Out of depth hurlers get terrible hiding from Cats

Kilkenny 3-26Galway 0-10

STEPHEN GLENNON AT NOWLAN PARK

GALWAY senior hurlers are staring relegation from Division 1A of the National League straight in the face after they received an unmerciful 25-point walloping at the hands of All-Ireland champions Kilkenny at Nowlan Park on Sunday.

As a result, the Tribesmen have been thrown into a relegation dogfight against Dublin – a side they, admittedly, have already defeated in the first round of the National League but, worryingly, were soundly beaten by in the Leinster Championship in 2011.

It has been a long time since those dark days when Galway hurling plied its trade in the second tier of the National League – one Galway pundit believed it to be the early 1970s – but as GAA historians clamour for the annals, the fact remains that such a drop would be detrimental to the game in the county.

One has only to take a look at the likes of Clare, Offaly and Wexford – three counties who have won All-Ireland titles in the last 15 years or so – to see the damning repercussions of being made to slog it out in a lower division. Simply, you don’t challenge for – never mind win – All-Ireland titles when starting from such a low base.

As for Galway, there was a lot of doom and gloom among the loyal band of travelling supporters leaving Nowlan Park . . . but where there was overwhelming anger vented towards the players and management following the defeats to Dublin and Waterford in the Leinster and All-Ireland championships respectively last Summer, on this occasion the emotions bled between resignation and frustration. It was hard not to sympathise with those sentiments.

In truth, though, the Galway players have taken some amount of stick over the past number of years. Watching them trudge one by one from the dressing-room, heads bowed sullenly, after this latest mis-match, its serves no purpose to beat them with a stick that many of them have been scourged with time and again.

The Galway hurlers and management are aware of their deficiencies and shortcomings – lack of aerial power, failure to win primary possession and so on – and a diatribe here would be just rehashing sentiments expressed far too often in match reports in recent times. You could just copy and paste.

Still, Galway must now look within themselves and find a performance of note against Dublin on the second weekend of April if they are to avoid the ignominy of a drop to Division 1B, which, call it what you will, is Division 2 hurling.

However, for that grain of hope, they will not be looking towards this contest. By half-time, they trailed 3-12 to 0-6, after Matthew Ruth (4 mins.), man of the match TJ Reid (13 mins.) and Eoin Larkin (30 mins.) banged in goals in the opening half hour of the contest to give the Cats an unassailable lead.

It didn’t help that the majority of Kilkenny’s first half scores came from basic Galway mistakes – schoolboy errors they are called – with too often the Tribesmen defence caught fumbling ball underneath their feet when it should have been driven 60 or 70 yards down the field. Two examples were Kilkenny’s second and third goals when Galway full-back David Collins, uncharacteristically, coughed up possession very cheaply.

And yet, when it came to making changes, the management team of Anthony Cunningham, Tom Helebert and Mattie Kenny chose to withdraw their three full-forwards, one after the other, in the opening 29 minutes.

Corner forward James Regan must have been scratching his head as he walked towards the line on 23 minutes, given he saw limited ball and whatever deliveries he did receive was of a far inferior quality than the possession being hammered into the Kilkenny forwards. It was food and drink for the likes of Kilkenny defenders Paul Murphy, JJ Delaney and co.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.