Galway in better place but big scope for improvement

Inside Track with John McIntyre

It’s hard to credit that Galway and Kilkenny have met seven times since the Tribesmen blitzed the Cats in that landmark Leinster final triumph in early July of 2012. That result sent shock waves through the wider hurling fraternity and we thought it was the beginning of the end for the greatest team the sport has ever seen.

Less than three months later, however, Kilkenny had retained the All-Ireland title, pulling decisively clear by ten points in a replay win over Galway after being somewhat fortunate to have been still alive at half time in the drawn final in early September. Galway had lost some focus approaching the break and allowed the black and amber men to hang in there. It proved a game changer.

Though they overcame Kilkenny in a Division 1A League tie at Pearse Stadium the following spring, it represents their only victory over Brian Cody’s charges since the Leinster final of two years ago. The Cats are starting to be the scourge of Galway again and last Sunday’s highly competitive league semi-final at the Gaelic Grounds was another Western notch on the Kilkenny bedpost.

It was the third clash between the teams in 2014 and it’s not even May. Injury-hit Galway put it up to their more celebrated foes, but defeat was their lot again after leading by six points approaching the interval. It could have been a Galway win, but there will always be some rough edges to be smoothed out in trying to build a new team.

Galway had a significant number of players on duty who are novices at this level. They fought gallantly and the squad is still standing heading into the championship. Yet Anthony Cunningham and his mentors have some problems to rectify; not least where to use team captain Joe Canning, who appeared to be marginalised by being deployed in the full forward line last Sunday.

Many observers simplify Canning’s role on the team. There is a large constituency who wish he was given the number 14 jersey, deployed on the edge of the square and left there, but others prefer a more free-ranging type of responsibility in which he could pop up anywhere as Henry Shefflin did so effectively in last Sunday’s league semi-final. On different days, different things work, leaving the Canning conundrum not as straightforward as some would have us believe.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.