Chance for Galway to end All-Ireland quarter-final and Thurles bogeys in one swoop

BIG championship matches and Thurles have been desperately uncomfortable bedfellows for Galway hurlers over the past decade.

Call it what you like – graveyard, jinx, hoodoo or bogey – but Semple Stadium largely turns up only bad memories for the wearers of the maroon.

Six championship exits in nine years at hurling’s most hallowed venue brooks no argument, with four of those defeats coming in All-Ireland quarter-finals.

No wonder supporters of the Tribesmen will be travelling to Thurles on Sunday with some trepidation as Galway try to resurrect their season after coming up short in the recent Leinster final.

Though there is no shortage of statistics to damn Galway’s chances of overturning the Rebels, there is ironically one trend which will give Anthony Cunningham’s charges no shortage of hope heading South.

For the Westerners will be seeking a scarcely believable –  at least in the context of the counties’ overall head-to-head record – fourth consecutive championship triumph over Cork.

And one of those wins came in an All-Ireland qualifier in Thurles in 2009 to be followed by a National League final success over the same opposition at the same venue in May of 2010.

Galway’s recent mastery of the Rebels goes against the traditional grain, however, for prior to their landmark 1975 All-Ireland semi-final win, they had never beaten Cork in the championship.

The teams have met 32 times in high summer, with Cork only losing seven times but all those defeats have come since Galway’s hurling renaissance in the seventies. The record books do offer some comfort after all.

For rival team managers, the stakes are high. Jimmy Barry Murphy is a Cork sporting icon, but he may not have the stomach (or boardroom support) for a fourth year in charge in his second coming as Rebels boss if they can’t arrest their poor recent record against Galway.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.