Strange times but cream still rises to the top in local hurling title race

Inside Track with John McIntyre

The running of the 2020 Galway senior hurling championship may have been turned upside down in more ways than one by Covid-19, but three of last year’s semi-finalists have fought their way back to the final four after the weekend’s latest round of knock-out games.

It just shows that regardless of what system a championship is based upon or its time frame, the top teams still generally come to the fore. That’s how it has largely worked out in Galway again this year even if Liam Mellows – finalists for the past three seasons – were the big casualty of the quarter-finals.

Out for the third weekend on the trot, the city outfit were below par in their surprising weekend loss to a rejuvenated Loughrea. With former Mellows player and current Galway U20 manager Geoffrey Lynskey in the opposition backroom, this fixture should have carried a real edge to it, but the reality turned out much different.

Even without suspended star player Jamie Ryan, Loughrea emerged comfortable 0-22 to 1-13 winners with the likes of Neil Keary and Martin McManus making their presence felt. It’s quite a sudden upswing in fortunes for a side which bowed out tamely in last year’s championship to Cappataggle and lost their opening round group tie to Tommy Larkins a few weeks back.

Loughrea are the only club left which didn’t feature in the 2019 semi-finals and their opponents will be a Turloughmore outfit which is starting to walk the walk, in terms of justifying their lofty reputation. Mind you, conceding 2-19 to Sarsfields at Kenny Park shows that their defence still isn’t bombproof. At the other end of the field, however, there was no shortage of firepower as Seán Linnane and Seán Loftus did most of the scoring damage.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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