Cooney feels League system is flawed
IF GALWAY claim the National League title on Sunday, we will be faced with the bizarre situation of the reigning champions playing in the second tier next year. Nothing will show up the imperfections of the competition more than the Tribesmen emerging victorious on Sunday. And with Conor Cooney in such a rich vein of form, Galway have every chance. The 24-year-old inside-forward was in Croke Park yesterday to launch this year’s Under-17 Celtic Challenge, and he admitted that it seems absurd that the prospective League champions will be playing in Division 1B next spring. ‘Yeah, it’s a very strange system if I am honest but that is the system that is there,’ says the primary school teacher from Peterswell. ‘Division 1A is very competitive and is a great competition in itself but 1B does have its flaws. There is no perfect system but 1B teams have won the League in the last few years and maybe that is to do with how tough and competitive 1A is.’ A surprise defeat to Wexford in Pearse Stadium was a fatal blow to Galway’s promotion hopes, but Cooney concedes that trouncing Laois and Offaly by 26 points each does no team any good. ‘You are sort of wondering what both teams are getting out of it,’ Cooney says of the heavy defeats inflicted on those counties. ‘You are playing against proud hurling counties. I think maybe it does need to be looked at in some way.’ Galway have benefitted from a few easy games, with Cooney forging a fine partnership with Cathal Mannion and Conor Whelan in the full-forward line. Between them, they fired 1-10 from play against Limerick last weekend. After being tormented by injury problems for a couple of years — he fractured his foot twice in 2014 before having surgery to correct a hip issue in November 2015 — it looks like Galway are finally getting the best out of the talented attacker, as was evident in his superb goal in the Gaelic Grounds last Sunday. And Cooney admitted he is savouring every moment of his hurling career now, having suffered so many setbacks in his early 20s. ‘Absolutely, I am enjoying my hurling a lot more,’ he continues. ‘I was at a stage where I was getting very frustrated. If I managed to train two evenings in a row, it felt like I had won a match, it was like a little victory in itself. ‘I am a stage where I can get myself to a level of fitness where I feel I am competitive whereas when you are struggling with injuries and different things, you are just trying to get your stamina up and your hurling is suffering because of that. But right now, I have a clean bill of health and feel that I am 100 per cent right.’