Galway can secure ninth minor title in a fascinating final

Date Published: {J}

STEPHEN GLENNON

MATTIE Murphy and the Galway minor hurlers will be looking to embrace another All-Ireland final weekend when they face Dublin in an attractive national decider against Leinster champions, Dublin at Croke Park this Sunday (1:15pm).

In years to come, the powers-that-be may have to rename the Irish Press Cup – after all, the newspaper has been defunct for almost two decades – as the Mattie Murphy Cup, such has been the impact the Galway manager has had on this competition.

On Sunday, Murphy bids for a sixth title – Galway’s ninth – having guided the young Tribesmen to victory in 1992, ’94, 2004, ’05 and ’09. It is a remarkable record for the Turloughmore native, who has time and again, proved he has an innate ability to spot and nurture underage talent.

That said, Galway – having also claimed titles at this grade under Cyril Farrell in 1983 and John Hardiman in 1999 and 2000 – face one of their greatest challenges on Sunday when they clash with a Dublin outfit who sent pulses racing with their 6-19 to 5-13 victory over Waterford in the All-Ireland semi-final.

By half-time of that particular contest, the Dubs led 4-12 to 0-7. Cormac Costello tallied 2-2 in the opening period – he would finish with an incredible 4-2 – while Ciaran Kilkenny and Paul Winters also found the net in the team’s first-half scoring blitz.

Indeed, Dublin’s power, size, aerial prowess and first touch in the semi-final was nothing short of excellent and their total of 6-19 definitely bore testament to that.

Dublin, though, had been building up to such a display for quite a while. Having accounted for Wexford, 1-18 to 3-10, in their opening game in the Leinster championship, they then saw off Westmeath – who had a superb championship with wins over Carlow, Laois and Offaly – in the Leinster semi-final. Shay Boland’s charges won that penultimate provincial championship game 1-16 to 2-7, with substitute Oisín O’Rorke netting a vital 60th minute goal to secure their place in the Leinster decider against Kilkenny.

While there may have been just three points between the teams at the end of that subsequent encounter, Dublin, in truth, were always one step ahead of the Cats. That was mainly due to the proficiency of the lively Costello, who registered their only goal on 30 minutes, Emmet O Conghaile, Ciaran Kilkenny, Winters and O’Rorke.

The Waterford victory just served to underline the quality Dublin have in their side, and this was reflected in the scoring spread – Costello (4-2), Kilkenny (1-5), Winters (1-3), Glenn Whelan, O Conghaile, Aodhan Clabby (0-2 each), among others – in an exceptional 60 minutes of hurling.

But they have their weaknesses. When Waterford, whose defence was simply woeful in the opening period, ran at the Dubs in the second half, they enjoyed better fortunes and, indeed, went on to outscore their rivals by 5-6 to 2-7.

This should offer plenty of encouragement to Galway, who, although not playing to their maximum potential against Clare, still have a number of quality players who have the ability to turn a game on any given moment.

Fair enough, Galway’s half-forward unit struggled to make a scoring impact against Clare, with Jason Flynn, Jonathan Glynn, who worked tirelessly, and Adrian Tuohy not finding the target. One, though, has to believe that this was just a freak occurrence because in the Galway senior championship these three players have made a significant impact.

Tommie Larkins’ Flynn has amassed 10 points (six from play) in three games, while Ardrahan’s Jonathan Glynn and Beagh’s Adrian Tuohy have tallied 1-4 and 0-5 respectively from play already in the group stages of the local senior competition.

If Murphy and his backroom team of trainer Michael Haverty and selectors Michael Fogarty and Michael Flanagan keep their faith in this offensive selection when they announce the team later this week remains to be seen, but certainly there is a lot more in those three players.

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