Forwards must deliver on judgement day in Thurles
JUDGEMENT day has arrived for the Galway senior hurling panel. On the eve of Race Week, the Galway hurlers face a do-or-die clash with Cork in Thurles on Sunday (4pm).
Win and they qualify for an All-Ireland semi-final and are Croke Park bound. Lose and the usual loose talk about the management in particular, and players, will dominate discussion between races at Ballybrit.
Since the arrival of the Qualifiers, it was ever thus. It’s a high-stakes, high-pressure game. Just the sort of game that hasn’t really suited Galway in the past decade, which is probably why Cork are slight favourites with the bookmakers (Cork are 5/6 with Mulholland’s, Galway are 6/5).
The general consensus is that there won’t be a puck of the ball between these two outfits, and they’re just siding with the Rebels because of the question marks over Galway’s big-match temperament.
The men in maroon have the ability to advance, but in the heat of battle, will they have the character and necessary bottle to back it up?
In fairness, since the depressingly familiar loss to Waterford in the league, they have, to an extent, answered those questions and Galway showed no shortage of spirit and battling qualities in the draw and replay win over Dublin and in defeat to Kilkenny.
Galway should have no reason to fear Cork either, having beaten them on their three most recent meetings in 2012, 2011 and 2009.
True, the Rebels ousted Clare from the championship, in the qualifiers, but the 2013 All-Ireland champions were no great shakes this season.
That win will have emboldened Cork, though, particularly since Clare were in a position to win it, until the Leesiders were bailed out by four points on the trot from Patrick Horgan, who is on fire this season.
Against Kilkenny three weeks ago, Galway produced a fairly decent performance that wasn’t rewarded with a result – the Leinster champions were simply too good.
On Sunday against Cork, manager Anthony Cunningham will settle for a result of any description . . . at this stage of the championship it’s all about winning.
Kilkenny were the better team that day, there’s no question but at least Galway mixed it with them, and there was a healthy attitude from the get-go and a ferocious work rate that is not always a quality found in abundance by men wearing maroon jerseys.
“The mood is very good,” said Cunningham mid-week. “It’s excellent; couldn’t be better really. It doesn’t get any bigger than this, there’s a place in the All-Ireland semi-final at stake so we’re looking forward to it. We’ve had a nice break, we’ve had three weeks to prepare and a round of club championship in between and that was good to refresh fellas as well. We’ve trained hard and worked hard and we’re really all set.
“When you look back on the Leinster final, if we tidied up a bit, we weren’t far off. There were a few small points in defence and a few small points in attack. It’s easy to pinpoint two or three scores we coughed up easily and two or three scores we should have taken, so there was very little in it. Definitely the intensity that the lads played at and the work-rate was good and it’s going to have to be at that level again on Sunday.”
For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.