Portumna not the force of old but can still carry day

Inside Track with John McIntyre

The big question ahead of the long-delayed Galway senior hurling final is how much have Portumna left in the tank? Nearly half of their team were involved when the club made that historic championship breakthrough in 2003 and two of them, Ollie Canning and Niall Hayes, have been loyal servants for close on 20 years.

With six county championships and four All-Ireland Club titles amassed in a decade, Portumna have been a dominant force far beyond their county’s borders, although there was a valley period for three seasons after completing a notable three-in-a-row in 2009 when breaking Loughrea’s hearts once again at Pearse Stadium.

A lazy presumption followed that Portumna were gone, but their campaigns in 2010, ’11 and ’12 had been hampered by injuries and suspensions. Against that background, it meant a lot to their camp to regain the Tom Callanan Cup in 2013 and having returned to the top in Galway, the border men used all of their experience to subsequently readily dismiss championship novices, Na Piarsaigh and Mount Leinster Rangers, on their way to another All-Ireland triumph.

Portumna really hit the ground running in their opening defence of the county title in late April with a first-half blitz of Castlegar at Kenny Park, but they haven’t been nearly as formidable since, scraping over Loughrea in the quarter final thanks to two softly conceded goals before having to work hard to fend off a progressive Craughwell outfit without their star player Niall Healy at the penultimate stage of the title race.

That form is some way behind the devastating displays Portumna produced in their heyday, but how could it be any other way? Most of the team won’t see their twenties again; their legs have slowed; and apart from Conor O’Hare and Ronan O’Meara, you couldn’t say any of their younger talent are in anyway exceptional.

But Portumna still know how to win. Gareth Heagney, Eoin Lynch, Kevin Hayes, Niall Hayes, Ollie Canning, Leo Smith, Damien Hayes, Joe Canning and Andy Smith remain terrific competitors, while Martin Dolphin is another big asset at centre back, but they surely appreciate that little will come easy against a Gort outfit who have lived up to the club’s tradition for producing steely, hard-to-beat and uncompromising teams.

Of course, we haven’t seen Portumna for nearly three months in what has become a fiasco of a county championship, but if there is one team which can overcome such a significant handicap and literally bolt from the traps, it is the title holders. You can rest assured they will be primed for Sunday and they will be anxious to go for a quick kill as the longer Gort stay in a game, they more awkward they become.

Champions in 2011, but well beaten by Portumna when they clashed in the 2008 county final, Gort’s progress to Sunday’s decider has been typified by a steady improvement and the return to form of star under-age player Richie Cummins. He is one of a number of survivors from their previous big collision with the champions as Tadhg Linnane, Niall Forde, Paul Killilea, Gerry Quinn, still popping over the frees with great consistency, Sean Forde, Sylvie Og Linnane, Greg Lally and Aidan Harte also have a score to settle with Portumna from six years ago.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.