All-Ireland Club Champs can have no complaints

Inside Track with John McIntyre

In the space of 24 hours last weekend, the reigning Galway senior hurling and football champions fell by the wayside, but in vastly contrasting fashion.

St. Thomas’ eclipse was the big if hardly surprising news to emerge from the local GAA fields, although Salthill Knocknacarra footballers getting beating out the gate in Tuam Stadium possibly set even more tongues wagging.

In terms of national interest, the fall of the All-Ireland Club hurling champions at Kenny Park last Saturday would have led to widespread murmurs outside the county’s borders. St. Thomas’ had been lucky to survive their drawn semi-final encounter against Portumna the weekend previously, but the expectation was that they had the scope to step up on that uneven performance for the replay.

In fact, St. Thomas’ struggled even more. The early lost of defender Cathal Burke admittedly didn’t help them nor did the fact that Richie Murray still wasn’t fit enough to start, but the expected bounce and vibrancy in their ranks was again largely absent and only for two converted 21 yard frees by centre forward Conor Cooney, the title holders wouldn’t have remained in contention for so long.

With Sean Skehill a long term injury victim, St. Thomas’ resources were being stretched to the limit and, ultimately, they didn’t possess sufficient cover. Certainly, David Burke and company never gave up and it took a mighty catch from long serving full back Eugene McEntee in the dying moments to get Portumna over the line and, in the process, set up another final collision with old foes Loughrea.

A big crowd assembled in Athenry last Saturday in the expectation that there would be a greater edge to the exchanges than was the case in the drawn semi-final, but they were sorely disappointed. With referee Leonard Fay clearly intent on pulling for everything, the replay was largely a stop-start affair which never really ignited. When you contrast some of the tackling and heavy hits which went unpunished in the Tipperary final the following day, you’d be inclined to wonder are officials in Galway trying to sanitise hurling too much?

Regardless of how the match unfolded or was refereed, the over-riding impression was that Portumna were again the superior force. Sure, they struggled to put St. Thomas’ put away, didn’t raise a green flag for the third consecutive game and are no longer able to produce the sustained scoring bursts which typified to the team’s hey-day, but they remain a solid yardstick and any team which has Damien Hayes and Joe Canning leading the charge is always to take some beating.

Canning again lined out in midfield in perhaps a managerial indulgence that Portumna couldn’t afford. He was man-marked this time by Bernard Burke, who has been struggling to reach last year’s heights, and found it difficult to make a sustained influence. Canning moved to the edge of the square for the second-half and though he didn’t score from play, the former All Star caused panic in the St. Thomas’ defensive ranks while his haul of ten points from frees was critical to their win.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune