Hurlers Collapse!

Date Published: 22-Jul-2008

A TOXIC match in Thurles led to a traumatic and troubled evening for Galway. Some local hurling fans saw it coming and won’t have been taken aback by another summer of failure. Out of the championship in mid-July and the Tribesmen didn’t even get to play on a Sunday.

The recriminations have already started with the Ger Loughnane led management bearing the brunt of supporters’ ire, but the condemnation of the players is almost equally forthright after Galway surrendered a four point lead early in the second-half against heroic 14-man opponents.

Making their subsequent near-collapse even worse was that Galway also had the backing of the wind, leaving them in a perfect position to drive on from there. It didn’t happen because they weren’t good enough as magnificent Cork proceeded to hurl the Westerners off the field.

Only the remarkable Joe Canning and goalkeeper James Skehill emerged from this hugely disappointing reversal with reputations enhanced. The rest varied between mediocre and bad, though Ollie Canning and Adrian Cullinane did better than that for some periods of the match.

The biggest shock of all was…