Portumna, Loughrea under Hayes scrutiny

EVEN though he’s from neither of the participating clubs, one man with as much interest as anyone in tomorrow’s novel Galway SHC final between Portumna and Loughrea is Conor Hayes.

Throughout this year’s League and Championship campaigns, only one player from either of the two clubs, Ollie Canning from Portumna, featured as a regular on the Galway team.

Damien Hayes did play at corner-forward in both of Galway’s All-Ireland qualifier games, while Loughrea’s Brian Mahony got a game in the League, but apart from those, only Eoin Lynch, Aidan O’Donnell and Eugene McEntee even made it onto the list, and that in League games.