Galway U20 hurling manager Gavin Keary expecting big challenge from Kilkenny
Galway senior hurling star Aaron Niland missed his side’s win over Wexford with a knock in the Leinster U-20 semi-final on Wednesday night after the star was ruled out with a minor injury.
“We spoke during the week with Micheal [Donoghue] and his physio team. We had a plan, we were probably hoping he was going to make it. The risk was just slightly too high, we had to accept the decision. Hopefully, he will be ready for Dublin on Saturday,” said Gavin Keary.
In his first year in charge of the Galway U20 hurlers, manager Gavin Keary was pleased with his side’s composure to force extra time when it looked like things were going against his side. Ciaran Leen showed composure to convert a late 65 deep into injury time and force extra time.
“Just so happy with the composure that we brought it back, Ciaran stood over a tough 65 after the Wexford defender got a block on the shorter free, this is what these guys train for, they’re the best players in their clubs, there’s reason they are so when they come representing Galway we trust them."
Gavin Keary’s side produced arguably their most impressive spell of hurling in extra time, outscoring their opponents by 2-7 to 0-3. Goals in extra time from Brian Callanan and Ronan Cahalan secured victory for the Tribesmen and earned them a first Leinster U20 final appearance since 2021.
“There were positives, I could feel the lads were a little bit frustrated with themselves. I think if you get a little bit too negative in them scenarios it can go against you, we decided that we would park it and move on and target the next 20 minutes and put our best foot forward and see where it takes us and thankfully we did.”
The winners made full advantage of the breeze in the first half of extra time.
“I think our composure, we probably chased the scoreboard a little bit with the wind and just lost our way a small bit. I think when we won the toss and opted to play with the wind in extra time, we played the game a little bit different this time with the wind and that prevailed as a positive for us,” added Keary.
Keary is expecting a massive challenge next week against Kilkenny in the Leinster U-20 hurling final on Wednesday evening at 7:35pm in O’Moore Park, Portlaoise.
“It’s all these lads work, we got together a few months ago with them and we were just blown away by their behaviour, attitude and application. It’s a credit to work with them and we know there is bigger challenges coming, it’s ourselves and Kilkenny, we had a titanic battle in the group match,”