More maroon heartache as Galway are blitzed by champions in second-half
THE wait goes on. The famine continues. The Galway senior hurlers are the bridesmaids once again. More maroon heartache at Croke Park.
Galway’s All-Ireland final record has grown to 20 defeats in 25 appearances, and the 27-year search for Liam McCarthy to arrive in Connacht rolls over to 28 next season.
Cue another winter of head-scratching, pondering the ‘what ifs’ and the ‘whys’ and the ‘maybes’.
In many ways the decisiveness of the beating Kilkenny inflicted on Galway should reduce the scope for agony in the soul-searching: The best team won; no arguments there.
But Sunday’s 1-18 to 1-22 defeat will still hurt for a long time to come, not least because the Tribesmen had engineered a winning position by half-time.
Anthony Cunningham’s charges were excellent in that opening half and led by only three points . . . it should have been more but he’d have settled for 0-14 to 1-8 beforehand.
Galway didn’t blow it or bottle it; it was more Kilkenny blew them asunder after the break, and bottled them up. And then the Galway scores dried up.
The reigning All-Ireland champions appeared rattled initially, struggling to keep pace with Galway’s intensity. But like all great teams, Kilkenny – fire-fighting early on all over the park – hung on in there. They are masters at limiting the damage when they are on the rack. And when they have teams on the rack, Kilkenny really know how to dole out punishment. They absorb the pressure, then pressurise you back twice as hard. They don’t ‘do’ mercy, either.
Kilkenny turned it into a street-fight after the break . . . and there are no better street-fighters than the Cats. They upped the physicality stakes by several notches after half-time, and packed out the defence, smothering Galway’s forwards, who, apart from the hard-working youngster Conor Whelan, struggled to make any impression in the second-half.
The good times just keep on rolling for Kilkenny, who claimed an eleventh All-Ireland title in 17 attempts during the Brian Cody era. That’s an unbelievable record.
The frighteningly depressing thing? There is no sign of them letting-up anytime soon.
This was the year Kilkenny were supposed to be on the wane; supposed to be weakened and in transition, with high profile retirements.
No King Henry Shefflin. No JJ Delaney. No Tommy Walsh. No Aidan Fogarty. No Brian Hogan. Not to mention the whole heap of injury concerns all year. And still they prevail.
Despite all Kilkenny’s successes, there’s no sense that their will to win is ever sated. Even when they claim victory, they’re still not satisfied.
Like fat-cat bankers greedy for bonuses, Kilkenny players new and old have an insatiable desire to keep on winning.
And as for Cody, there aren’t enough All-Irelands to go round to keep him happy . . . when will he stop?
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.