Kilkenny’s Cillian Buckley proves the hero as last-gasp goal clinches win over Galway

Leinster SHC final: Kilkenny 4-21 Galway 2-26

Cillian Buckley waited. Over in the corner, where the Hogan Stand meets the Canal End, a cluster of Kilkenny and Galway players jostled for possession, a slow-moving mass of jaded bodies and flailing limbs. The seconds ticked away. On the edge of the D, Buckley waited.

Eventually, after an eternity of the sliotar popping around like a bar of soap in an endless rolling ruck, it eventually bounced towards a pocket of space in front of Padraic Mannion, who somewhere within the forest of bodies had lost his hurl.

So the Galway defender put his laces through the ball instead, just get it away, anywhere would do, clear the danger and that would be that. Five minutes of added time had been announced. As Mannion kicked the sliotar, the clock struck 75.07. A few yards away, completely unmarked and unnoticed, Buckley waited.

The ball whirled directly towards the Kilkenny sub. The waiting was over. You could sense what was going to happen. Just Kilkenny doing Kilkenny things. The 30-year-old grabbed the ball and immediately set off towards a crowded goalmouth. TJ Brennan was first to meet him, but Buckley showed the Galway player a brilliant sidestep to cut inside. With chaos unfolding all around him, the veteran defender showed incredible composure to then arrow the ball superbly to the bottom corner of the Galway goal. Mannion tried desperately to make amends by throwing himself in front of the shot, but he was too late.

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It was Buckley’s first championship goal, finished with the precision of a killer. The final whistle sounded and pandemonium ensued as Kilkenny celebrated their 75th Leinster senior hurling title with the kind of unbridled joy and wild enthusiasm you’d associate more with a county achieving a breakthrough success.

Then again, while Kilkenny are now on a run of four successive Leinster titles, this was their first piece of silverware in the post-Cody era. It was also the biggest moment in Derek Lyng’s tenure so far. His side had led by eight points during the second half here, only to have watched Galway chip away that advantage to the stage where three points in injury-time actually pushed the Tribesmen two ahead. It was very nearly a Kilkenny collapse.

Man of the Match Conor Whelan was hugely instrumental in the Galway comeback as they got to within seconds of a first Leinster title since 2018. But Kilkenny’s bench-press proved a decisive factor in front of 24,483 at Croke Park.

Their subs combined for 2-4 with Walter Walsh hitting 1-2 of that tally, his first-half goal was Kilkenny’s second of the game as the sides went in level at half-time, 2-9 to 1-12.

But Kilkenny, with the aid of the wind in the second half, grabbed control of the contest on the restart and a brilliant goal by defender Mikey Butler helped them lead 3-17 to 1-15 by the 44th minute.

The long puck-out strategies of both teams – but particularly Kilkenny – made it a bit of a lottery in terms of possession as balls rained down on opposition defences. The breeze was also a factor throughout, with TJ Reid and Evan Niland both landing scores from inside their own half of the field.

Leading by eight and coming out with the ball from most 50-50 duels around the pitch at that point, Kilkenny were on course for a straightforward victory. But Whelan released Jason Flynn in the 50th minute and the resulting goal proved to be a springboard for Galway’s comeback.

Kevin Cooney’s 71st-minute point brought the sides level but two more followed – a free from Evan Niland and another from play by Brian Concannon. From nowhere, Galway suddenly had one hand on the Bob O’Keeffe Cup.

The Cats launched a last hit-and-hope attack, but as the ball got bogged down in an endless rolling ruck in the corner it appeared Henry Shefflin would be the only Kilkenny man leaving Croke Park a winner.

But for all the questions and doubts that have been raised about Kilkenny in recent years, they remain hurling’s unyielding force, their refusal to go away fuelled by a dogged inner relentlessness to keep fighting until the very end.

As Galway fans around Croke Park prepared to celebrate a famous comeback victory, down on the pitch a cluster of bodies jostled for possession in the corner and there seemed little danger of a goal.

On the edge of the D, unnoticed by everybody, Cillian Buckley waited. You can’t take your eyes off Kilkenny.

They haven’t gone away, you know.

Kilkenny: Eoin Murphy; Mikey Butler (1-0), Huw Lawlor, Tommy Walsh; David Blanchfield (0-1), Darragh Corcoran; Cian Kenny (0-2), Paddy Deegan; Tom Phelan, John Donnelly (0-2), Billy Ryan, Martin Keoghan (1-0), TJ Reid (0-9, 6f), Eoin Cody (0-3). Subs: Walter Walsh (1-2) for Keoghan (19 mins); Padraig Walsh (0-1) for C Fogarty (52 mins); Cillian Buckley (1-0) for Corcoran (58 mins); Tommy Clifford for Phelan (61 mins); Billy Drennan (0-1) for Ryan (68 mins).

Galway: Éanna Murphy; Padraic Mannion, Gearóid McInerney, Darren Morrissey; Jack Grealish, Daithí Burke, Fintan Burke; Joseph Cooney (0-1), Cathal Mannion (0-1); Tom Monaghan, Evan Niland (0-12, 8f), Conor Whelan (1-6); Brian Concannon (0-3), Kevin Cooney (0-3), Conor Cooney. Subs: Jason Flynn (1-0) for Monaghan (47 mins); Seán Linnane for C Cooney (60 mins); TJ Brennan for Morrissey (64 mins).

Referee: Seán Stack (Dublin).