Loughrea have a chance Ð but only a small one!

Date Published: {J}

IT has almost become par for the course now – a heavyweight collision between Portumna and Loughrea at the business end of the Galway senior hurling championship. Four times in the past seven years, these two clubs have clashed in the county final with the tempestuous 2006 showdown still largely remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Undoubtedly, it was an unsavoury encounter but it was also the day that Loughrea displayed tremendous character in coming from behind against all the odds to achieve the club’s first championship triumph since the early forties. Having lost to Portumna in the finals of 2003 and ’05, it represented a landmark triumph for Loughrea, but the natural order of things between these teams was brutally restored last November.

When Portumna hammered Kinvara by 6-12 to 0-11 in the 2007 decider, we all assumed it would be a long time before there would be such a one-sided final again, but less than 11 months ago Ollie Canning and company recorded another 19 points victory when putting Loughrea to the sword on a 5-19 to 1-12 scoreline. The border men were pumped up for revenge and the match was over at half-time with Damien Hayes running riot, finishing the match with 3-3 to his credit.

Walking out of Pearse Stadium last November, it wasn’t hard to imagine that it was the finish of this Loughrea team. Club stalwarts Vinny Maher, Damien McClearn, Gregory Kennedy, Johnny O’Loughlin, Dermot Melia, Nigel O’Shaughnessy and Johnny Dooley were all pushing on and it appeared a period of transition was ahead of the club. Their group campaign this year hardly disabused that notion, losing to Kiltormer and only scraping into the knock-out stages by virtue of a narrow win over Craughwell.

They came up against the same opponents in the quarter-final and when Craughwell pushed two points clear in the final quarter, you sensed it was game up for Loughrea, but their greater experience stood them in good stead as a late goal from the previously subdued Johnny Maher earned them another crack against Portumna. They weren’t particularly impressive, but you could see that they had scope for improvement.

What has helped Loughrea recover so quickly from last year’s trauma is the infusion of some new blood like county minor Paul Hoban and Emmet Mahony – young pair, Johnny Coen and Neil Keary are a year older too – while the repositioning of some of the old guard hasn’t done them any harm either, notably Brian Mahony’s move from midfield to defence. Furthermore, veteran Nigel Shaughnessy, who missed last year’s final due to injury, is back anchoring the defence from the number six jersey.

Of course, Loughrea still have it all to do against the champions. Portumna may have beaten Mullagh by ten points in the recent quarter-final, but they hardly sparkled in doing so. It was more a case of their challengers being spooked by being on the same field as the team which continues to dominate Galway club hurling. How else does one explain the early concession of three giveaway goals and consistently taking the wrong options up front. Mullagh aren’t a bad team, but they played like one in Ballinasloe last Sunday week.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.