St. Thomas’ return to top and Gort can have no complaints

Inside Track with John McIntyre

There’s little room for argument about the outcome of Sunday’s Galway senior hurling final at Pearse Stadium. St Thomas’ carried the day by four points but it could have been seven or eight even if Gort were never quite put away. Though fiercely competitive at times, it was a showdown devoid of much fluency or real individual inspiration.

In front of an attendance of 5,237 – a modest crowd for Galway hurling’s showpiece event – this was a day of validation for St Thomas’. Judging by their post-match comments alone, they were driven by the prospect of being dismissed as a one-season wonder. That historic local breakthrough in 2012 was augmented by a terrific All-Ireland triumph the following March, leading to some expectations that a sustained period of dominance was ahead of the club. They possessed stacks of mostly young talented players and an astute manager in John Burke.

The following three years, however, did not pan out as anticipated. There were a couple of semi-final defeats and an early championship exit in 2014. Injuries had also taken their toll while the retirements of the Murray brothers, Robert and Richie, at opposite ends of the field removed some invaluable on-field leadership. In the group stages of this year’s title race, St Thomas’ were virtually gone only to salvage a place in the knock-out stages on scoring difference.

That level of form is now incompatible with what we have seen from them over the past couple of months. The team management, including first-year coach Michael Haverty, made fundamental and well chronicled positional changes in a brave effort to make them more difficult to beat. It was a brave strategy with no guarantee of success, but their players’ adaptability reduced the risk levels in returning St Thomas’ to the top of Galway club hurling.

In terms of pure skill and natural stickwork, the new champions are the best equipped outfit in the county and with their casualty list a thing of the past, they were always going to be contenders in 2016 if they could get some momentum going. Beagh, a club which continues to defy its limited resources, Portumna and Loughrea had all fallen to them in the knock-out campaign, leaving Patrick Skehill and company in good heart for the Gort challenge.

Though the final was taken place at least a couple of weeks ahead of its normal timing, the local GAA wasn’t blessed with ideal weather conditions last Sunday even if the Pearse Stadium surface held up well to the heavy morning rain. In theory, we imagined that Gort would be less inconvenienced by the conditions, but it didn’t work out that way as St Thomas’s never flinched. They were men on a mission and were admirably resolute on the day.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.