Galway U20 hurling manager Gavin Keary takes big-day loss on chin
GAVIN KEARY wasn’t interested in making any excuses in the aftermath of Galway’s defeat to Clare in the All-Ireland U-20 hurling final on Sunday in Thurles.
Injuries played their part in Galway’s year throughout the U-20 campaign. Senior star Aaron Niland was only fit enough to make an appearance off the bench in the second half last Sunday. Cullen Killeen was also forced off with an injury in the second half, while Sean Murphy also missed Sunday’s clash with a shoulder injury.
“I’m not going to stand here and make excuses for that, we were delighted that some of our lads were called into a Galway senior squad. Please god, they will be representing us next weekend in Croke Park, so it was next boy up and that was the way we spoke about it,” said Keary.
“Our aim at the start of the year was to win Leinster and we got there but obviously when you win that you want to achieve a little bit more. There was just a good gap between the two teams today and we have to look at that and see where we can improve. That’s our job, we’ll take a hard look at ourselves as well as coaches and management and say where we can improve. Hopefully we’ll help the lads in the future.
“Cullen (Killeen) got a small nick during the week, we found that he was comfortable to go. He got real tight at half time. Cullen is an intelligent guy, he just said I’m a bit worried about here. He got another five minutes and that was it, that’s just the luck, he had an awful lot of matches and stuff, the load probably just caught him a small bit up to the end.”
Goals proved crucial in Clare’s ten point win over Galway, as green flags from Thomas O’Connor and Jamie Moylan gave the Banner county a 2-8 to 0-9 lead at the break. Clare took complete control in the opening stages of the second half. Within eight minutes of the restart, goals from Marco Cleary and O’Connor stretched their lead to 4-10 to 0-9.
To their credit, Galway continued to battle and were rewarded when Brian Callanan and Jason Rabbitte found the net to narrow the deficit. Niland also made a positive contribution following his return from injury.
“Disappointing result, no doubt about it, I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Clare. They are absolutely outstanding, they hit the ground running and we struggled to get to the pitch of it. I’m not going to stand here and say to our lads that we didn’t perform or whatever, they’ve given us a fabulous year.
“They're a great bunch of young lads, our intention wasn’t to go out and play like that, it’s just the way it happened. An elite sport like this, when you've a team like Clare and they go out and hit the ground running at that speed, hitting and tackling you and working off the ball like that, it became a difficult afternoon.
“I just felt our lads started trying really hard and the harder we were trying the mistakes were following. Then our hurling became a little bit slower, it’s difficult to watch. That’s not them but I have to be proud of them, nine days ago we were after winning Leinster and we were over the moon.
“Maybe we were just a bit tired but I have to say, I'm hugely proud of those boys, they are a credit to themselves, their families and their clubs. Hopefully, they’ll have better days in a Galway jersey," concluded Keary.