Galway hurling needs to take a leaf out of Clare’s book

Inside Track with Ciaran Tierney

Where to now for Galway hurling? As virtually the entire hurling world celebrates in the afterglow of a truly phenomenal All-Ireland final replay, genuine delight at the success of our neighbours south of the border has to be tempered by frustration that the 2014 campaign never really took off for a Galway side which was listed among the title favourites at the start of the year.

As delegates from the clubs sit down to pass judgement on a poor year for the county’s senior team this week, there is no doubt that Clare’s thrilling win has electrified hurling people all over the country amid delight that the dominance of the ‘big three’ – Kilkenny, Cork, and Tipperary – dating back to 1999 has at last been broken.

Hopefully, now, the sport will open up to the less-traditional counties in the coming years, to match the revolution of the 1990s, and players in counties such as Waterford, Limerick, Wexford, and Dublin should have an extra pep in their step when they return for Winter training. Kilkenny just don’t seem to have the same aura about them, or appear to be so far ahead of the pack, any more.

Clare’s fourth All-Ireland success provided a fitting end to a fantastic championship. It seemed to come out of the blue, as there was certainly no basis for thinking that they would end up as 2013 All-Ireland champions when they hosted Galway in a dour National Hurling League game before a crowd of about 3,000 down in Ennis in early March.

But a Banner side featuring a teenage Shane O’Donnell at corner forward showed character and grit in abundance that day – attributes which held them in good stead all Summer – to hurl resolutely against the wintry elements in the second half and forge out a narrow 0-18 to 1-13 win.

The only memorable aspect from that tie from a Galway point of view was how much the visitors relied on Joe Canning, who hit 1-9 of the 1-13, and a hugely impressive Davy Glennon – the Tribesmen’s one true ‘find’ of this year’s League – in an underperforming attack.

John Conlon was Clare’s inspiration that day, hitting three superb long-range points in a row when Galway had the backing of the elements in the third quarter, and it was clear that Davy Fitzgerald was in the early process of ‘blooding’ a promising, if extremely youthful, side.

By way of contrast, Galway failed to nail down key positions during a disappointing League or to build on the huge promise they showed in reaching last year’s final.

By the time the sides met again in the All-Ireland quarter-final in Thurles, Clare were on a roll. The Banner had learned a lot from overcoming Wexford in extra time of their qualifier, despite shooting 20 wides, and there was a lethal intensity about them at Semple Stadium that an extremely flat Galway side could not cope with.

Anthony Cunningham’s men failed to deal with the Banner’s new-look sweeper system, took off both starting midfielders, and would have been annihilated but for two second half goals which came somewhat against the run of play. As it transpired, they had no complaints about exiting the championship on a scoreline of 1-23 to 2-14.

It was the seventh time in eight years that the Tribesmen were out of the championship before the Galway Races, despite their massive achievement in overcoming a seemingly unbeatable Kilkenny in last year’s Leinster final and taking them to an All-Ireland Final replay last September.

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