Former Galway hurlers combine to plot their native county’s downfall

IT was a Saturday evening when ‘insider’ trading helped to scuttle the championship dreams of the Galway hurlers, but neither Mattie Kenny nor Greg Kennedy had any interest in driving further nails into the maroon coffin.

Both ex-Galway hurlers were mobbed by delirious Dublin fans after their thrilling 3-19 to 0-24 triumph over the Tribesmen at a packed Parnell Park – a result, together with the draw in Wexford Park, which saw the 2017 All-Ireland winners crash out of the championship

In a match of savage intensity, the Dublin manager and his maor foirne had their team primed to record a landmark win over their own county. The Dubs were fighting for their championship lives and a haul of three goals was central to leaving Galway shattered.

Kenny, one of the outstanding club players of his generation, and Kennedy, who captained Galway to the 1994 All-Ireland minor hurling title, were continuing an amazingly successful alliance with Dublin hurling.

Hailing from Abbey/Duniry and Loughrea respectively, Kenny and Kenny were also on the sideline when Cuala won not one but two All-Ireland club titles in successive years – a feat made all the greater by the fact that no previous Dublin team had previously lifted the Tommy Moore Cup.

Kenny, who was Galway coach when they reached the All-Ireland final in 2012 and was in contention for the manager’s post when Micheál Donoghue won the approval of the local GAA hierarchy in the winter of 2015, could have been forgiven for a public bout of self-justification after Saturday’s titanic win.

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

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