'It looked impossible': Galway captain Jack Glynn relishes All-Ireland final win

Ryan Monahan of Galway celebrates following the All-Ireland U20 Championship final match between Dublin and Galway at Croke Park in Dublin. Picture: Sam Barnes

Galway captain Jack Glynn said it was difficult to see any light ahead when a Covid cloud descended upon the group back in October.

Two months on, they’re All-Ireland U20 champions and Glynn said the county’s sixth title success at the grade is all the sweeter after going through such a difficult period.

The Connacht champions were without several key players for their semi-final against Kerry and feared they might even have to forfeit that game.

They eventually won it by five points and with all their main men back for the final against Dublin on Saturday won that one too with Glynn magnificent in shackling Dubs dangerman Ciaran Archer.

“It was hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel back in October,” said Glynn. “Different lads were coming down with [Covid] and you were afraid that everyone would get it at some stage, that we’d have to forfeit the game or we just wouldn’t have the lads to play. It looked impossible.”

The 1-11 to 0-13 final win was particularly satisfying too for those who had experienced minor final defeats in 2018 and 2019.

Tomo Culhane was a beaten minor finalist in 2019, despite scoring 0-10 against Cork, but top-scored with 1-6 on his return to Croke Park and finished on the winning side.

“A couple of lads had been here and lost All-Irelands so everyone’s focus was direct, lads had experienced pain here and didn’t want to feel it again,” said Glynn, who did superbly to hold reigning U20 Player of the Year Archer to just a single point.

“The lads in the middle of the field made my job easier because they put on serious pressure on the lads kicking in the balls. When it’s coming in as a 50-50 ball then the back should always win it. I just was lucky enough to be able to do that.”

Another tactic that worked well for Galway was pressing up hard on Dublin’s kick-outs though, like Mayo in the senior game, the westerners appeared to run out of gas in the second-half.

Dublin outscored Mayo by 0-6 to 0-1 in the final 20 minutes or so of the senior final and the U20s similarly outscored Galway by 0-5 to 0-1 in the closing 15 minutes of their game though, crucially, came up just short.

“That was our tactic in fairness, we wanted to put them under pressure to see what they could do,” said Glynn. “During the first-half especially we really did that job well. The second-half the lads got a bit tired and as you saw they got ball and were able to work it up through the field.

“Dublin are very good at building from the back and once they get running through as they did a couple of times they brought the game to us. We were lucky to get over the line in the end.”

Galway led 0-8 to 0-5 at half-time and Culhane’s 37th-minute goal, set up by Galway senior Matthew Tierney, left six points in it. Dublin improved from there on and got key forwards like Mark Lavin and Lorcan O’Dell into the game more, the duo scoring 0-5 between them.

Dublin got the deficit down to a single point on two occasions late on but Tierney’s 59th minute Galway point from a free ultimately proved to be the winner.

It’s back-to-back final defeats now for Dublin with Archer and Brian O’Leary also lining out in last year’s decider loss to Cork.

“It’s hard, there’s no point saying it’s not,” acknowledged Dublin manager Tom Gray. “But there’s lots of evidence to suggest that players who suffer disappointment at this stage in their careers, their teenage years, tend to be bigger performers when they get older. Hopefully, we get that kick out of it but in terms of losing two finals, yeah, it’s a huge disappointment.”

Galway manager Donal Ó Fatharta said it was a memorable win for all kinds of reasons. The victory fell on his 11th wedding anniversary to wife Alva for starters.

“She allows me to do this in fairness”, said Ó Fatharta who was also in charge of Galway’s successive minor losses against Kerry and Cork in the last two years.

“I’m delighted for those games who were involved last year and that the management team are all the same, they made that decision to keep going and they stepped it up again which wasn’t easy with the way things worked out last year.”

Conor Flaherty kept a clean sheet in goals for Galway, a feat that was all the more impressive given he started and scored as an outfield player for the county’s U20 hurlers against Kilkenny the previous evening.

“We met him on Saturday morning bright and early and all he wanted was a rub, that was the only request he had so he was fine,” said Ó Fatharta.

“He’s a great ‘keeper, great under pressure and that’s why he’s centre-back for the hurlers I’d imagine, he’s a cool customer that way. He’s a great bit of stuff.”

Galway scorers: T Culhane (1-6, 3 frees, 1 mark); M Tierney (0-4, 1 mark, 1 free); M Cooley (0-1).

Dublin scorers: M Lavin (0-4, 1 free); B O’Leary, L O’Dell, A Fearon (0-2 each); C Archer, L Swan, L Gannon (0-1 each).

GALWAY: C Flaherty; J McGrath, S Fitzgerald, J Glynn; C Monahan, T Gill, C Sweeney; C Raftery, C Hernon; P Kelly, M Tierney, R Monahan; P Kelly, T Culhane, M Cooley.

Subs: J Kirrane for Sweeney (18); A Greene for Hernon (34); E Mannion for Cooley (46); D Cox for Paul Kelly (53); W Seoige for Culhane (61).

DUBLIN: J O’Neill; C Tyrrell, A Rafter, J Bannon; R Dwyer, A Waddick, L Gannon; A Fearon, M O’Leary; M Lavin, L O’Dell, S Lowry; C Archer, L Swan, B O’Leary.

Subs: K McKeon for Lowry (46); P Purcell for Fearon (64).

Referee: P Faloon (Down).