Donnellan hangs up his hurl
GALWAY veteran Cyril Donnellan called time on his 10-year inter-county career yesterday. The 32-year-old’s departure will not have come as a surprise, but it was one that was softened by this September’s All-Ireland win. In truth, he played no part directly in that success but was included in the 26-match day panel as Galway drew a line under 29 barren years with that 0-26 to 217 win over Waterford. However, it was a fitting ending for the Padraig Pearses clubman. He was handed his Championship debut by Ger Loughnane in 2008 and would go on to make 35 Championship appearances, scoring 633. Arguably, the high point of his career came in 2012 when Galway emerged out of the pack to win the Leinster championship. Donnellan whipped over five points from play as Galway pulled off a major shock to hammer Kilkenny by 10 points (221 to 2-11) to lift the Bob O’Keeffe Cup for the first time. There would be a sting in the tail, though, with the Cats edging out the Tribesmen in a replay when the teams clashed again in that year’s AllIreland final. It would be the first of two final defeats at the hands of the Cats and the 2015 final loss was a poignant one as it would also represent his last Championship start for the county. In the fall-out to that defeat, Donnellan and his teammates objected to the reappointment of Anthony Cunningham as manager for another term, leading to a tense stand-off before the latter stepped down. But Donnellan would never start a Championship game under new boss Micheal Donoghue – he made three appearances all off the bench in 2016, his last coming in the team’s one-point defeat to Tipperary in the AllIreland semi-final. This year his game-time extended to a mere three-minute cameo when he came off the bench against Tipperary once more, during their League final victory. His career was dogged by injuries towards the end and it was feared that he would be forced to quit the game in 2014, when he missed the entire season after undergoing two groin operations. He finishes his career as a two-time National League winner (2010, ’17) and a twotime Leinster winner (2012, ’17) on top of this year’s All-Ireland win.