Seán Linnane and Cianan Fahy coming of age for Galway
COMING OF AGE: Galway’s Seán Linnane and Noel McGrath of Tipperary. Pic Credit ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
The All-Ireland quarter-final was six minutes old. Seán Linnane stopped Noel McGrath’s advance, snapped up possession, and was fouled by both McGrath and Conor Stakelum as he attempted to storm out.
The Galway midfielder leapt with delight and venom after the double win of turnover and free. He did a second such leap at the final whistle.
After a late and long Tipperary free was launched into the opposition danger area, it was Linnane who ferried possession to safety and the Tribesmen into a semi-final. The subsequent release of emotion spoke as much to the road travelled as the triumph just realised.
Anthony Daly was on co-commentary duty for RTÉ at the Gaelic Grounds. There were a couple of minutes still to run in the quarter-final when Dalo declared that Galway centre-forward Cianan Fahy had “come of age today”.
He was spot on in what he said but could also have extended the same verdict to Linnane.
The pair were unlikely standouts. The pair were unlikely starters. The pair are now key pawns in Galway’s bid to out-manoeuvre the All-Ireland champions this Saturday.
The county’s Leinster campaign was six games long. Linnane didn’t start any of the six. He didn’t feature at all in half of them. Fahy started only two of the six, injury sidelining him for the Leinster final defeat.
Their unexpected promotion to the starting team for the quarter-final they seized.
Of Fahy’s 12 possessions, he hit two points, provided the final pass for two more, was fouled for a converted free, and intercepted a Michael Breen pass to Ronan Maher that ended in a Conor Whelan point. That’s six white flags that contained his fingerprints.
“He’s hurling with confidence,” Dalo remarked in his praise of the Ardrahan clubman. “Sometimes I’ve watched him, and you know the potential is there. As a puckout target for [Éanna] Murphy, must be a dream to have him out there.”
In this Fahy’s second season with Galway and in what was his 10th championship start, Cyril Farrell said his Tipp display was the “first big championship game where he won his position”.
For Linnane, the quarter-final represented his first championship start since the 2021 qualifier defeat to Waterford. That was a miserable afternoon for more than just the county’s exit, Linnane rupturing his cruciate half an hour in.
Linnane turned 27 earlier this year. The nephew of Sylvie was one of eight players drafted into the panel ahead of the 2018 season.
His championship debut was two minutes at the end of the round-robin win over Wexford that June. It was his sole championship involvement in 2018. Across his first four seasons, there were six championship appearances off the bench and only one start, that the aforementioned 2021 outing where he ruptured his ACL.
Against that backdrop, his Tipperary performance was a very belated arrival on the inter-county stage.
His man-marking job on Noel McGrath saw the three-time All-Star called ashore on 53 minutes. He also found time to assist for Daithí Burke and Fahy points.
Galway’s 2012 All-Ireland final captain Fergal Moore is a Turloughmore clubmate of his. Moore had been waiting for some time to see Linnane assert himself to the extent he did the weekend before last.
“Injuries hampered his development into the Galway set-up. From his late teens into his early 20s, he was bothered by a hip injury that took a while to get over. Then he had his cruciate injury when he was staking a claim for a starting place,” Moore explained.
“His talent has been known for a long time. It was just getting a good run at it. He is getting a great run without injury now. I met him recently.
"Physically, he is in unbelievable shape. Mentally, he is in a great place too, really enjoying it. He is coming into his prime and is only going to get better.”
In his Connacht Tribune column last week, former Galway manager John McIntyre wrote that Linnane’s “sheer force of will gives the team a different dimension around midfield”.
If Cian Lynch is returned to the Limerick line-up, Linnane could be the ideal fit to follow and foil his old Mary I Fitzgibbon colleague.
“He'll do anything for the team and is fit enough to carry out any instructions they ask of him. A fella like that, you can play him anywhere and give him any job,” Moore continued.
Fahy is two years Linnane’s junior. A first repayment on the faith shown in him by Shefflin was made last Saturday week.
The centre-forward’s job against Limerick will be to plant doubt in the mind of whatever player is asked to fill Declan Hannon’s vacant boots. Expect goalkeeper Éanna Murphy to target him early and often.
Linnane and Fahy don’t hold the status of the class of 2017. They wouldn’t even be on the same rung of the ladder as the players who’ve come in subsequent to 2017 and established themselves, the likes of Darren Morrissey, Brian Concannon, and Evan Niland. But their importance within the Galway dressing-room is growing.
If Tipperary was their coming of age fixture, then Limerick must be the game where they cement the growing view that this is where they belong.
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