U-21s exit could benefit the Galway Seniors and Minors

Inside Track with John McIntyre

Whisper it, but perhaps the defeat of the Galway U21 hurlers in last Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Limerick might be no bad thing in the build up to what will be a tulmultuous occasion for the Tribesmen at GAA headquarters on September 6.

With the All-Ireland intermediate title already on the sideboard, and the county’s senior and minor teams just one game away from ultimate glory, if the U-21s had also reached the All-Ireland final, the hype would surely have gone overboard as talk about the ‘clean sweep’ would be all the rage.

Saturday evening’s six points defeat for the U-21s at Semple Stadium, however, should help to keep supporters grounded and that sense of realism is hardly any harm ahead of the All-Ireland senior and minor finals which, in case we forget, Galway are outsiders to win both titles.

With senior players Jason Flynn, Cathal Mannion and Conor Whelan in their ranks, the U-21s were slight favourites to fend off Limerick’s challenge, but it was soon evident that the Shannonsiders were the more honed and settled outfit in reaping the benefits of a Munster campaign which had seen them get the better of great battles against Tipperary and Clare.

In contrast, this was Galway’s first game of the championship and with the senior squad members, also including team captain Paul Killeen and Kevin Molloy, only becoming available to manager Johnny Kelly the previous week, it hardly lent itself to ideal preparations and, understandably, the Westerners took a while to get going in Thurles.

After the highs of that terrific victory over Tipperary the previous weekend, some people might have exploited Whelan, Flynn and Mannion to go to town against Limerick altogether, but every game is different and it’s can’t have been easy for the three players in question to turn their energies to the U-21 semi-final in such a quick turnaround.

Between them, they had registered 11 points from play against Tipperary, but Flynn, Whelan and Mannion came nowhere near repeating those exploits last Saturday evening. Their combined total from play this time was only three points in a semi-final where the outstanding Molloy emerged as Galway’s top finisher.

It might come as a surprise too that the Limerick backs hit harder than their Tipperary counterparts did at Croke Park. The Munster champions typically spared no ash making it a difficult evening for the opposition’s star names who, at least, got a flavour of what they can expect against Kilkenny on Sunday.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.