Tannian ruled out with hand injury

Date Published: {J}

STEPHEN GLENNON

Galway’s leading scorer from play, Iarla Tannian, could miss the rest of the Tribesmen’s National Hurling League campaign after he was diagnosed with a suspected broken bone in his hand.

Tannian sustained the suspected break in Galway’s 2-17 to 0-14 defeat to Tipperary last weekend, but the extent of the injury will not be known until later in this week.

However, the Ardrahan sharpshooter – who has tallied 3-6 from play so far in the League – has not been selected in Galway’s starting XV to face Offaly in Pearse Stadium on Saturday (2.30pm).

The Galway management team – no doubt, disappointed and frustrated by Galway’s second half collapse against Tipp – has rung the changes for Saturday’s game, with four adjustments in personnel and two positional switches.

Kinvara’s Colm Callanan is restored to the No 1 jersey as the management’s continue their rotation of their goalkeepers, while Liam Mellows’ John Lee replaces Conor Dervan at left-half back in an otherwise unchanged defensive unit.

Fresh from his Fitzgibbon Cup heroics, Lee will relish his return to inter-county action, even if it is not in his more familiar role of centre-half back. He replaces Mullagh man Dervan, who is somewhat unlucky to lose out.

Although he struggled with the pace of Tipp’s Seamus Callanan last weekend, it was, after all, Dervan’s first competitive game in over four months. Also, Dervan is more of a central man – be it centre-back or full-back – and if the Galway management learned anything from last year’s experience, you can never have enough cover for those positions!

A new midfield partnership will be tried against the Faithful County, with St Thomas’ David Burke joining Ger Farragher in the middle of the park. For many observers, this is Burke’s best position, so it will be interesting to see what he can bring to this sector on Saturday. Certainly, he is an exciting prospect with plenty of ability. He just needs to make the jersey his own.

With Tannian out through injury, there has been a reshuffle of the attack. Aonghus Callanan and Cyril Donnellan reprise their right-half and centre-forward roles respectively, while Eanna Ryan – nephew of the great Galway hurler of the same name – gets his first National League start in replacing Gort’s Aidan Harte.

Ryan was in fine form for Killimordaly in their recent Senior League game against Craughwell, with it taking the home side some time to get to grips with the sharpshooter. If he can reproduce that first half club display on Saturday, then he should be good for a couple of points.

Meanwhile, Niall Cahalan – who has been picking off points regularly from his midfield berth – is moved into the right corner forward position, with Joe Gantley and Niall Healy making up the rest of the full-forward unit.

For more, read thisweek’s Connacht Tribune.