Galway hurlers braced for tough test in Wexford

IT might go against the grain to suggest that Galway can expect more hardship against Wexford in the latest round of the Leinster hurling championship than they encountered when dismissing Kilkenny’s challenge at Pearse Stadium, but that is the likely scenario.

Outside of Offaly, no county has suffered more than Wexford at the hands of the Cats over the past 20 years, but they stopped the rot in 2017 under the passionate management of Davy Fitzgerald and appear to be continuing on an upward curve.

Though they lost to Kilkenny in Wexford Park in this year’s league semi-final, their level of intent was debatable while it also came just a week after their rousing victory over Galway at the same venue in the quarter-final of the competition.

With a 100% record in the championship so far, Wexford will be primed for a major crack at the All-Ireland champions on home turf on Saturday evening (5pm). They thrashed Offaly by 5-24 to 2-9 in Tullamore at the weekend, with the O’Connor brothers, John and Rory, leading the way up front.

Some qualification of that result is required, however. For starters, Offaly were out on their feet, facing into a third game in 15 days after noble efforts against both Galway and Kilkenny – they just don’t have the depth to cope with such a taxing schedule – while they also finished with only 12 players on the field.

Still, Wexford went about their business in a ruthless manner, having been liberated by just getting the better of Dublin – a team they have a bad recent record against in the championship – the previous weekend thanks to late points from Rory O’Connor and Harry Kehoe.

Full preview in this week’s Connacht Tribune.