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.