Galway back to the drawing board after latest big-day loss to Kilkenny

Galway 1-20

YOU wouldn’t know what to make of this erratic Galway effort. And no wonder the team’s supporters filed out of Croke Park deeply frustrated after watching a performance which simply wasn’t up to scratch in Sunday’s Leinster Senior Hurling Final.

Apart from a 10-minute spell in the second half when the match was to all intents and purposes over, Galway will reflect on their latest big-day provincial defeat – their fourth in six years – to Kilkenny with serious regrets from a mediocre decider which left the crowd of 37,503 feeling short changed.

There had been growing expectations behind the Tribesmen ahead of their latest battle against Kilkenny, but easily beating second-rate opposition over the past few weeks led us all a little astray. Kilkenny represented a step up in class and Micheál Donoghue’s squad struggled to cope.

Failing to score from play between the 23rd and 59th minutes was the biggest indictment of Galway’s display. At this level, that shouldn’t be happening and when they fell 13 points behind in the second-half, it sparked fears of a humiliating defeat.

To Galway’s credit, a Cathal Mannion-inspired rally bridged that gap to four points, but the men in maroon jerseys had left themselves far too much to do and Kilkenny were never going to allow the indignity of blowing such a commanding position.

Though an opportunist goal from Martin Keoghan had helped the Cats to lead by 1-9 to 0-8 after a relatively dull opening half, Galway were largely holding their own – a scenario which made their shocking 20 minutes after the break hard to fathom, specially as they were now backed by the wind.

Sure, Kilkenny upped the ante. Huw Lawlor was masterful at full-back; Mikey Carey stormed into the game on the right wing; Richie Reid was top class in his sweeper duties; Cian Kenny remained the best midfielder on view; while Billy Ryan, Keoghan and TJ Reid had the Galway backs in all kinds of trouble. Furthermore, the challengers never got to grips with Adrian Mullen’s deep-lying role.

But the ease in which Kilkenny stretched into a 2-19 to 0-12 lead after 58 minutes was alarming. Galway were in trouble all over the pitch and they were restricted to just four Mannion frees in that period while the champions assembled a goal and 10 points. It was a hard watch.

By that juncture, Galway had lost their goalkeeper Eanna Murphy to concussion, and it led to the undesirable scenario of their third-choice custodian Darragh Walsh being plucked from inter-county obscurity to make his competitive senior debut between the posts.

It was probably a case of Sod’s Law given that the build-up to the final locally was dominated by regular goalkeeper Darach Fahy’s retrospective one-match ban from their previous outing against Dublin and Galway’s unsuccessful attempts to lift his suspension.

To Murphy’s credit, he was doing fine on his recall and had made a fine save from Reid in the 33rd minute only for Keoghan to poke home the rebound. He sustained a knee to the head in that incident and was also the victim of a subsequent heavy challenge from John Donnelly.

Murphy’s departure, however, had nothing to do with Galway’s implosion in the third quarter. In fact, Walsh was also holding his end up until a bad error in stoppage time led directly to Kilkenny’s third goal, but the outcome was, by then, done and dusted.

Pictured: Galway goalkeeper Eanna Murphy is tackled by Stephen Donnelly of Kilkenny during the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship Final at Croke Park on Sunday. Photo: Ray McManus/Sportsfile