New power in Galway
Date Published: 19-Nov-2012
CIARAN TIERNEY
THEY were singing in the rain long into the night around the South Galway villages of Kilchreest, Castledaly, and Peterswell after the young guns of St Thomas’ delivered a first county senior title to the amalgamated rural club with a fully deserved victory over a battle-hardened Loughrea side at Pearse Stadium on Sunday.
The final scoreline of 3-11 to 2-11 might suggest that it was a thriller in the driving rain, but the youthful men in red were the superior side despite a few late scares. They seemed to have the issue wrapped up before a spirited Loughrea registered 1-3 without reply, to cause some last minute jitters, in the closing ten minutes of the game.
A crowd of over 6,500 turned up to watch Galway hurling’s showpiece occasion, despite the atrocious conditions, and it was a credit to both sides that they served up such a rousing contest in the circumstances.
Loughrea fielded with seven players who were featuring in their sixth county final and this latest defeat is bound to cause considerable soul-searching in the Town camp, given that they have only managed one title success (2006) since reaching their first modern-day decider in 2003.
But St Thomas’ tore into them from the outset. They enjoyed a dream start when 30-year old full-forward Richie Murray, the former Galway senior star, rounded rival full-back Damien McClearn to unleash a superb shot to the net after just 90 seconds of play.
St Thomas’ featured no less than nine of the side who beat Loughrea in last year’s county U-21 final and the two subs they brought on, Eanna Burke and Shane Cooney, are both teenagers. They look to have the makings of a serious force in Galway hurling for some years.
County senior and current All-Star David Burke was simply immense on Sunday, covering back to help his defence when required while also driving forward from his midfield berth, where he partnered his brother Kenneth, to set up attacks for his fired-up young side.
Two of his colleagues in attack, James Regan and Conor Cooney, also made up for the disappointment of losing the replayed All-Ireland final to Kilkenny in September while it was a particularly joyous occasion for Richie Murray, who scored three goals, after so many years of disappointment with the county.
They still found it hard to shake off a gritty Loughrea side who were back on level terms by the 20th minute, thanks to points from Johnny Maher and Neil Keary, plus a superbly struck Maher free which hit the back of the net on 14 minutes.
For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.