Big chance for unsettled Galway hurlers

STEPHEN GLENNON

REIGNING Leinster senior hurling champions Galway expect to have a clean bill of health when they face Dublin in what promises to be a fascinating and unique provincial decider at Croke Park on Sunday (4pm).

Defensive duo David Collins (hand ligament) and Niall Donohue (illness), both of whom were named to face Laois but subsequently missed the game due to the outlined reasons, are back in training and manager Anthony Cunningham expects them to be challenging for starting berths when the team is announced on Friday evening.

Another concern was Gort’s Aidan Harte. The versatile stickman gave a solid showing against Laois but subsequently suffered a cracked knuckle during an intensive training day at Pearse Stadium recently. However, Cunningham says Harte has made a good recovery and has a chance of featuring at some stage.

However, despite laying down multiple markers last year, the Tribesmen once again go into a big game with question marks over them. A topsy-turvy National League campaign and an overall subdued display against Laois in the provincial semi-final have fuelled the debate as to where Galway are at and where they might end up.

In addition, the failure of many players so far to reach the heady heights of 2012 in the League or against Laois has also been a source of consternation but, in saying that, those same players will only be judged on what they do from now on. Against Laois in the Leinster quarter-final, Cappataggle’s James Skehill was given the nod ahead of Kinvara’s Colm Callanan, who is having a fine club championship, for the No. 1 position while credit to the management for sticking by Sarsfields’ Kevin Hynes in the full back berth.

This is one of a brace of positions that inevitable punctuates hurling debate in Galway and it would only have caused further uncertainty if the management started to tinker with this position again so late in the year. In any event, in the likes of Shane Kavanagh, Galway have ample cover. Read full preview in this week’s Connacht Tribune.