Fintan O’Toole
JOE Canning last week lent his voice to the common chorus that surrounds Galway hurling. With the Tribesmen, there is a psychological barrier at senior level and to make progress it needs to be broken.
After another depressing conclusion to a championship season, when Galway crumbled in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Waterford, there is justification to Canning’s assertion.
This was the latest in a litany of inexplicable mid-summer defeats suffered by the county’s senior squad, a continuation of a terrible sequence where they generated optimism with competent performances before collapsing in a pressure-cooker atmosphere. Clearly there are mental issues that need to be addressed if a brittle squad is going to given some backbone.
But it’s equally clear this is a county blessed with excellent raw materials with which they can work. Four days after Canning mused on where it all went wrong for their seniors in 2011, the county’s U21 side provided Galway with a real fillip by toppling Limerick in Semple Stadium. Similar to their minor outfit against Clare in their All-Ireland semi-final recently, this was a very un-Galway like success.
They may as well have been playing in the Gaelic Grounds such was the vast chasm between the number of supporters each county had in attendance, yet they coped nonetheless. They saw wing-back Rory Foy sent-off in the finale, faced a Limerick attack that had shot the lights out against Cork and conceded two goals at key junctures. When each of those challenges were presented before them, Galway rose to meet them and never buckled under pressure.
Central to their performance were figures who can help solve key personnel issues that have afflicted the county senior side in recent seasons. Niall Donoghue was immense at full-back, safe under the dropping ball, tigerish in the tackle and brilliantly able to read a game. Barry Daly first came to this writer’s notice on a NUI Galway Fitzgibbon Cup team that delivered success in March 2010. Mobility, dynamism and assured point-taking were prominent facets of his game back then. They were to the fore again earlier this year as he helped Clarinbridge to All-Ireland club glory and surfaced again on Saturday night.
At centre-forward Niall Burke, the star of Galway’s All-Ireland minor success in 2009, was sensational. The Oranmore-Maree player has a lovely, languid style to his play and offers a real ball-winning option in the half-forward line. He is a comfortable striker of the ball off left and right, with distance or angle never obstructing his ability to land points on Saturday as he raised seven white flags. Both Donoghue and Daly have flirted with the Galway senior side this year. They must become mainstays next season and Burke should join them.
There is a natural wariness about attaching hope to Galway underage glory given the plethora of false dawns that have occurred previously. They have already collected five All-Ireland crowns between minor and U21 level over the past decade, and that impressive record could be embellished with two more titles over the next month. That steady stream of success has yet to deliver something tangible at senior level. But if any other county had the type of upcoming young players that Galway did, then there would have genuine optimism entering the 2012 season. It would be a shame then if Galway did not start capitalising on the resources at their disposal.
As for the losers last Saturday, when reviewing their plight there is an automatic tendency to file this latest defeat in the large folder of heartbreak files that Limerick hurling possesses. But this scenario is different. Limerick made real progress this year at U21 level, as evidenced by their victories of substance against Clare and Cork.
Graeme Mulcahy, Declan Hannon and Kevin Downes reinforced their status as senior hurlers. Shane Dowling is the latest polished gem to roll off the Árd Scoil Rís conveyor belt. Pat Begley has the size and ability to solve a senior full-back dilemma that exercised plenty minds in the county this year.
With only four of Limerick’s starting 15 last Saturday - Mulcahy, Begley, Conor Allis and James O’Brien - overage for next year, their future prospects in this grade is bright. And with a hurling tutor like Donal O’Grady in position, this batch of U21s are progressing into a senior setup where their talents can flourish and their game can develop.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/8kMLjiyv2I0/post.aspx
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