NATIONAL LEAGUES FOCUS ON KILKENNY HURLERS AND KERRY FOOTBALLERS: KEITH DUGGANtalks to Kilkenny mentor Martin Fogarty who says the three-in-a-row winners will be as determined as ever as the season progresses

THE SWIFTNESS with which Kilkenny killed off any semblance of a contest against Tipperary last Sunday was the most ominous reminder to date of the form in which they concluded last year’s All-Ireland championship. As manager Brian Cody acknowledged this week, the performance was, in part, an atonement for the eight-point defeat that Tipperary dished out in last year’s league. But it is also just part of Kilkenny’s simple policy of trying to win each match they play.

Still, the crowd-pleasing goals and the stunning half-time scoreline must have taken even the unflappable Kilkenny management unawares.

“We were nicely surprised,” Martin Fogarty, coach and selector on Cody’s management team, admits.

“Tipperary are league champions, we are All-Ireland champions so we were expecting a close encounter. They beat us last year in Nowlan Park so we were feeling we would be doing well to come away with the points. The way the game transpired, we killed the game off early and the second half fizzled out. We put on the brakes and the lead was insurmountable.

“But you know all these players – all intercounty hurlers – can hurl and they all have skill and if they get the opening, they can finish. We got those and you don’t normally see as many openings in one half of a match. Usually the encounters are much closer.

“Tipperary were short a few players and, like a lot of teams, they are keeping one eye on the league and one eye on the championship, trying out a few positional switches and what have you. As well as that, you have to take the training that teams are doing at particular times.

“Sometimes the league can be deceptive. I am not saying it is the case but it is possible that Tipperary were after a couple of weeks of hard training with a view to having a higher fitness level later in the championship. And that can leave you open in a league match, if you haven’t been working on sharpness for a few weeks. That is the thing about the league: it is also part of your training programme for the championship.”

For Cody, the merits of the league are simple: it is preferable to win games than to lose them and it is a national title.

It is sometimes suggested that Kilkenny also use league games to hammer home their superiority and sow early seeds of doubt in the minds of rival challengers; that their overwhelming win against Tipperary had more purpose behind it than merely pleasing the home crowd. Cody has always been exasperated by the casual assertions that his teams can simply blow opposition sides away whenever the fancy takes them. Fogarty finds the theory similarly dissatisfying.

“No. Anyone who is talking like that doesn’t know much about hurling or any sport. You hear of great teams over the years, historically and they can do anything and then they are beaten and all of a sudden everyone is expecting it. You just can’t switch it on like that.

“And even within a match – last year people said that in the Leinster final Kilkenny didn’t bother in the first half – which is absolutely disrespectful to Wexford. Of course Kilkenny were trying in the first half.

“You don’t go out in matches – and you surely don’t go out in championship matches – anything other than 100 per cent committed. Similarly with the Offaly match, it was said that Kilkenny moved into a different gear – it is total disrespect to another team.”

The Kilkenny management must maintain the winning habit and, most of all, guard against complacency. Over the last three seasons, Kilkenny seemed to become hungrier, overshadowing the desire evinced by their challengers. Kilkenny seemed to be invigorated by the challenge of defending their titles. But they have always maintained there is a simple and basic reason for this.

“We all enjoy it,” says Fogarty. “Players and mentors – everyone. Of course you can get tired and complacent. You can think because you have had a bit of success it will happen again. But that will be the rock you perish on. The players have to challenge themselves to get better and fitter and to at least be as good as they were when they were successful.

“Management have to do likewise. You have to keep sharp. But you do look forward to the training and the games. That is what we are in it for. You will be beaten for certain at some stage. But you would like to stave it off for as long as possible by keeping sharp.”

Last November, in a clinic he gave at the Games Development Conference, Fogarty illustrated his belief in keeping training sessions simple and enjoyable and high-octane, replicating match-day energy.

“The basics never change – hard work, honesty and commitment. Hurling is hurling. The challenge is to keep it simple and to keep those basics in place.”

For teams with ambitions of getting their hands on the Liam MacCarthy Cup, Kilkenny’s success at doing just that has been the worst news of all. For all their craft and understanding, they are willing to work like dogs: there has been precious little evidence in recent years that Kilkenny know how to glide through games.

The league defeat this season to Waterford will have served its purpose. All of Kilkenny’s championship defeats seem vivid and memorable because they are so rare. League defeats can be forgotten more easily but they can be valuable to a team accustomed to winning.

“You don’t want to be beaten. I am certain every county wants to win league matches. You pretend you do. But realistically you don’t. If we get beaten, you try and brush over the thing but of course you are disappointed. You may be trying out a few players but you still want to win the match.

“But it is true that losing is a leveller and it does bring a team down to earth. Because sometimes, maybe the press do run away with things and players hear that and read that and if for one minute you start thinking you are better than anyone else, you are primed for a defeat. . .

“You could have a guy who is a multiple starter but the day he thinks it is going to come easy is the day that he is going to get a hiding – and that could be the day that they play their last match.”

Kilkenny travel to Ennis today and present a grim assignment for a Clare team in bad need of league points. They will be heavy favourites to win and will go about the day with the same seriousness and enthusiasm with which they approach all games.

Halfway through the league and it is already clear that the three-in-a-row, the awards dinners and back-slapping and the team holidays have not taken any toll on Kilkenny. Old habits die hard. “It just takes off,” marvels Fogarty. “Once the middle of January kicks in, off she goes. Sunday after Sunday.”