GALWAY EASING
Form is not an issue for Tribe as they look to the summer
AFEW hours after Limerick had finally escaped their prolonged purgatory in Division 1B, a text message arrived from a passionate Galway supporter. ‘Nine points up in the first half, eight points up at half-time, Cody’s team wouldn’t have lost that game, League or no League.’
I was hard to argue with the logic. There is no doubt that the great Kilkenny side wouldn’t have allowed such a handsome halftime lead slip, no matter what the competition. But it hardly seems fair to draw comparisons between a force that dominated hurling for a decade and a team that has just ended a 29-year All-Ireland famine.
The outpouring of emotion that went with Liam MacCarthy going west for the first time in almost three decades, meant that Gal way would need time to settle into this season. Their players had been all over the world last winter — from Boston with the Super 11s, to Singapore with the All-Stars and then their own team holiday in December.
The cup has been booked up pretty much seven days a week since going across the Shannon. Galway is a vast county with school visits and social events filling the diary of players and management over the past few months.
Micheál Donoghue’s sensible, under-stated management style worked wonders as the team edged towards their promised land, but it’s difficult to know what he could have done to guard against the madness that went with last September’s success. fact that his side were completely off the radar until last weekend’s promotion decider against Limerick would have suited both the manager and his players.
Donoghue will have noted that 12 months ago, Tipperary were sweeping all before them and leading many pundits to declare an era of dominance for Michael Ryan’s side — until they ran into a focused and powerful Galway in the Allianz League final.
Donoghue will be glad that there is none of that hype surrounding his players. However, there will still be some concern out west that their 15-game winning streak came to an end against the first good team they met in 2018. And now the All-Ireland champions have to travel to Wexford to face the fittest team in the country at present, a side that will be cheered on by a frenzied home crowd. A second defeat in seven days may set off a few alarm bells.
Much of Limerick’s dominance in the second half last weekend was centred on stifling a ringrusty David Burke and Johnny Coen in midfield, the partnership that was key to propelling Galway to glory. And as Michael Duignan pointed out on RTÉ’s Allianz
League Sunday, without Joseph Cooney, Johnny Glynn and Joe Canning [who came off the bench], their attack lacked physical presence.
With Galway’s success rooted in their physicality and power, the most significant thing that happened the champions over the winter was tying the highlyregarded strength & conditioning coach Lukasz Kirszenstein to a long-term deal, just days after it was revealed that the Polish trainer’s services were being sought by Munster Rugby.
Midway through their Division 1B campaign, Donoghue claimed that he wanted to use the League to give younger lads and new players an opportunity. He drafted eight new players into the panel over the winter with more than 30 used over their five League games.
David Burke and Canning, the two driving forces of the team, only made their comeback in Pearse Stadium last Sunday while Corofin’s run to the All-Ireland club football final means Donoghue has been without Daithí Burke, so solid at the edge of the square last season.
The likes of Shane Cooney, Brian Concannon, Seán Linnane and Shane Bannon have all been given an audition, but when Galway sought inspiration over the spring, they leaned on familiar figures. Cathal Mannion in the first half against Limerick, Conor Cooney against Antrim. Conor Whelan against Laois, Jason Flynn against Dublin all came to the fore. Donoghue would have preferred if an unheralded player had stepped up and taken responsibility.
Perhaps, someone will take the chance in Wexford Park. Davy Fitzgerald will like nothing better than having the notch of the AllIreland champions on his belt — after all, it was Wexford’s shock win in Salthill in February of last year that provided proof that the Slaneysiders were responding to the Clare man’s methods.
Donoghue is smart enough to know that there will be no need to panic even if Galway concede
Donoghue will be glad that there is no hype now
their League title in Sunday’s quarter-final. The luxury of having Offaly in their first round-robin Leinster Championship game will allow the Tribesmen to ease themselves into the summer before Kilkenny come to Pearse Stadium for a blockbuster match in May.
By that point, David Burke and Canning will have shaken off any ring-rust, Daithí Burke will be back in harness and there’s a sense that it will only be when they welcome Cody and his team to Salthill, that we will see the real Galway side.
And so, irrespective of what happens in Wexford, we may have to wait until that summer’s afternoon to discover if this is a team with the drive to tighten their grip on the Liam MacCarthy Cup.