Galway must improve for test with Limerick

GALWAY minor hurling manager Mattie Murphy has named an unchanged starting fifteen for his side’s testing All-Ireland semi-final clash against Munster champions Limerick at Croke Park on Sunday (1:30pm).

Although unhappy with the level of performance by the young Tribesmen in their victory over Laois last day out, Murphy believes his charges have more in them and it is a matter of bringing that talent to the fore this weekend.

 “You would be disappointed with the performance to be honest with you,” says Murphy. “We didn’t perform. Like, some of them are top quality players who have been hurling well in the senior club championship and that didn’t follow through against Laois. What I would say, if we were playing any of the other two teams – Waterford or Kilkenny – we would have been beaten.”

 In fairness to Leinster finalists Laois, they did submit a very honest display against Galway and after 45 minutes only trailed by a single point. However, the victors subsequently outscored their opponents eight points to none in the final quarter to register a 1-19 to 0-13 victory.

 In the aftermath of that game, the general feeling was Galway had just about done enough but given that Leinster champions Kilkenny – who had comfortably beaten Laois in the provincial decider – were dumped out of the All-Ireland series last weekend, that may now be – albeit loosely – a better yardstick to measure this Galway side against.

 No wonder then, the Galway manager is calling for a greater effort from his young charges and dispels the notion out of hand that Galway may not have been up to speed as the Laois outing was their first competitive fixture. No excuses.

 “It was, but again, the thing is if we had been playing either of the other two teams, we would have been beaten. If we had come up against Kilkenny or Waterford with that performance, we would have been in real trouble,” reiterates Murphy.

 Of course, there are few others in this country who have a better grasp of hurling at this grade than the Gort clubman and he will be well aware of the dangers and pitfalls in facing Munster champions Limerick, who advanced to this stage of the competition following a provincial final replay victory over Waterford. Read full preview in this week’s Connacht Tribune.