Hurlers clinch league title

Keith Kelly

Those who preach caution will point out that All Ireland titles are never won in May. True, but League titles are, and the Galway senior hurlers sent a message to the likes of Kilkenny and Tipperary in Thurles on Sunday evening with a comfortable defeat of Cork to add the National Hurling League crown to the Walsh Cup they won in February.

John McIntyre’s men went into the game as slight underdogs against a team they had never beaten in a national final and at a ground which has seen more despair than delight for Galway teams down through the years.

They left all those negatives in the dressing room as they produced a display that had equal measures of skill and aggression to comfortably see off the challenge of a Cork side that just couldn’t live with the physicality of their opponents. It’s not often you say that about a Cork team – or a Galway team, for that matter.

There was no shirking challenges on Sunday as Galway players thundered into tackles in a manner not seen for quite some time. Every single player let their opponent know they were in a game, from Ollie Canning at one end of the pitch to brother Joe at the other, but always within the boundaries of fair play.

Galway led by four points at the break, despite playing into the wind, and they won pulling up at the end, eight points being the margin of victory, a margin which could have been bigger as Galway shot some tired wides late in the game.

Cork looked surprised by the intensity of the Galway challenge, summed up by a cameo late in the game when Castlegar’s Donal Barry clattered into Michael Cussen, dispossessed him comfortably and set up another Galway attack as Cussen just looked on, shaking his head. It wasn’t that he, or his team-mates, didn’t want to know, but rather, they were sick of finding out.

One swallow may not make a summer, but it a sign that brighter days are on the way. On Sunday’s evidence, Galway will be a force in the hurling championship this year. Brighter days may be just around the corner.

The same cannot be said of the Galway footballers on the evidence of their laboured win over New York in the Connacht Football Championship on Sunday evening, requiring an injury time contribution of 1-2 from Padraic Joyce to put the game beyond doubt as the 2010 All Ireland football championship officially got under way.For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.