Galway hurlers way off pace and lucky to get away with it

Inside Track with John McIntyre

Sometimes being forewarned makes little difference as Galway hurlers almost discovered to their huge cost in Portlaoise last Sunday. They would have headed to the midlands venue under no illusions about what lay ahead of them and the tactics the home team would employ, but the Tribesmen were still clueless in their attempts to counteract the opposition’s packed defensive lines in scraping into the Leinster semi-final.

Galway had just survived a similar ambush at the same venue 12 months earlier, so they knew what to expect in this repeat encounter against Laois only to blindly stumble their way to a fortunate victory despite making a terrific start against the influential elements. Ultimately, that unanswered burst of 1-3 saved them from being completely wiped out in the first half and a probable embarrassing defeat.

Goodness knows, it was bad enough anyway as a well drilled Laois outfit subsequently outscored their visitors by 16 points to four from there to the interval. Wind or no wind, this was a shocking indictment of Galway’s poor play and had Neil Foyle not spurned a clear-cut goal scoring opportunity in the 32nd minute, the maroon dam could have been burst completely.

Defending in numbers and cleverly freeing up their shooters to fire at the opposition posts, often from long range, Laois gave themselves a great platform to pull off the biggest upset in the championship in years. It was still a tantalising prospect heading into injury time but goalkeeper Eoin Reilly was unable to conjure up a Roy of the Rovers finale from a late 20m free. They deserved better as Galway struggled for long periods to match their hosts’ intensity and sheer heart.

Though Laois were facing into their fifth championship outing on consecutive weekends, they were clearly much sharper than sluggish opponents whose persistence in bombing high balls down on their full forward line in the second-half proved naive in the extreme. Galway were simply too one-dimensional and needed to mix it up, but they were impatient and found it difficult to produce the expected fluid team-work on the team’s championship debut.

For much of this contest, Galway were shambolic as poor defending, loose marking, a below average work ethic and flawed tactics ensured they more than flirted with a disastrous outcome. In the circumstances, it is to the team’s credit that they manage to survive thanks largely to a strong closing quarter surge as their greater technical ability finally becoming influential with substitute Jason Flynn proving his worth with three priceless points.

It was hard to imagine this Leinster quarter-final going down to the wire after Galway flew out of the blocks with points from Johnny Coen, David Burke and the tireless Padraig Breheny augmenting an admittedly scrappy goal from Jonathan Glynn in the third minute. It was a demoralising start for Laois, but heads never dropped and they went on to dominate the remainder of the opening half action with Joe Fitzpatrick, the impressive Tommy Fitzgerald, Willie Hyland, Tom Delaney and Foyle among those bombing over rousing points. At the other end, Conor Coney was the only Galway forward making a significant impact on a day Joe Canning was again extremely subdued.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.