Tenth minor crown on the cards for Galway

ALL of the controversy over the disputed Hawk-Eye point has been put to bed and the Galway minor hurlers can now get on with the business of plotting a tenth All-Ireland success at the grade for the county when they take on Waterford in Sunday’s All-Ireland final at Croke Park (1.15pm).

Team manager Mattie Murphy, seeking a phenomenal seventh U-18 title with the county, readily admits that Limerick’s series of appeals following the technology malfunction in the semi-final has provided the most unusual backdrop of all to what will be his tenth minor final.

He has been forced to keep his players in something of a cocoon, training as normal in Gort and Ballinasloe while ignoring Limerick’s appeals to the Central Committee Controls Committee (CCCC), the Central Appeals Committee and, finally, the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) over the past three weeks.

Bizarrely, Limerick kept on training themselves until their final appeal was thrown out by the DRA following a four hour hearing on Monday night. But their appeal, after Barry Nash’s first minute point was deemed a ‘miss’ by Hawk-Eye, was always set to fail and it’s a pity that the entire controversy has taken the gloss off what was a splendid win for Murphy’s youngsters last time out.

Hardly battle-hardened after struggling for long periods to overcome Laois down in Thurles in the quarter-final, they showed plenty of courage and resilience to overcome the young Munster champions in extra time of a thrilling encounter in which the sides were level 15 times.

The young Tribesmen reeled off four points in a row in the additional period which showed that veteran trainer Mike Haverty has done some fine work with this group, in terms of fitness, on the training fields.

Murphy, Haverty, Michael Fogarty and Michael Flanagan knew they had a good batch this year. Five of their six forwards play senior hurling with their clubs while the sixth, the lively Brian Molloy of Kilnadeema-Leitrim, has been a key member of the panel for three minor campaigns.

Molloy and team captain Darragh Dolan (Cappataggle) were on the panel who delivered Galway’s last All-Ireland minor title in 2011, while centre back Shane Cooney and midfielder Eanna Burke both enjoyed All-Ireland club glory with St Thomas’ at Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day.