Galway are straining at the Laois for quarter-final clash
After a year of uncertainty, Galway U-20 hurlers commence their Leinster championship with a quarter-final clash against Laois at Portlaoise this Friday (7.30pm).
Given this group of players missed out on an U-18 minor championship due to the transition of the grade to U-17 two years ago, Galway U-20 boss Jeffery Lynskey says he is delighted those players now get the chance to wear the maroon and white once more.
“It was important for them to get something,” says Lynskey. “The timing isn’t great, but I am grateful for the opportunity for the lads. Whatever about ourselves – and some of us might be thinking it’s not a great time of the year and it’s the middle of a pandemic – but let’s play the game and, hopefully, they’ll have a competition that they’ll enjoy.
“They have put the work in; a lot of them have been in the gym since this time last year preparing for this. So, they have gone a full 12 months looking to play this competition. Look, it is not ideal, but we are grateful for the game.”
By “timing”, Lynskey is not only referring to the circumstance cited above, but also the fact that many players are in the middle of third-level exams at present.
“So, we have to be mindful of that with them. You could be looking at a player and saying ‘what is up with him tonight’, but then you find out he has exams and he is on Zoom all day.
“So, he hasn’t been able to walk around and he might be stiff as a board. That happened to one or two of them the other night. So, you just have to weigh it up over the next few days.”
While Galway, as with every other team, go into this fixture without the benefit of a block of training behind them, Lynskey says it would be worse if the players didn’t have this opportunity. “They’ll look back on this in 20 years’ time and, at least, they can say we had an opportunity to play.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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