Cooney catches fire as Galway survive another battle

Laois 0-17

GALWAY’S defence of the National League title is coming under unexpected early strain. For the second time in eight days, they were forced to grind out a result against another of the competition’s minnows at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise on Saturday night.

Nobody anticipated that Galway would cut a swarth through the league after their delayed return to the training ground and all the post All-Ireland celebrations, but the level of difficulty they have endured in their opening two league fixtures underlines the changing dynamics the squad’s new-found status is bringing.

When you are All-Ireland champions, you are the team the rest want to bring down; the one that others want to test themselves against. On paper, at least, Laois and newly-promoted Antrim are the weakest outfits in Division 1B, but both relished and thrived in sharing the same battleground as Galway.

The hunters have now become the hunted and the Tribesmen have better get used to this new environment pretty quickly. They were on the rack against Antrim and coming up to half-time against Laois, the warning lights were again flashing as the feisty home challengers were asking serious questions of Galway.

Full coverage in this week's Connacht Tribune.