Galway give their all but just aren’t good enough

Inside Track with John McIntyre

IN some ways, Galway hurlers did even better than we could have hoped for in last Sunday’s competitive Leinster final at Croke Park. Firstly, they were really up for the fight – a mindset which isn’t always guaranteed from the men in maroon in high pressure games – they wasted fewer chances than the champions and converted two wonderful goals at pivotal moments.

Against the vast majority of opponents, those scenarios would have laid the foundations for victory, but Kilkenny are no ordinary foes and despite some untypical prolificacy – they shot 14 wides to Galway’s nine – they still comfortably achieved the county’s 70th provincial championship triumph and remain the team to beat in 2015.

This was an honourable defeat for Galway, especially in the context of the dark mood which had engulfed the county’s hurling heartlands in the wake of their tame National League quarter-final exit to Waterford last April. The players were extremely committed as underlined by the unstinting efforts of both Cyril Donnellan and Jonathan Glynn in the half forward line, but overall the Tribesmen lacked Kilkenny’s trademark natural class and range of scoring options.

Galway may have engineered two goals of the highest quality from Joe Canning and substitute Jason Flynn – both the product of route one deliveries from influential midfielder Andy Smith – but for much of an invigorating struggle, the challengers were chasing the game and only led once in the county’s fourth Leinster final appearance. They couldn’t match Kilkenny’s scoring arsenal with the superb TJ Reid, Eoin Larkin, Ger Aylward and Richie Hogan, eventually, knocking over points for sport.

In contrast, Galway had to work much harder for their scores from play. Apart from Canning and Donnellan, no other player raised more than a solitary flag. Cathal Mannion, for instance, after a rousing early score, had become a marginalised figure long before his replacement while Davy Glennon, in the other corner, never got to the pitch of the battle.

A third Galway forward David Burke was also replaced and though he enjoyed the odd productive moment and came close to rattling the Kilkenny net with an instinctive first-time effort in the 48th minute – after the team’s attack had turned offer possession through sheer force of will – the St. Thomas’ man was another suffocated by the intensity of the Kilkenny defensive resistance.

With Aidan Harte unable to repeat his impact in the two Dublin matches around midfield, Galway rarely got the time and space last Sunday which had typified their earlier championship wins. There were problems in the backline too.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.