Galway cope with the hype and show they are hungry for more
Inside Track with John McIntyre
A couple of former Kilkenny legends did their best to spook Galway ahead of their historic Leinster championship meeting at Pearse Stadium last Sunday. Words like pressure, ambition and hunger were thrown out to question whether the champions had the right stuff to drive on from last year’s long-awaited triumph.
Jackie Tyrrell, in particular, attempted to put the fear of God into the Tribesmen by suggesting the Kilkenny dressing room last week would be a hotbed of emotion at the prospect of taking on a team which he loosely described as having their All-Ireland medals. In other words, how dare Galway have the temerity to win something that the Cats perceive is almost their birthright.
Kilkenny arrogance is nothing new and while their exploits over a 16-year period from 2000 to 2015 smashed the record books, there seems to be some reluctance to accept that there is now a new sheriff in town as was reinforced by Galway’s convincing eight-point victory. Brian Cody’s team is in transition and they had few answers to the champions.
Galway have played more pleasing hurling on the eye, but they had to sacrifice some of their natural skill in what turned out to be a physical battle. Kilkenny hit hard, but their hosts returned the punishment with interest. Burke and McInerney are two men of granite at the heart of the Galway defence, while all the forwards can win their own ball.
KIlkenny didn’t back away in terms of aggression, but some of their players were physically spent by the finish. Galway are a big team, loaded with natural ball players, and clearly possess a desire to follow through on a magnificent 2017. It was all too much for a Kilkenny team which failed to score from play for 39 minutes of the second half.
That statistic alone illustrated the brilliance of the Galway backs, with the outstanding Padraic Mannion often calmly emerging from a cluster of bodies with ball in hand and ready to clear his lines. It was also encouraging to see a really lively Joe Canning giving Cillian Buckley a torrid time on the forty, while Conor Cooney went to town in the closing stages. In short, Galway are going to take some stopping.
On the same day in Thurles, Tipperary looked into their souls and rescued a championship campaign which stood on the brink of disaster when they trailed Cork by nine points at half-time. The Rebels looked all over the winners with the likes of Seamus Harnedy, Shane Kingston and Daniel Kearney pickling off scores for sport.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.