Outcome is clouded in doubt but Galway have more forward aces

IN this strangest of sporting years, you’d nearly forget that Wexford are the reigning Leinster hurling champions and that they had virtually Tipperary beaten in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final only for the contest to undergo an ironic dramatic late shift in supremacy after Liam Sheedy’s men were reduced to 14 players.

There is also the local perception out there that Galway nearly always beat Wexford in the big matches, but that didn’t happen in 2019 when the teams fought out a draw in the round-robin series of the provincial championship at Pearse Stadium. It proved a costly result for the Tribesmen who subsequently fell to Dublin at Parnell Park.

That proved an emotional evening for the Galway camp, especially when news filtered through that Wexford and Kilkenny had drawn their round-robin tie – a scenario which saw the Westerners make their earliest exit from the championship since the early sixties and also set in train a serious of events which led to the departure of Micheál Donoghue from the manager’s role.

And after Donoghue’s shock resignation just two years after guiding the county to a long-awaited All-Ireland title, there was a lot of public bloodletting as relations continued to be strained between GAA officials and the Galway set up. The process to find Donoghue’s successor wasn’t simple either – no candidates turned up for interview on one occasion – before Galway turned to former Limerick player Shane O’Neill to end a messy affair.

The early stages of last spring’s National League didn’t go great for Galway, but there were significant signs of stability emerging following home wins over Cork and Tipperary. However, just when the team was building up momentum in early March, the coronavirus struck and we haven’t seen them in public since.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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