Inside Track
Unsettled Galway should still make short work of Laois
Inside Track with John McIntyre
IT’S a fixture which has seldom caused Galway hurlers undue difficulty in the past and the expectation is for that trend to continue when the Tribesmen make their championship debut against Laois at O’Moore Park on Sunday. There is no prospect of a shock result in the Leinster semi-final as the gulf in standard between the two teams is simply too great.
Naturally, the sound bites emanating from the Galway camp will be respectful of the Midlanders’ challenge, but this is the classic routine assignment for them and anything bar a convincing victory would be disappointing against a team which was campaigning in the third tier of the National League this spring against the likes of Kildare, Wicklow, Kerry and Derry. Laois eventually made the Division 2A final where they recorded a 3-14 to 1-9 victory over Westmeath.
That result turned the tables on Brian Hanley’s charges from the teams’ group clash and Laois have built on that performance with clear-cut Leinster championship wins over Antrim and Carlow to reach their Leinster semi-final for the first time since 2005. Under new manager Seamus Plunkett, they have definitely made some progress even if they were starting from a very low base, while home advantage won’t do them any harm either.
The expected loss of defender Brian Campion with a groin injury is a blow they could have done without, but they have a few decent forwards in the likes of Stephen Maher, Willie Hyland and Zane Keenan while Cahir Healy is their midfield pulse. Team boss Plunkett was bullish in his post-match commentary after the Carlow game, saying that they ‘didn’t fear Galway’ and would be going all out for the win.
That positive if hard to justify vibe underlines the improved spirit in the Laois set up, but the bottom line is that they will be taking a huge step up in class when Galway roll into Portlaoise on Sunday. Things will be happening a lot faster than they were against both Antrim and Carlow, and it’s extremely doubtful if the home team will have be able to cope with the movement, pace and stickwork of last year’s All-Ireland finalists who haven’t been seen in public since their disappointing league semi-final loss to Kilkenny.
Galway were disjointed that day and reports from the camp over recent weeks have been mixed in relation to squad morale and the individual form of players. They have played challenge games against Dublin, Tipperary and Cork over the past few weeks with their displays regarded as being of the ‘up and down’ variety and offering no clear indication of who will be lining out in the central defensive positions against Laois.
It’s hardly helped either that a team management directive to their players not to line out in the Kilbeacanty Sevens tournament on the Bank Holiday Monday was not adhered to by the six-strong St. Thomas’ contingent, especially as the Gort and Ardrahan county panellists did what they were asked. The fact that it was Anthony Cunningham’s own club which was involved compounded the sense of anarchy.
Stuff like that can permeate down through a panel and it is known that a number of Galway’s more seasoned players were taken aback by the St. Thomas’ snub to the county team mentors. It’s hardly Cunningham’s fault as he would have given the instruction not to play in Kilbeacanty in good faith and the squad are bound to have moved on in the interim, but the optics of that particular episode did look bad.
Leaving all that aside, the general mood around the county about Galway’s championship prospects is largely downbeat. The lack of a settled team is causing some concern, but I have always felt too much store is placed on having a regular formation anyway. Players’ form can be so variable, there is also the disruption of injuries and management can’t be a slave to what happened the year before. For instance, can Iarla Tannian repeat his exploits when moved to midfield with such success in the summer of 2012?
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
SOMETHING very odd happened to Tyrone in the Ulster championship in early April. On their home turf of Healy Park, they were doing nearly everything expected of them when leading Monaghan by five points at half-time. You couldn’t say for definite that the match was done and dusted, but the 2021 All-Ireland champions were in pole position.
You would have expected them to drive on against an honest if limited Monaghan outfit. Instead, Tyrone didn’t score for the opening 16 minutes of the second-half and in an enthralling finale, were left stunned by defender Ryan’s Toole’s stoppage-time goal snatching the honours for the Farney men on a 2-17 to 1-18 scoreline.
A couple of weeks later, Monaghan themselves had exited the Ulster title race when Derry comfortably got the better of them (1-21 to 2-10), leaving us more puzzled than ever by Tyrone’s dramatic decline since overcoming Mayo to claim Sam barely 20 months previously. Last year, they crashed out of Ulster by 11 points to Derry and subsequently came up six short against Armagh in the All-Ireland qualifiers.
Against that background, their recent loss to Monaghan shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did. Tyrone may have made a shambolic defence of the All-Ireland title, but there is still a lot of quality in their ranks. They have an adventurous ‘keeper in Niall Morgan, while the long-serving Peter Harte, Darragh Canavan, Darren McCurry, Cathal McShane, Conor Meyler, Mattie Donnelly, and Conn Kilpatrick are all top-class performers when in the mood.
There’s hardly been a word about them for the past six weeks. Tyrone are lying low, desperately trying to rediscover the verve and cohesion which took them all the way in 2021. Their pride is on the line. It makes them dangerous opponents for Galway in the opening round of All-Ireland group matches at Pearse Stadium on Saturday.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Inside Track with John McIntyre
GALWAY footballers won’t get much credit for their easy victory over Sligo in Sunday’s Connacht Final in Castlebar, but when a team achieves something that hasn’t been done for 20 years, perhaps we should be a little more appreciative of the Tribesmen retaining the JJ Nestor Cup for the first time in two decades.
To be honest, if Galway were to live up to their standing as serious All-Ireland contenders, they needed to be doing a number on Sligo. In this year’s National League, the counties were three divisions apart and though Tony McEntee’s team achieved promotion and were on a nine-match unbeaten run, a serious rise in class faced them at MacHale Park.
Granted, Sligo made a bright start with three points in the opening five minutes from Pat Spillane, Sean Carrabine and the accurate Darragh Cummins, but they would only manage two more by the break despite having the wind behind them. Though wing back Luke Towey was catching the eye with his runs up-field, Galway rarely looked under pressure.
Sligo were bravely committing numbers to the middle third, which meant they were a little light in numbers around their own posts. They couldn’t afford to lose possession coming out of their own half, but that’s what happened in the build up to Galway’s second goal. Damien Comer overturned Cian Lally and from his counter-attack, Matthew Tierney expertly finished to the net at the near post.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
IS the Leinster hurling championship something of a sham compared to its Munster counterpart? Everybody knows who will end up in the provincial final in the east, but nobody knows the two teams who will feature in the ultimate battle for supremacy down south.
All-Ireland champions Limerick aren’t guaranteed to even make it out of the province, never mind reach the Munster final, after their narrow loss to Clare in Saturday evening’s epic at the Gaelic Grounds. Everything is still on the line for the five counties involved, although Waterford are again under serious pressure after losing their opening two matches.
In Leinster, there is little of that drama. Galway and Kilkenny are miles ahead of the rest; the only thing at stake is whether Dublin or Wexford – they meet in Croke Park on Saturday – will be the third team to emerge for the All-Ireland series. It’s a game which is hard to call. Wexford are going backwards while Dublin look callow as Micheál Donoghue is trying to build the nucleus of a new team.
Though Antrim are improving – they held the Dubs to a draw and only lost to Wexford by four points – the men from the Glens would be out of their depth in Munster; while Westmeath are proving cannon-fodder for everyone else. Since Galway headed east in 2009, they have clashed with Kilkenny in seven Leinster finals and another showdown is inevitable next month.
In contrast, every match in Munster is virtually do-or die. When Clare rolled into Limerick last Saturday, they knew another defeat after losing to Tipperary in the opening round would leave them on the precipice of exiting the championship. There’s a real dog-eat-dog appeal about all the games. In Leinster, there are two big hounds, and the rest are chihuahuas.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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