Putting square pegs in round holes
They weren’t thinking of the Galway supporters anyway, that’s for sure. I know Galway is in Connacht, I know this is still the Leinster championship, I know Galway asked for inclusion in that championship, but was that a fair choice of venue, or of time?
Whatever Galway supporters travelled to Kilkenny didn’t get home ‘til all hours – that’s not right. I’m just not in favour of evening championship games anyway, especially where there’s a lot of travel involved for any of the teams involved, but surely this could have been brought to Portlaoise, about halfway, or why not just toss for venue, and really maximise the crowd? Anyway, Galway got the raw deal on this occasion, but still they managed to get the right result.
Taking Wexford first – why do team management feel they have to do something different, something that goes completely against the grain? You see it at every level, but at senior inter-county it’s unforgivable. Regardless of how you rate him, Stephen Banville is nothing but a central player, a bustling, ball-breaking full-forward off whom you’d play a couple of alert corner-forwards. What was he doing at corner-forward on Saturday night? How do you play off a big man from the corner, especially when there’s little or no ball going into him? At full-forward then you had Michael Jacob, a foot shorter and about ten stone lighter – Shane Kavanagh was surely breathing a sigh of relief. Shifted to wing-forward was Peter Atkinson, another small guy, eaten alive by man-of-the-match David Collins, Wexford deciding for some reason or another that they might profit from putting puckouts up that wing in the first half. Ludicrous decisions, made – you’d have to think – simply for their own sake, no logic to them, and it cost Wexford.
Wexford started very well, were holding Galway in the first half, their half-back line of Richie Kehoe, Darren Stamp and Malachi Travers well on top, with Keith Rossiter doing a good job on Joe Canning inside. The loss of Travers and the subsequent blossoming of Damien Hayes, upset that balance. Nevertheless Wexford were still well in it coming up to the break, when they conceded their first goal. It was a bad mistake by Diarmuid Lyng to try that short free, intercepted by Donal Barry, but I thought Rossiter was unlucky to be called for the foul on Joe Canning. A 20m free in front of the goals, Joe was always going to go for it.
That put Galway in a great position at the break, put Wexford under pressure they didn’t need, but it wasn’t the goal that finished them. Kevin Hynes’ goal was the killer, and it was down to poor defending and poor goal-keeping, nothing else, though Wexford can count themselves unlucky as well to have been denied a goal at a crucial stage by a brilliant save from Galway keeper Colm Callanan. Surely – and I know it’s early – save of the season, but surely also, Colm has to be in the running now for an All Star, given his superb displays in the league also. A very cool keeper, not flashy, he has solved what was often a problem position for Galway.
Wexford are now in the qualifiers, but they will need a lot of improvement if they’re to make any impression there. Too many players didn’t make any impression, and some of the striking left a lot to be desired.
What of Galway? They were in a no-win situation coming into this, hot favourites, everything to lose, but they did what they had to do. Nevertheless, they too still have a lot of work to do, and no one knows this better than John McIntyre and his management team. They got several outstanding individual performances, most notably from the half-back line of Donal Barry, Tony Óg Regan and the magnificent David Collins, with full-back Shane Kavanagh also impressing; midfield was also strong, Ger Farragher and David Burke gelling well, while Damien Hayes was the pick of the forwards, Joe Canning well marshalled. They finished with 1-12 from placed balls, 1-10 from play – they’ll need better than that against better quality more disciplined opposition.
A word on the cards; looking at it a few times on the video, I felt John Sexton had no option but to send off the two guys who got straight reds. I’m sure, though, we’ll see better games than this.
