Mannion pulls the strings as ruthless Galway romp home

Galway 5-34

Westmeath 1-16

DAVY Glennon committed the first foul and the scored the last point of Saturday’s National Hurling League tie at Cusack Park, Mullingar but, in between, it proved a nightmare experience for the former Galway player and his new Westmeath colleagues.

The first GAA fixture in five months turned into a turkey shoot as Galway’s combination of precision stickwork, instinctive movement and astounding accuracy left the hapless home team chasing shadows long before the finish.

Even allowing for Westmeath’s poverty, you couldn’t but be impressed by Galway’s overall sharpness and conditioning. A 30-point winning margin illustrated the massive gulf between the teams on a day the Tribesmen finally rediscovered the art of goal-scoring with a vengeance.

Of course, Galway benefitted from time and space luxuries they won’t have again in 2021, but this still represented a significant statement of intent by a team looking reinvigorated as a result of their long lay-off from competitive action.

A measure of the leeway afforded Galway last Saturday was that every player from right-half-back Aidan Harte up the field registered scores from play, with number six Shane Cooney notching a brace of points from play late on.

Considering players with deep All-Star pedigrees, Joe Canning, Daithí Burke, Padraic Mannion and David Burke, weren’t even togged, this was an opportunity for other squad members to step up to the plate. None did better than Evan Niland, whose 13-point haul included three neat efforts from play, and the pacey Jarlath Mannion.

There were also big scoring contributions from Conor Cooney and full-forward Niall Burke, who enjoyed his most productive outing in a maroon jersey for a long time, but virtually everything has to be qualified in the context of Westmeath’s token challenge.

Still, it would be a disservice to Cathal Mannion if we didn’t acknowledge a terrific exhibition from his midfield base. He was at the heart of the team’s most incisive attacks, including a breathtaking 30-yard stick pass for Brian Concannon’s second-half goal.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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