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.

In a county that was for so long dominated by two clubs, Sarsfields and Athenry, new blood, new talent, is badly needed.

“It’s great to see two new clubs in there,” says Hayes. “Loughrea are in their first final since 1951, haven’t won one since 1941, and Portumna have never won a final, and this certainly freshens things up.”

Ollie Canning and Damien Hayes are the two mainstays of Portumna, but the county manager, a former club All-Ireland-winner himself with Kiltormer, has been keeping tabs on others, including Niall Hayes, Damien’s brother, who was impressive a few weeks ago in the county semi-final.

Loughrea also have their potential senior county stars and Hayes says he is keeping an eye on.

Nigel Shaughnessy at centre-back and Greg Kennedy at full-back.”

On the likely winner, he says: “Portumna are probably more deserving, on their form over the last few years, they’ve come close a couple of times. They’re probably due one, but they won’t see it like that in Loughrea.”

*The senior final will be preceded by the Galway MHC decider between Castlebar and Craughwell at 12.30pm.