Gort keep their best until last in unseating champs

IT’S doubtful if there was a more disorganised senior hurling team in Galway last spring than Gort, but when it came to the crunch they were sufficiently prepared – both on and off the field – to lay the foundation for the club’s seventh county championship triumph at Kenny Park last Sunday.

Difficulties in putting a team management together meant Gort were vulnerable for the start of the title race last April and a poor effort against Loughrea in the opening round followed by a close shave against Liam Mellows led to the South Galway men being generally dismissed as serious contenders for the Tom Callanan Cup.

But in a remarkable transformation, Gort subsequently managed to leave their early season turmoil behind and the extent of their improvement was underlined in Athenry at the weekend when they emerged deserving winners over a Portumna outfit which struggled to establish any sustained fluency and whose decision-making at times did them no favours.

Ultimately, we got a better final than its belated timing deserved. The heavy surface demanded unrelenting commitment and Gort certainly weren’t found wanting in this regard while they fact that they were the younger and hungrier team was also critical to the outcome. The new champions had their mental fortitude seriously tested in a dramatic conclusion, but they never flagged and finished in a blaze of glory.

An estimated crowd of 4,000 turned up at Kenny Park to witness a county final which was extremely competitive in heavy underfoot conditions. Surprisingly, Portumna opted to face the wind in the opening-half and though an interval deficit of 0-9 to 0-5 was hardly insurmountable, the title holders still had significant ground to make up while several key players were struggling to make an impact.

Yet, when the All-Ireland champions drew level in the 57th minutes thanks to a terrific Kevin Hayes first-time strike after Ollie Canning had done the spadework, the smart money would have been on Portumna completing the job, but within 60 seconds a determined Gort had regained their three point lead when substitute Wayne Walsh found the net at the second attempt.

Amazingly, for a final whichhad scarcely threatened a goal until three minutes from the end, we were now treated to three of them in less than 180 seconds as Gort then put the seal on a momentous win when veteran Gerry Quinn intercepted a half-hooked Conor O’Hare clearance before expertly putting Albert Mullins in the clear. The team’s centre forward still had work to do, but he avoided the challenging Joe Keane in applying a neat finish.

Gort’s joy was unconfined and no neutral could dispute that they were the better equipped outfit on the day. From the start, half backs Grey Lally, the crispest striker on the field, and Aidan Harte emerged as hugely influential figures and both players picked off rousing opening-half points into the bargain. Lally dominated in the number six jersey and though he had a difficult ten minutes on Damien Hayes at the start of the second-half, the Gort captain gradually began to reassert and was critical to their second county title success in four years.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.