Stars aligning for Galway in their bid to smash Liam MacCarthy hoodoo
IWAS in Ballinasloe last weekend for an event and bumped into the former Galway hurlers Michael ‘Hopper’ McGrath and Justin Campbell. We were chatting about family life and I mentioned how Stephanie and I welcomed our third daughter, Sadie, into the world in February.
Hopper was telling me has six girls, and four of them are playing camogie for Galway.
I smiled: “Jesus, Hopper, there’s definitely a documentary in that!”
We were discussing Galway hurling, too, and their prospects for the summer ahead.
Hopper was on the Galway teams that won back-to-back All-Ireland titles in 1987 and 1988, one of the ‘golden generation’.
Justin, who’s now a well-known addiction counsellor, won an All-Ireland U21 medal in 1991 and played in the 1993 senior final against Kilkenny.
I’d describe Hopper and Justin’s mood, and indeed that of the other people I met last weekend, as cautiously optimistic.
They’ve been here before, with so many Galway teams over the last 29 years heading into the championship with high hopes, but it hasn’t worked out.
This time, however, I really do believe that the stars are aligning for them.
The teams that won in 1987 and 1988 had a very astute manager in charge, Cyril Farrell, and now Galway have another one in Micheál Donoghue.
In the late 1980s, the rivalry with Tipperary really kicked off. Galway beat them in a 1987 semi-final and the final a year later.
They met again in the 1989 semi-final, when Galway felt hard done by on and off the field, with the Tony Keady affair and John Denton’s refereeing.
Fast forward nearly 30 years and you have Galway and Tipp at it again.
They’ve met in the last two AllIreland semi-finals, a point either way determining the outcomes, while Galway struck a significant blow in recent League decider.
Gerry McInerney and Joe Cooney were key players for Galway all those years ago, and now their sons, Gearóid and Joseph, are crucial men.
There’s the American element too, and while Johnny Glynn won’t be involved against Dublin tomorrow, we’ll surely see him later in the summer. It wasn’t unusual for Galway hurlers to travel over and back to the US years ago and one of those trips proved costly for Keady in 1989.
If you’re looking for another link between past and present, consider that a player with the initials JC, the aforementioned Joe Cooney, was the man pulling the strings in attack when Galway last lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
He was the number 11 maestro but now Galway have another JC in the same role – Joe Canning.
It’s a position that Canning seems to be revelling in. Players around him are feeding off his positive energy and that’s reflected on the scoreboard, with Jason Flynn, Cathal Mannion and Conor Whelan chipping in handsomely and picking up the mantle of responsibility.
But as All-Ireland favourites now, can Galway cope with the pressure? They can start answering that question by ticking the box against Dublin in Tullamore, and virtually securing a straight pass to the last six of the All-Ireland series, at the very least.
Tomorrow’s venue, and the whipping Dublin suffered there against Galway two years ago, will surely play on Ger Cunningham’s mind.
With so many players not making themselves available, and others discarded, where are Dublin right now?
They don’t have enough overall quality to trouble Galway but they do have a solid defence, with Eoghan O’Donnell and Liam Rushe top-class operators in the central positions.
It won’t be a stroll in the park but if Galway are going to live up to the favourites tag, they should have a bit to spare at full-time.
Elsewhere, the Wexford footballers have done the hurlers a favour by losing to Carlow last weekend.
Davy Fitzgerald and his men won’t be complacent against Laois while I’m expecting Offaly to make up last year’s 14-point Westmeath gap with a win this time.