Galway left to rue lack of killer instinct in final defeat

Kilkenny 2-20

Galway 0-24

John McIntyre at Croke Park

GALWAY hurlers should know better than this. A team stacked with All-Ireland medal winners and vast experience can’t be virtually handing Leinster championship titles to Kilkenny . . . of all teams!

That might seem a harsh conclusion to draw from Saturday’s high-quality provincial decider at Croke Park, but the Tribesmen must be tormented over losing a game they almost had in their back-pocket heading down the home stretch.

Not alone were Galway significantly the better team, they had Kilkenny on the ropes when stretching clear by five points in the 53rd minute and nothing had happened up to then to suggest anything other than a fourth Leinster senior title was heading west.

Up to that juncture, Galway were nearly always in cruise control – maybe, that was the problem – and doing enough to keep the Cats at bay. They bore the swagger of winners but when Kilkenny suddenly caught fire, it was the men in maroon jerseys who floundered badly and didn’t have the answers.

Though Brian Cody’s team again deserve admiration for their ferocious work-rate and never-say-die spirit, their challenge really should have been put away before the final underwent a dramatic upheaval in the closing quarter.

Galway were ahead by 0-20 to 0-15 and not under any great pressure, but we weren’t to know then how some poor decision making and failure to take other chances – they shot 12 wides in total – would come back to haunt them.

Cathal Mannion had a point begging to be taken in the 32th minute only to try unsuccessfully to engineer a goal for Brian Concannon, while Joe Canning’s decision to try and rattle the net from a 20m free in the third quarter was equally misguided. It was almost as if Galway thought they could do what they want and still win.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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