High-flying Galway make a big statement on home soil

Galway 0-26

Limerick 1-17

John McIntyre at Pearse Stadium

THE aura of invincibility surrounding the Limerick hurlers faded a little after stumbling to Galway in Salthill on Sunday – the All-Ireland champions’ first defeat since July of 2019.

More importantly, the result confirms Galway’s status as the chief threat to Limerick this summer, particularly as they possess the best equipped outfit to stand up to the Shannonsiders physically.

Mind you, Sunday’s National League tie at Pearse Stadium hardly boiled down to raw muscle or power, more a case of Galway’s overall hurling being sharper on the day, together with taking advantage of Limerick’s high free concession count.

For the second week running, young Evan Niland gave an exhibition of accurate placed ball shooting, nailing 14 frees from a variety of distances and angles. He punished Limerick’s swarm tackling technique at every opportunity, though one suspects some of these challenges won’t be flagged as frees come the championship.

Having lost their previous four competitive outings to John Kiely’s charges, this deserved six-point triumph represents a significant and timely psychological boost for a Galway team which continues to make light of only recently being allowed to resume group training.

Though falling behind to a David Reidy free inside 45 seconds. Galway forced the pace for much of a competitive struggle even if the exchanges were rarely of a blood and thunder nature. For long periods, it felt like both teams were sizing each other up in terms of a likely far bigger collision later in the year.

Significantly, Galway are developing a deeper panel with increasing options for key positions. They were without Daithí Burke, Aidan Harte and Joe Canning, who was admittedly introduced to positive effect in the final quarter, from their starting line-up and were still able to get the job done comfortably on Sunday.

Conor Cooney, Johnny Coen and Shane Cooney were also held in reserve and while Limerick had some regular personnel missing as well, their bench may not be quite as strong as some commentators would have us believe. Sure, the pressure of defending a long unbeaten run is now gone, but this loss will at least have given Limerick food for thought.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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