Loughrea will stick to new values having 'cleansed stigma' of past performances

The Galway side face Ballygunner on Sunday.

TWO TRIBES: Pauric Mahony (Ballygunner) and Shane O’Brien (Loughrea). Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Something of a cruel irony in how Loughrea’s final countdown has been marred by a red card.

If the calendar read 2006, and not 2026, you’d say, fair enough, no surprise there. But this current Loughrea crowd were supposed to be of changed spots. Parallels were not meant to exist. Roughhousing and naked aggression was not their brand.

Eddie McMahon missed Loughrea’s 2006 county final appearance because of a semi-final red card for wild pulling. Nigel Shaughnessy missed Loughrea’s 2009 county final appearance because of a semi-final red card for wild pulling. A pattern consistent of its time.

But here we are again, two decades later, with another Loughrea semi-final straight red for another incident of inappropriate hurley use.

It is correct to chalk down Cullen Killeen’s “poke” at Brendan Rogers as an isolated moment of ill-discipline from a 19-year-old teenager. But would it be correct to identify the act as a throwback to less tasteful Loughrea carry-on?

Loughrea manager Tommy Kelly, following the 2024 Galway final win, brought unpromoted into the post-match conversation those less tasteful times.

“We've only ever won two [county titles],” he began. “In 1941, we beat the army. We beat Portumna in 2006 and let's call a spade a spade, we got an awful lot of stick for that, for winning the county final. They're still talking about it 18 years later.” 

The 2006 Galway hurling final, for the unfamiliar, was unsavoury, ill-tempered, and downright dangerous in moments.

Portumna had beaten Loughrea in two of the three previous deciders. Loughrea’s approach to reversing the trend left a sour taste.

“That county final, I got walked on my face,” Joe Canning said in his 2023 Laochra Gael episode. “You look back on it now and you go, ‘Jeez, did that actually happen?’ Yeah, it did. The pictures were there to see.” 

Connacht Tribune sports editor John McIntyre covered that Loughrea team. He’ll be in Croke Park tomorrow to continue covering the current group.

His take is that the club’s back-to-back Galway final wins of the past two years, and the style in which they were won, have cleansed Loughrea of the stigma that had lingered from 2006.

“The 2006 final left a legacy. Their victory was tarnished by the incident with Joe Canning,” McIntyre remarked this week.

“They carried the blame of that for a long time. While people outside the club moved on, those within it, and Tommy [Kelly] would have been involved in the Loughrea squad at the time, obviously they felt as a club that they had to cleanse themselves in a way, to prove something to themselves, rather than to the outside public, that we are not like that, that is not what we stand for, we have different ideals and different principles now.” 

Sunday is Loughrea’s second All-Ireland club hurling final appearance. Conversations about and comparisons to the 2007 team beaten by Ballyhale were inevitable. How that Loughrea team was perceived and how they perceived themselves still attracts debate almost 20 years later.

John Dooley, half-back on the mid-noughties side, quipped on The Maroon and White podcast before the Slaughtneil semi-final victory that his team “were only a shower of mullockers” when set beside the present group.

Old teammate Nigel Shaughnessy never agreed with their reputation as a dirty side.

“I wouldn’t say those teams I played on were dirty, but we were very, very physical. A lot of teams might have two or three lads who play on the edge — we probably had about 10 lads who played on the edge,” Shaughnessy told the Sunday Times last month.

McIntrye trained Loughrea in 1998. They asked him back for the concluding stages of the 2007 county championship. Their title defence ended with a quarter-final defeat to Athenry that saw 10 yellow cards doled out. The 2005 semi-final, against the same opposition, included a free-for-all in front of the dugout area. There was Johnny Maher’s two-month suspension for striking two St Thomas’ players at the end of the 2012 county final.

The collection of incidents fed into their repute. This was their public identity.

“You can give a dog a bad name and it sticks,” McIntrye continued.

“They had a couple of players who weren't angels, but they also had some fine players. I would also say they maybe felt they were unfairly demonised over the 2006 final, that maybe it went on for too long.” 

All are in agreement on the crux question. The current crop and how they go about their business inside the four white lines have stylishly painted a new Loughrea image. They have delivered a new reputation, a new identity.

Brian Mahony, another member of the mid-noughties team, told Galway Bay FM this week that the second half of their December 21 All-Ireland semi-final win more resembled “summer hurling”.

“This is a different team, playing a different style of hurling, tailored to the modern game. They're very pleasing on the eye,” McIntyre surmised.

“They have Jamie Ryan up front, Martin McManus, Anthony Burns, the Killeen's, the Morgan's; talented and classy stickmen.

“I do believe Loughrea have really left the past behind. This is a new team, forging its own tradition, and they have a right chance of upsetting the odds on Sunday.” 

Another irony to finish. The unashamed in-your-face approach of their neighbours, St Thomas’, unnerved and unseated Ballygunner in the 2023 All-Ireland semi-final. McIntyre doesn’t foresee any Loughrea throwback or any similar physical cut being taken.

“Loughrea will stick to the values that have got them this far.”