1997 All-Ireland SHC Quarter-Final
KILKENNY 4-15 GALWAY 3-16
By John Harrington
As much as you appreciated him at the time, reviewing old matches when DJ Carey was in his pomp for Kilkenny reminds you all over again just how special a talent he was.
He was arguably at his very best during a period of time when Kilkenny hurling was at a relatively low ebb between 1994 and 1997.
They failed to win a Leinster Championship in each of those years as the team went through a period of transition. Many of the veterans of the ’91 and ’92 All-Ireland wins slipped away and weren’t adequately replaced until a new generation emerged at the end of the decade.
But even though Kilkenny’s collective light dimmed, Carey the individual electrified whenever he went out to hurl.
Some of his brightest displays aren’t all that well remembered now because Kilkenny weren’t competing for the big prizes, but they still live vividly in the mind’s eye if you were lucky enough to witness them.
His performance in the 1997 All-Ireland Quarter-Final against Galway was one of his greatest of all.
A talented young Galway team featuring rising stars like Eugene Cloonan, Kevin Broderick, and Franny Forde threatened to blow Kilkenny away at times.
They surely would have too had Carey not hurled up a storm of his own.
Kilkenny trailed by 3-9 to 1-6 at half-time, but in the end won by two points thanks mainly to the scoring heroics of Carey who finished with a personal tally of 2-8.
It was a performance that clearly meant a lot to Carey too, because he would reference it towards the end of his career when he’d long copper-fastened his status as the greatest forward of his generation.
"They say that on the big occasion I didn't play well," he said.
"We had an All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway in 1997 and were nine points down; I scored 2-8 in that game, that's as big as you can possibly produce.”
DJ Carey leaves Nigel Shaughnessy in his wake and scores Kilkenny's first goal past Galway goalkeeper Pat Costello in the 1997 All-Ireland SHC Quarter-Final.
The first goal that Carey scored on the day was a perfect distillation of what made him such a dangerous attacker.
Running onto the ball at pace he left Nigel Shaughnessy in his wake while arrowing towards goal before shortening his grip and firing the sliotar to the roof of the net from close range.
It was a trademark Carey goal. A combination of quick feet, wrists, and wits, that made you feel a goal was inevitable if he got the ball anywhere close to goal with a clear path ahead of him.
“The closer he got, the less idea you had where the ball would go,” said former Wexford goalkeeper Damien Fitzhenry once of Carey’s uncanny ability to make the net rattle.
“All he had to do was flick those wrists.
"As a goalkeeper, I dreaded him. DJ was a former 'keeper himself and knew exactly where we didn't like the ball to go.
“The closer he got, the less idea you had where the ball would go. All he had to do was flick those wrists."
That first goal he scored in the ’97 quarter-final also illustrated just how a direct a hurler Carey was.
He had all the skill in the world, but it was complemented by bravery.
His habit of taking the straightest route to goal earned him some punishment over the years, but Carey was always willing to go in where it hurt.
"I don't think anyone will really understand how brave he was," said former Wexford defender, Liam Dunne, once.
"Any time he came in against the Wexford backs, he knew he'd get hit, but God gave him the gift of speed which allowed him to get away. The only thing was: he was never afraid to come back into us again."
DJ Carey celebrates scoring his second goal in the 1997 All-Ireland SHC Quarter-Final against Galway.
Carey wasn’t the biggest man in the world, but another facet of his game that marked him out as something special was his ability in the air.
Much like his fellow county-man Tommy Walsh, Carey used a combination of perfect timing and supreme hand-eye coordination to best much bigger men in the air.
His second goal in the ’97 quarter-final showcased that ability as he doubled a long delivery from Andy Comerford one-handed to the back of the Galway net for a score that really ignited Kilkenny’s second-half comeback.
Key also to their resurgence was the introduction of grizzled warrior John Power from the bench for the second-half.
Finbar Gantley of Galway in action against John Power of Kilkenny during the 1997 GAA All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Quarter-Final match between Kilkenny and Galway at Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary.
Kilkenny had struggled to work any ball through the Galway half-backs in the first-half, but now they were being skittled by Power’s abrasive approach and hunger for the dirty work that made it easier for his fellow forwards to find some space and hurl.
"Ah, sure DJ was flyin' it that day,” said Power years later of that ’97 quarter-final.
“I don't know that I'd much to do with it. But those Galway lads were young then, lost their way a bit.”
Galway might have lost their way a bit, but they kept hurling right to the end which made that ’97 quarter-final such an absorbing tussle.
In the end, it was a late goal from Ken O’Shea that gave Kilkenny enough vital late momentum to just about get the job done.
There were so many classic matches in the 1990s that this game is rarely mentioned when that golden decade for hurling is evoked.
But anyone in Semple Stadium that day will surely remember both a classic battle and a supreme individual display by one of the greatest hurlers to grace the game.
