Outsiders Galway primed for mighty tilt at the champions
THEY’VE faced – and overcome – adversity throughout this season, but the greatest challenge of all awaits the Galway minor footballers at Croke Park on Sunday (1pm) when they take on reigning champions Kerry in the All-Ireland final.
Trying to dethrone the Kingdom is a daunting test and even more so when the opposition is gunning for a record fifth title in succession. The minor championship is different this year, contested by younger players (U17) for the first time and with a round-robin introduced in Connacht, but what is eerily familiar is the ease with which Kerry qualified for the decider.
True, they got a scare late on against Monaghan in the All-Ireland semi-final, conceding 2-2 without reply in a quarter of an hour, leaving the Ulster champions a point up in injury time.
Possibly Kerry had switched off, having led by 8-2 early-on, by 10-6 at half-time, and by nine points (1-12 to 0-6) with 25 minutes to go. And certainly, the second-half red card to wing-back Conor Flannery, gave momentum to Monaghan.
What was pleasing from a Kerry perspective, however, was that they weathered the storm, and found the resolve in injury-time to turn it around and win by two. To concede a nine-points lead tells us Kerry are not invincible but to bounce back after going one behind shows us they’ve got a backbone, too.
They blazed a trail through Munster, trouncing Clare in the final (3-21 to 0-7), having already overcome arch-rivals Cork by just a point (1-11 to 1-10) and Tipperary (1-15 to 0-4); and they comfortably got over Roscommon in the quarter-final (2-16 to 2-7).
Kerry looked home and hosed in that key clash with Cork, but the Rebels bagged an injury-time goal to equalise. The game was heading for two 10-minute periods of extra-time when Kerry – like they did against Monaghan – pulled a rabbit out of the hat and clinched a late winner through substitute Jack O’Connor. Again, that underlined Kerry’s resilience but there’s an important message there for Galway, too: keep playing to the end because they’re vulnerable to surrendering leads.
The Tribesmen have had to dig deep into their reserves of courage on several occasions during this campaign already, most notably when they conceded seven points to no score against Clare in the All-Ireland quarter-final (a team Kerry trounced); and again, when they trailed Meath by five points in the second-half in the semi-final at Croke Park three weeks ago. Twice Galway bounced back and won by seven, revealin
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