Collins is the hero of latest final victory over Kilkenny

Kilkenny 1-14

SATURDAY evening’s pulsating and breathtaking spectacle in Portlaoise merits automatic inclusion in the pantheon of great All-Ireland minor hurling finals.

For the long-delayed 2020 decider provided riveting viewing for the Covid restricted crowd of 500 as an epic contest was only decisively tilted the young Tribes boys’ way in the third minute of injury time.

Ultimately, the hero of the hour was Liam Collins whose instinctive flick to the net from substitute Darren Shaughnessy’s pass propelled Galway to a record-breaking fourth consecutive All-Ireland minor title.

This magnificent achievement is given added substance by the fact that the vast majority of players in action at O’Moore Park were more representative of when the minor grade was U18 up to 2017. That scenario may be a legacy of the fixture disruption caused by the pandemic, but it also underlines the folly of the GAA’s unnecessary tampering with the under-age grades.

It had been short odds against a nerve-racking climax to Saturday’s showdown when Galway stormed into a seven-point lead with Kilkenny remarkably failing to register a single score in the opening quarter. It was all one-way traffic, and the Cats were in danger of being overwhelmed.

But it’s not in the DNA of Kilkenny teams to roll over and, gradually, they began to compete on more level terms. Indeed, such was the transformation in their fortunes, Richie Mulrooney’s charges managed to twice edge in front down the home stretch.

With the wind and momentum behind them, Kilkenny stood on the cusp of a memorable triumph and, in the process, avoiding a third successive final defeat to the Westerners at this level, but they hadn’t reckoned on Galway’s admirable composure and resilience in those dramatic closing moments.

In capturing the Irish Press Cup for the fifth time in six years, Galway have become firmly established as the standard bearers in the minor arena and have now amassed 14 All-Ireland titles in total – an exceptional achievement given the county’s first only arrived in 1983.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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