Ó Fátharta’s gallant squad overhauled by brilliant Kerry boys in minor final turnaround

Galway 1-14

IT’S difficult to pinpoint when exactly this All-Ireland minor football final was lost by Galway but you could argue it was seven months ago and not the first Sunday of September.

Back in February, a bombshell was dropped on dual county players who were told to pick football or hurling. Seven lads, who had played underage football since U14 with this group of players, chose the latter, including four who would probably have featured in Galway’s starting XV, on the biggest stage, on the biggest day of the GAA calendar.

Take seven players – including four starters – out of any squad, and they’d struggle to compete. In that context, Galway’s feat this year of A) reaching an All-Ireland final and B) seriously putting it up to Kerry in the final must be admired and applauded.

But it shouldn’t have come to this, and the reality is Galway GAA had enough talent this year to win the double All-Ireland minor hurling and football titles and didn’t use that talent optimally. That’s the reality – this was an opportunity squandered by off-field politics.

The 16-and-17-year-olds, who were forced to pick one sport over the other, are innocent victims. Where was the County Board in all of this? And are Galway’s football clubs going to flex their muscles or will they lie-down and take their beating and allow this scenario to develop again with next year’s minor footballers and hurlers?

That’s the backdrop. As for the game itself, Galway could have won it, and there’s an argument to be made that they left it behind them, but that blunt analysis is a tad disrespectful to the winners: Kerry, in fairness, were pretty awesome when they needed to be and deservedly carried the day, although the four-points margin of victory was perhaps flattering.

The Tribesmen certainly created enough chances, and they really put it up to five-in-a-row chasing Kerry, but ultimately, they were beaten by a better team, who had a handful of outstanding displays from key performers Paul O’Shea, Paul Walsh, Darragh Rahilly, and Killian Falvey. That quartet stood-up in the second-half and, along with sub Ruaidhrí Ó Beaglaoích, powered Kerry to victory, their 30th consecutive championship win at minor.

The Connacht champions will have regrets, not least the bucketload of missed opportunities. How different would the complexion of the game have been had Eoghan Tinney’s fisted effort at goal, midway through the first-half, gone in? Marc Kelliher between the posts for Kerry knew nothing of it, and by chance kept it out. Or what if wing-back Cathal Sweeney’s goal-bound effort just before half-time wasn’t well saved by Kelliher?

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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