By Paul Keane

In the race for the Leinster SHC title and the Bob O’Keeffe Cup, it could come down to a battle of the free-takers this Sunday afternoon.

In the black and amber corner, Kilkenny have TJ Reid, a tried and trusted performer who has already slotted 4-22 in just three Championship games this season, 0-19 of which has come from frees and 65s. And if it comes down to a stoppage time free to win it, you’d back him all day.

Meanwhile, in the maroon corner is Galway’s Cathal Mannion, another hugely experienced inter-county campaigner but a virtual novice when it comes to free-taking.

Conor Cooney and Evan Niland stood over the placed balls for Galway in last year’s Championship and both tallied enough to make it into the end of season top 15 national scoring chart.

Mannion missed the first four games of this year’s league as he recovered full fitness after an Achilles procedure over winter. Significantly, when he did start in the same team as Cooney and Niland in the final league game against Cork, it was Cooney and Niland, as well as substitute Jason Flynn, that shared the free-taking duties.

Niland, like Flynn, hasn’t featured in the Championship so far, however, and with Cooney only starting one game, against Antrim, manager Micheal Donoghue has entrusted Mannion with the free-taking.

Now 30 and an All-Ireland winner from 2017, Mannion’s top form this term has coincided with, or perhaps been prompted by, the increased responsibility of being the team’s principal free-taker.

In four Championship starts – he was rested against Antrim – the Ahascragh-Fohenagh man has returned 2-43 with 1-28 of that coming from frees or 65s.

“Even for my club I didn’t take too many frees,” said Mannion, describing it as a brand new project for him. “I did it the odd time here and there but no, it’s probably just been this year.

“They just said, ‘Will you take them?’ And I said I would. I started to practice them a lot and just started putting more time into them. Frees are obviously important and particularly as the season goes on you need to be scoring the frees. So I’ll try to continue to keep improving.”

If Kilkenny and Reid are at their best on Sunday, it may take a 100 percent return rate from Mannion on the frees for Galway to win.

“That’s the way the game is, yeah,” agreed Mannion. “You need to be nailing them, particularly as the games get bigger and the competition is higher. Any chance you get, you have to take.”

Taking the frees and putting up big scoring tallies is an attractive proposition for many players but a bad day on the frees can also seep into their general play and drag a player’s entire performance down. Mannion shrugged.

“A few years ago it probably would bother you but now not so much,” he said. “You’re more experienced and you just move on fairly quickly, whether it goes over or not. It’s probably just experience. You get used to it and you know it’s behind you and you just move on to the next play.”

Just being fully fit again and able to contribute on the pitch is a joy in itself for the former All-Star. It’s been a frustrating few seasons for the secondary school teacher on the injury front.

“My Achilles was at me for three years probably,” he said. “Then I was getting other injuries from that. Obviously, as a player, it’s hugely frustrating when you can’t get a run. So I had probably two years there of just on and off injuries. I got a bit of a procedure done there in the winter and it’s definitely helped and cleared it up.

“So far so good, it’s fairly good now. Our physios and medical team are very good, so thankfully it’s been quite good. It wasn’t a rupture, it was just a smaller procedure than that. It was just something that was there, as I said, probably three years. And it’s always in your head, so thankfully it’s gone now.”

Mannion struck a terrific 0-17 in the round-robin win over Wexford and closed out the group campaign with eight points from frees in the defeat of Dublin.

They will now face a Kilkenny team that beat them by 11 points when the sides met in the group opener, in April.

“It was a poor performance and we didn’t perform as we wanted to that first day, the result reflected that,” said Mannion. “The games came in fairly quickly then and we got a few wins, which gives you a bit of momentum. But Kilkenny on Sunday will be a bigger challenge again than what we faced earlier this year so know what’s coming.”