TRIBE ARE AHEAD OF THE PACK
Mannion steps up but he could be one of many
CATHAL Mannion had been one of the more under-stated members of Galway’s glittering attack. As Joe Canning provides the fireworks, Johnny Glynn the power, Conor Whelan and Conor Cooney the occasional bit of magic, Mannion just gets on with his job.
On a sweltering afternoon in Thurles on Sunday though, Mannion proved just how deep the well of attacking talent runs in Galway and that he possesses gifted wrists of his own. He effortlessly swung over six points from play, his final two critical as they came when Kilkenny were edging their way back into the Leinster final replay.
‘Ah, you just have to keep hurling,’ Mannion remarked modestly when asked about his own perwent formance. ‘I suppose it was just one of those days when everything you hit went over. But it was a team performance and the lads that came on really drove it on as well.’
Competition for places will be a phrase that will be heard a lot between now and the end of the summer, but it does seem to be a fact of life when you are a Galway forward. There appears to be nine excellent forwards competing for six places.
Brian Cancannon marked his Championship debut with two goals against Offaly in their Leinster opener but such is the quality in their squad that he was left on the bench for the entirety of Sunday’s replay. Conor Cooney sparkled in Wexford Park last month but it was the gifted inside-forward who had to make way for the towering Glynn as the Tribesmen for the more direct option in Thurles. It simply showed that the All-Ireland champions can play it any which way when it comes to attack.
‘Johnny is a massive player for us and I was delighted for him that he got his chance,’ Mannion insisted. ‘He really deserved it. But it is all about the team and the panel itself.
‘You need lads driving you and you don’t mind who starts as long as the team are doing well. Obviously, you would like to start yourself but you know the lads that are in for you or that are coming on for you, they are going to do a job too. That is what you need in a team.’
The hype surrounding this Galway team will once again gather following their performance in Semple Stadium. Even though the remarkable and unbreakable spirit of Kilkenny meant they were in the game far longer than they should have been, it was the class of players like Mannion and Canning that told in the end.
Mannion, though, reckons the dull draw that Galway and Kilkenny played out in Croke Park should come as a bit of a reality check to supporters and that the Liam MacCarthy Cup isn’t simply going to remain in the west without a lot of hard work.
‘I suppose it was a reality check but every day we go out, we are
‘The Croke Park clash was a reality check for Galway’
just trying to be the best we can be. We take every game as it comes and that is not for players to talk about, what is going to happen.
‘Every game you go out in, you learn a lot from it. We learned a lot last week and we learned in Thurles too. But there are going to be bigger days ahead, especially with the semi-final. No matter who it is we are playing, it will be a step-up from this game.’
But it will be a step up that they will be well able to make. And will be prepared for. No matter what is thrown at this Galway side, they seem able to take it.
Only a few short summers ago, the body-blows that they took on Sunday in Colin Fennelly and Richie Hogan’s goals would have flattened them. In Thurles, they simply absorbed them and kept on doing what they do. Which is winning. And hurling better than anybody out there, at the moment. As even Brian Cody acknowledged on Sunday evening, Galway are the best team in the country. And they are because last weekend, Cathal Mannion stepped up. Come the semi-final, it may be Conor Whelan or Conor Cooney.
When it comes to their glittering attack, they can play it any way they want. It is hard to beat a team like that.