Cunningham in line of fire after latest capitulation

Inside Track with John McIntyre

IT wouldn’t be Kilkenny’s way of doing things, but you could partially condone Galway’s feeble second-half display against Dublin last Sunday week – after all, they already through to the National Hurling League quarter-finals – but the excuses are very thin on the ground for their weekend wreakage in Waterford which has piled the pressure on manager Anthony Cunningham ahead of the championship.

I can’t remember the last time Galway hurlers lost four of their last five league matches, but that run of bad results is only the tip of the iceberg. There is little semblance of a settled team; star player Joe Canning still has no fixed abode; the central defensive positions remain up for grabs; while the lack of both energy and purpose against Waterford last Sunday was alarming.

If the league is regularly used by counties to put a shape on their championship selections, then Galway have failed that test miserably in 2015. I appreciate injuries have hampered the team management in this regard in the current campaign, but the Tribesmen were again shockingly disjointed in Walsh Park where they were one more easily tactically outmanoeuvred by their youthful hosts.

Facing their bogey team away from home, Galway needed to hit the ground running but, inexplicably, decided to face the elements after winning the toss. It came back to haunt them as Waterford sauntered to a 0-14 to 0-5 interval advantage with Pauric Mahony punishing a series of undisciplined tackles by the opposition. With wing forward Kevin Moran playing deep and Waterford flooding the midfield sector, Galway just didn’t seem to possess the nous to counteract that hardly surprising strategy.

With the hard working Andy Smith their only scorer from play in the opening half, Galway had plenty of catching up to do, but when they have cut the deficit to four within ten minutes of the resumption, they had given themselves a realistic platform of a successful and morale boosting revival. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for the men in maroon as they then went 21 minutes without a score and could only manage two more points before the finish.

Frankly, it was an embarrassing capitulation and must leave the fragile confidence of the squad in pieces after a campaign which began promisingly enough only to gradually disintegrate. Perhaps, Galway don’t have the necessary depth of quality talent at their disposal anymore, but supporters are entitled to expect better than this. I was shocked, for instance, to see the inexperienced Padraig Mannion, a neat tidy corner back, start as defensive anchor. Surely Greg Lally was worth another run at centre back?

There are other instances of players being moved around the place, notably Joseph Cooney, but more worrying is the fact that Galway’s team-work and link up play is so far behind the top teams. Since the All-Ireland final replay of 2012, the squad have lost their way completely and the lack of leadership in their ranks when things start going wrong remains disturbing. They were made to look second raters last Sunday by a young Waterford outfit who at least knew what the game plan was and how to implement it.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.