Galway back in business

Date Published: {J}

Galway 4-25

Clare 0-20

FRANK FARRAGHER

AT PEARSE STADIUM

THE words of Neil Armstrong on a July day in 1969 as he set foot on lunar soil, about ‘one small step for man’, sprang to mind shortly after 8pm on Saturday in Pearse Stadium, but now fans of Galway hurling will be waiting for the ‘giant leap’ sequel to follow on, in the wake of this resounding win over Clare in Phase Two of the All-Ireland qualifiers.

It was the last chance saloon for John McIntyre and his hurlers following the disastrous outing against Dublin two weeks previously, but after a lonesome Spring, the long awaited ‘kick’ arrived for Galway with Clare feeling the full power of the backlash.

With 4-25 on the scoreboard and a 17 point winning margin in their backpockets, there could be few quibbles about the manner and margin of this victory – an important first step in morale and confidence building has been taken. Nothing more and nothing less.

Clare did manage to put in a credible performance against Tipperary in the Munster semi-final but long standing doubts about the porousness of their defence and the sharpness of their attack proved to be well founded following their trip across the bay last Saturday evening.

It would be hard to credit a Kilkenny or a Tipperary trailing by 10 points early in the second half and being content to tap over points – when push came to shove, Clare didn’t have the temper or edge to even remotely threaten James Skehill’s goal.

A balmy evening in Salthill with a decent crowd of over 13,000 in attendance, gave this tie a real championship atmosphere and with Galway having two goals on the board within the first 11 minutes, the hearts of the home followers had been wooed early on. In truth, from there on to the end, there was little doubt about the outcome of this tie.

All a long way removed from the lynching mob atmosphere of Tullamore when the frustrations of some of the Galway fans spilled over into raw abuse, and given what they had seen that evening, at least partially understandable if not entirely excusable.

Sport, the mood of supporters, and the nuances of the human mind would fill out the full range of third level theses in psychology, and when the Galway team trotted in at half-time shortly after 7.30pm on Saturday, to a rousing reception from the home crowd – after clocking up 3-13 on the scoreboard – a victory of the minds and hearts had also been secured.

It’s all about balance though, and the identity of the ‘real Galway’ probably lies somewhere between the sheer awfulness of the Dublin performance and the sporadic brilliance of the display against Clare – we’ll have to wait until Saturday evening, and the Cork test, to find out the answer to that conundrum.

Galway had been desperately drained of confidence following the league drubbing by Tipperary, the failure to bounce back against Waterford, the limp championship performance against Westmeath and the Dublin debacle: the side desperately needed a win of any description last Saturday evening.

In the after match chat and interviews, there was a lot of talk about Galway having gone back to basics prior to the Clare match and whatever preparatory programme was put in place, certainly worked. Right from the early minutes, there was a pep in the Galway step, with hands going through thickets of Clare ash to win clean ball.

Instead of the largely individual thrusts into cul-de-sacs that marked the display against Dublin, this time round, Galway integrated far more seamlessly as a team unit, with the players in the better positions more often than not, ‘hit’ with a fast and accurate ball.

There was also, it must be said, a better balance to the team with Shane Kavanagh and Tony Óg Regan backboning a very solid defence while the introduction of Ger Farragher, Iarla Tannian and Alan Kerins into the attack gave the unit a far more menacing gait.

On their day, Galway do possess a decent vein of scoring power – when Damien Hayes and Joe Canning are on their games close to goal, any defence will feel the heat and the Clare backs just couldn’t cope with that threat throughout the match.

There were times it was nearly too easy for the Galway forwards. Too often, they managed to get goal side of their Clare markers and once Damien Hayes hit the net in the 7th minute from close range, a sense of fear seemed to envelope the Banner defence.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.