Galway produce champion show in licking the Cats

Kilkenny 2-11

THERE were widespread expectations of a titanic battle on Sunday’s landmark occasion for the Leinster hurling championship at Pearse Stadium, but a few of us thought different and believed Galway had the capacity to ‘do a number’ on Kilkenny . . . and that is exactly what transpired.

The All-Ireland champions were simply too good for a Kilkenny team whose struggles were starkly illustrated by only registering a measly 1-2 from play. Brian Cody’s squad were overpowered in most sectors of the field with a lot of their new players who had flourished during a triumphant league campaign being exposed.

Frankly, the Cats were fortunate to escape with just an eight-point beating and it would have been significantly more only for Walter Walsh’s close-range strike in the dying embers of a match which rarely ignited. A largely dominant Galway were also somewhat careless in leaving the Noresiders hanging on for so long, but this was still a huge statement of intent by the men in maroon for the rest of the summer.

Kilkenny have scourged the Tribesmen since they headed east in 2009, but the manner in which the counties’ latest championship collision evolved confirmed a changing of the guard in the sport’s pecking order. Galway showed why they are All-Ireland champions, while also leaving the impression that they have more in them. They are undoubtedly the team to beat again in 2018.

Galway may have struggled in the league, notwithstanding the toll of the post All-Ireland celebrations, but they are now hitting form at just the right time. The sheer physicality of Micheál Donoghue’s charges is difficult to counteract and they gradually ground Kilkenny into submission in Salthill in front of a crowd which appeared bigger than the official ‘gate’ of 18,775.

Full report in this week's Connacht Tribune