MattÕs minors can come on leaps and bounds

Date Published: {J}

IT may have been a disappointing championship season for the both the Galway senior hurlers and footballers, but that shouldn’t cloud the reality that the county’s GAA teams are still on track to for a memorable 2011 with three All-Ireland finals to relish over the next ten days or so.

Already, Galway has banked a title haul this year which most other counties would be highly envious of. Alan Mulholland’s U-21 footballers swept to All-Ireland glory after defeating a highly fancied Cork outfit in the semi-final; Clarinbridge senior hurlers powered to championship glory against O’Loughlin Gaels last March; while the Killimor camogie team also made history with a first ever All-Ireland triumph.

That’s impressive going by any standards and GAA fans in the county still have the title bids of the Galway U-21 and minor hurlers to look forward to, along with efforts of Noel Finn’s senior camogie team to atone for last year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Wexford when squaring up to the reigning champions at Croke Park on Sunday week.

Mattie Murphy’s minor hurlers are the first of these teams to have their final credentials tested when they clash with Dublin in what will be a repeat of the 1983 decider – a day when current U-21 manager Anthony Cunningham captained the Tribesmen to their first ever title at this level – at GAA headquarters on Sunday.

Murphy, of course, is already a law onto himself when it comes to moulding championship winners at this level. Five times (1992, ’94, ’04, ’05 and ’09), the Turloughmore native has guided Galway to All-Ireland glory and though his latest crop of young hurlers are slight outsiders for this weekend’s showdown, the young Tribesmen are bound to show significant improvement from their semi-final triumph over Clare.

The Banner boys had been installed as favourites to lift the Irish Press Cup after an impressive Munster championship campaign, while they also possessed a number of survivors from last year’s honourable All-Ireland final defeat to Kilkenny. As usual, Galway had come into that game as something of an unknown quantity having easily put an outclassed Antrim outfit to the sword in a one-sided quarter-final.

Clare did force the pace for much of the semi-final encounter with Galway and when they went three points clear in the second-half, it appeared that they were firmly in the driving seat. Significantly, however, Murphy and his management team made telling substitutions, especially up front, and few could dispute that Galway weren’t entitled to a draw, a scenario earned by Gerard O’Donoghue’s priceless injury time goal.

Whatever about the merits about playing the unexpected extra time, it was soon clear that Clare had more or less shot their bolt. They were physically struggling and, mentally, weren’t in a good place either after seeing an All-Ireland final place snatched from their grasp. Galway reserves, Jack Carr, Dean Higgins, Michael Mullins and Brian Molloy, who all scored critical points, were helping to establish a maroon stranglehold on the exchanges, while Shane Moloney began to cut loose when switched out the field.

In the end, Galway had five points (1-23 to 1-18) to spare, but everybody in their camp realises that they must improve for the showdown against a Dublin team which produced a breathtaking performance in their semi-final demolition of Waterford. By half time alone, they had stretched into whopping half-time lead of 17 points and though the Munster finalists didn’t throw in the towel, their cause was long since lost.

It is a measure of Dublin’s impressive scoring artillery, however, that they still won by nine points despite conceding 5-13. Ciaran Kilkenny and Cormac Costello did the scoring damage up front but, overall, the Dubs were physically imposing for a team operating at this level even if their defence has questions to answer after the All-Ireland semi-final. With the counties also clashing in the U-21 decider, the outcome of Sunday’s minor showdown takes on added significance.

It’s fair to assume that Galway will have a stronger team starting than was the case against Clare, while Padraig Brehony continues to look a fine prospect at midfield. Murphy and his mentors know what they are up against but having been here so many times before in September, if the outcome of the match depends on sideline intervention, Galway clearly have an edge.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.