Galway can get the better of Dublin to claim place in Leinster hurling final

THERE’S a multitude of permutations ahead of the Leinster hurling championship’s final series of round-robin games on Saturday evening, but just one of them – a Galway loss to Dublin and a draw in Wexford Park – would spell the end of the Tribesmen’s summer.

Any other scenario would see Galway at worst making the All-Ireland quarter-finals, but coming off the back of their stirring victory over Kilkenny at Nowlan Park last Sunday, Micheál Donoghue’s squad will be mad keen to drive on and keep the momentum going.

For all the negative talk recently about Galway not firing, the reality is that they are on an unprecedented successful championship run – just one defeat in the county’s last 17 fixtures – and having bounced back to form, the men in maroon now look primed for another protracted campaign.

In the interim, they are facing a potentially physical battle against Dublin on Saturday evening (7pm) and with two former prominent Galway hurling men, Mattie Kenny and Greg Kennedy, at the opposition’s coalface, it adds further spice to the fixture.

Dublin have become something of a nearly team over the past few years and their habit of losing tight matches has stalled their progress. They had Kilkenny on the rack in the opening round at Nowlan Park, but failed to close the deal and their summer was on the ropes only for Sean Moran’s dramatic equalising goal in injury time against Wexford.

Subsequently, they had a routine win over Carlow when a couple of early Eamon Dillon goals got them off on the right foot, but due to an adverse scoring difference compared to either Kilkenny or Wexford, they simply have to beat Galway to stay in the championship.

It’s not beyond them, especially at a tight venue which plays to their strengths, but if Wexford were only seconds away from beating them there, you’d like to think that the superior forces of Galway will have a little too much quality and craft for the Dubs.

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

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