Minors blitzed by Cats

NOBODY saw this coming, least of all the reigning All-Ireland minor hurling champions who were torn asunder by a brilliant Kilkenny outfit at Croke Park on Sunday. It was a throwback to the worst days of the sixties and seventies when the county were routinely humiliated at this level.

Frankly, there is no part of the wreckage for Galway to cling to. This was as bad as it gets, especially as Mattie Murphy’s young crew were considered to have reasonable prospects of retaining the Irish Press Cup and had shown no shortage of character when in trouble against Waterford in last month’s quarter-final.

Furthermore, with plenty of players who have experience of senior club hurling in their ranks and several survivors from last year’s all-conquering team, Galway were at least expected to be competitive against their 2009 final victims – instead, they were beaten off the park despite an encouraging opening.

In mitigation, however, it is clear that Galway came up against an exceptional Kilkenny squad who, like their senior counterparts, have an inherent desire and ability to engineer goal chances. The Cats rattled the net on five occasions last Sunday with their strong-running half-forwards and midfielders causing havoc.

Galway had conceded two of those goals in the opening 12 minutes, but such was the quality of their own point-taking early on, that they were only 2-4 to 0-8 behind at that juncture as anticipations grew of a potentially classic encounter. By half-time, those expectations were already crushed.

The title holders couldn’t cope with Kilkenny’s strength, technique or quality, with several lofty reputations taking a battering on Sunday. Sure, Galway tried hard and the team management made no shortage of personnel and positional changes to try and stem the haemorrhaging, but it was a futile exercise given the extent of the Noresiders’ superiority.

For a detailed match report see page 23 of this week’s Sentinel.