hurling is experiencing a bit of a renaissance at the moment, the last time the county was represented in the final was back in 1991 when they lost to Kilkenny by two points. You have to go back further still to 1961 to Dublin’s last victory. The same year they also reached the All Ireland final where they lost out to Tipperary.
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