“Mostly managers go home disappointed when they are beaten by 15-16 points. . . I’m very proud’ – Joe Fortune

“For 40 to 45 minutes we went toe-to-toe,” said a proud Joe Fortune, looking back on his first championship outing in the Westmeath cockpit. “Look, people will be shocked. It’s not me because I know what’s in that dressing room, I know the spirit that’s in there.

“But I will also say that moral victories do nothing for this group and Tommy Doyle has spoken about it, they’ve been in situations where they’ve been close before. But at some point they really have to take a big team to progress.

“‘Jogger’ (Doyle) ended up talking really well in circles about how sometimes these moral victories lead to temptations to get a little complacent. He also talked about building on that this week, going to Salthill and having to put in another performance. And it’s not just okay to say, well, we made it on our home pitch.”

The truth is Kilkenny would never lose that Championship opener at TEG Cusack Park, even after Killian Doyle’s first-half sorcery propelled the 16/1 underdog to a four-point lead after 22 minutes.

But it took much longer for Kilkenny to get an iron grip on the process. In the 48th minute, when corner defender Darragh Egerton scored a monster goal from his own 65, the home side’s damn resistance had put them to three points.

It couldn’t last, however, largely because they had already drained the tank and partly because Cormac Boyle’s second yellow card in the 56th minute left 14 faltering teammates chasing the shadows of the fourth quarter.

By that point, Billy Ryan had already matched Mikey Carey’s first-half shot with an equally emphatic second goal from the tightest angle. And then, with an extra man, Kilkenny went to the jugular with three more goals via sub James Maher, the marauding Walter Walsh and TJ Reid, marking his first appearance of 2022 with an injury-time rebound to make his cameo on 1-4 to bring .

“The intention was to get a second half into him if at all possible and that’s how it worked out. And of course it’s important to him that he’s back on the pitch,” said Brian Cody of his returned talisman.

Cody conceded that the difference in score could have a crucial impact on who gets promoted from the group of six – and who doesn’t. But the veteran boss insisted that wasn’t part of his thoughts as he returned to Mullingar 16 years after his all-conquering Noughties collective won a Leinster semi-final by 14 points here.

“We didn’t come up here expecting to win the game by a huge margin to close our points difference – we came up to try and win the game,” he said. “You saw how good Westmeath was in the first half. Of course, we got a bit of a cushion as the game progressed.”

Safe to guess, Cody was less than thrilled with her initial struggles to escape the attention of a tiger-like Westmeath rear guard led by Tommy Doyle and with Robbie Greville returning.

His own defense was equally disturbed by the roving Killian Doyle, who scored a brilliant strike from the right touchline and another brace from the left. But Kilkenny refocused and limited Doyle’s impact on the game, even as 11 clean frees took his night work to an amazing 0-14.

When Niall O’Brien benefited from a diagonal delivery from Trojan Niall Mitchell, the hosts led 10-0 to 6-0. dreamland. But full-back Carey’s goal in the 24th minute changed the narrative and a late surge gave Kilkenny a 1-12 to 0-12 interval lead.

As Fortune later admitted, his side were never really threatened with a goal until Sub Owen McCabe’s consolation goal in the 74th minute, while Kilkenny were “reckless” when needed. But he concluded: “It’s mostly managers who go home disappointed when they’re beaten by 15-16 points. . . I’m very proud of the boys. But we still have a lot to do to maintain this standard.”

Goalscorers – Kilkenny: A Murphy 0-7 (6f); TJ Reid 1-4 (1’65’, 2f); W Walsh 1-2; P Walsh 0-4; B Ryan, J Maher 1-1 each; M Carey 1-0; A Mullen 0-2; C Kenny, E Cody 0-1 each. Westmeath: K. Doyle 0-14 (11f); O McCabe 1-0; J Boyle 0-2; N O’Brien, D Glennon, D Egerton 0-1 each.

KILKENNY—E.Murphy 7; M Butler 7, H Lawlor 7, T Walsh 6; Carey M.7, Deegan P.8, Blanchfield D.6; C Kenny 6, A Mullen 7; W Walsh 8, P Walsh 8, E Cody 6; B Ryan 7, M Keoghan 5, A Murphy 6. Substitutes: J Donnelly 5 for Keoghan (34), TJ Reid 7 for Kenny (ht), J Maher 7 for A Murphy (46), C Browne 6 for Blanchfield (59) , S Walsh 6 for Ryan (66).

WESTMEATH—C Bracken 7; D Egerton 7, T Doyle 8, C Shaw 6; A Craig 7, R Greville 8, J Galvin 7; C Boyle 5, K Regan 6; J Boyle 7, D Glennon 7, N Mitchell 7; K Doyle 8, D McNicholas 5, N O’Brien 5. Subs: E Keyes 5 for O’Brien (50), C Doyle 6 for McNicholas (55), T Gallagher 6 for Craig (62), O McCabe 7 for J Boyle (68), a helmsman for Regan (70).

REF – R. McGann (Clare).

game at a glance

man of the game

Walter Walsh (Kilkenny)

There was only one winner at half-time: Westmeath’s Killian Doyle, who was already 0-10 (three from the game) en route to a final 0-14. But the great Walter gained more and more influence after the break and supplemented his 1: 2 from the game with two more assists.

talking point

34, can TJ Reid still be the driving force behind Kilkenny’s quest to end their seven-year All-Ireland itch? Reid made his seasonal close after halftime, unusually missing three balls placed but still leading 1-1 from the game and 1-4 overall. Expect even more with more game time.

Magic moment