Galway hope to put down wounded Cats

WHO’S sorry now? Last year, the Galway County Board turned down the option of playing in this season’s Leinster SHC.

Had they accepted they would have had to win that provincial championship to qualify directly for an All-Ireland semi-final. It would have meant a maximum of three games, a chance to assess their strengths and weaknesses, all with the comfort of the back door route to the All-Ireland series.

However, despite the manager Conor Hayes' stated support for the proposal, the Tribesmen opted for the status quo. Having dismissed (unimpressively) the first-round challenge of Down, their second-chance option is gone.

They are straight into the white heat of serious championship warfare. The enemy tomorrow are All-Ireland champions Kilkenny, still bruised and sore after their defeat to Wexford. Galway skipper Ollie Canning is philosophical about the mission.

"It's a tough one but all the teams left in it at this stage are tough. Kilkenny had a tough game against Wexford and then a game against Dublin. The Wexford game will stand to them as they will have learned a lot about themselves. No disrespect to Down, who put up a good fight, but we'd have preferred a tougher test first time out."

Galway already have one title under their belts this season having defeated Waterford in a one-sided League final on May 9. Not that Canning is getting excited.

"Wining the League final was a great boost for us but that momentum has been broken. There's been a long layoff for us compared to other teams. The Munster championship started the week after the League final, Leinster a week after that, whereas we had seven weeks idle before the Down game. We were busy in our own championship at home when we played three or four weeks in a row. Then we came back to the county a few weeks ago and we played a few games between ourselves in training and that's been the height of it. You've got to deal with it as best you can."

Galway though are well equipped to cope with Kilkenny. Like all the top hurling counties, they've gone for pace in attack and defence. Diarmuid Cloonan has come in at full-back while, in Canning and Damien Joyce, Galway have two fliers in the corner-back positions a line which looked most impressive against Waterford in that NHL decider.

The Galway half-back line also came out well on top in that game, as did their midfield combination of Fergal Healy and Tony Óg Regan, but it was up front that the Tribesmen really impressed.

All bar one point (wing-back Derek Hardiman) of Galway's 2-15 total came from the six starters with the prolific Eugene Cloonan hitting 2-4 while all had their immediate markers in trouble with their pace, their movement, and (unusual this, for Galway) their accuracy.

"If we can work on getting the ball fast into them, that's the key. A lot of teams try and work on that. Kilkenny don't hang around in the middle of the field once they get the ball in hand it's straight into the forwards. You have to give them some sort of an advantage and if they're playing out in front early ball is the key."

That's the kind of direct (if uncharacteristic) hurling that won the League title for the Tribesmen, when they ran Waterford ragged. It's what will be needed again tomorrow in Thurles, if Galway are to finish off the wounded but very dangerous supercats.