Novel final full of promise for eager Tribesmen

LEINSTER SHC FINAL GALWAY'S INFLUENCE: Keith Dugganon how John McIntyre's team are benefiting from the new arrangements and will relish the chance to take on famed Kilkenny

THE THORNY matter of Galway’s placement in the Leinster hurling championship looks to have been settled by events of the past month. It was probably inevitable that Offaly, the county with most to fear – and whose representatives protested most strenuously – would provide the very opposition against whom the advantages of having the Galway men as summer guests of the Leinster Council became obvious.

In the furious denouement of their semi-final replay against Offaly, it seemed that none of the crowd cared at that moment about the provincial origins of the teams in question. They cared about nothing beyond the result of a thrilling hurling match.

Last year, Galway pulverised Laois in their Leinster championship debut, clearing the decks for the main billing: a semi-final match with Kilkenny. But despite putting up a spirited hour against the resident champions, the occasion was so novel and strange that it almost overshadowed the match itself.

For Kilkenny, the main thing was not to slip up against a team that, in terms of Leinster heritage, could be branded upstarts. They wobbled briefly but recovered through a series of sniped points from Eoin Larkin that became the motif for their fourth successive All-Ireland title; someone stepping up to do the necessary.

For Galway, that match was primarily about proving to themselves that they could live with the challenge Kilkenny present and they did that, even if their capitulation against Waterford denied them another crack at the black and amber later in the summer. But in just their second year as honorary Leinster men, Galway find themselves on the big stage; a high-profile provincial final, with a heavyweight prize on offer against a team that many of the brightest names of the 1960s and 1970s have branded as the best ever. It has to be better than playing training matches in Athenry and waiting for August to arrive.

It takes Galway to a fascinating place. Already, the county has won more games in Leinster than it managed during the 10 miserable years from 1959-’69 when it was attached to the Munster championship, with just one victory. John McIntyre, a Tipperary man, made a passionate plea for Galway supporters to travel to Croke Park for tomorrow’s game. It is likely the manager was pre-empting the peculiarity of the occasion for most Galway hurling people. There was a significant minority against “going into” Leinster whose reservations remain.

The opportunity to beat Kilkenny in championship hurling is to be savoured (and the maroon have managed that trick on just eight of 33 tries). To do so in Kilkenny’s local dancehall should be even more enticing.

And yet it is bound to be difficult for most Galway people to get their heads around the idea of what “winning Leinster” means. It is an entirely alien concept and because the whole structure of the GAA is dependent on place and border rivalries, there is no way the Leinster showpiece can hold the same significance for them as it does for those living within the borders.

Winning the Leinster championship would be a bit like winning the lotto in a currency that cannot be spent.

At least for the time being; in 10 or 15 years’ time, when Galway’s participation in Leinster is settled and a reserve of old games and hostilities and arguments has been banked, then Galway’s hurling fraternity will feel part of the system.

But for now, it is primarily about finding a suitable theatre for the hurlers and that was the point McIntyre was making. The players have certainly been making all the right noises about their appearance.

“It is an absolutely super situation to be in,” team captain Shane Kavanagh said this week.

“We have had three really tough games and when you think about it, there were times in the past when we just had two games and we were out of the championship. We have three games played now and we can go into the Leinster final with no fear. It is a benchmark for us, to measure ourselves against Kilkenny.”

It is that. Drifting through matches has been a problem for Galway. The opening half against Offaly saw them fall into a hole after they conceded early goals and the closing half saw Galway cough up a comfortable lead. But they responded to both setbacks.

The suspension of David Burke, the latest hurler to find himself sidelined in the red card craze, causes a few selection dilemmas for the squad, with the versatile David Collins or Andy Smith likely to fill that midfield berth.

The rotation of the Galway forward line has worked a treat, with Joe Canning not as prolific as usual but still contributing the heavyweight scores of the game.

But the most important aspect of the strategy was that it got Damien Hayes back into a scoring groove. Because Galway’s game plan inevitably revolves around Canning, it is vital his team-mates thrive in the distraction that he presents to opposition defences.

And before Canning began his senior life, Hayes was rightly regarded as one of the most dangerous finishers in the game. When Hayes plays well, Galway plays well and his 2-3 against Offaly was a good omen.

Hayes described getting into a Leinster final as “a great honour” during the week. With Walsh Cup and National League medals already won, a Leinster senior championship medal would sit handsomely alongside the All-Ireland club medals Hayes has acquired with Portumna.

More importantly, it would keep Galway in their new habit of winning competitions. How John McIntyre chooses to deploy Hayes could be the key to how well the Galway forwards settle into this match. With Hayes buzzing, then Galway’s lines of attack become more varied, giving the half-forward line the opportunity to register more on the scoreboard.

Galway are always the wild card in Brian Cody’s imagination. Perhaps too much has been made of the way that they flared against the Cats in 2001 and ’05. The last victory was a full five championship seasons ago. Both teams have changed since then and, more importantly, Kilkenny have not been beaten in championship hurling since.

The easy explanation that Kilkenny were not mentally ready for Galway on both those dates has been rejected by Cody. In his autobiography, he allows Kilkenny “weren’t able to withstand the sheer intensity which Galway brought to their game” in 2001. But in 2005, the lessons from that previous game were still fresh, Kilkenny had been playing well and, as Cody reasonably asked: “How on earth could we take anything for granted against Galway after what had happened in 2001?”

As he saw it, the game just spun off in an unforeseeable and riotous direction and when the score stood at 5-17 to 3-12, he was forced to contemplate a Galway deluge. But the response of the Kilkenny players was to scrap bitterly, outscore Galway 1-6 to 0-1 in the last quarter of the match and almost earn a draw.

Afterwards, three of the Kilkenny players – they are not named – followed Cody after he had said his piece in the dressingroom and urged him to stay on as manager, an act of solidarity which, he stated, meant a lot to him. As Cody points out, Kilkenny hurling was supposed to be in a state of flux after that Galway match and much of the conventional wisdom had the black and amber fading for a while.

But Cody stayed on and they responded by embarking on the historic championship run that brings them up against Galway again tomorrow. The importance of winning this match for Kilkenny goes beyond securing a 67th Leinster title. If Kilkenny are to claim the five All-Ireland titles in a row, then they will want to do so without the asterix of a provincial final loss to Galway contained in that record. It has been flawless so far; the ideal scenario is surely to keep it so.

When Cody watched the 2005 All-Ireland final, when Galway were competent but uninspired against Cork, he asked himself: “Why the hell do Galway reserve those special days for us and then don’t repeat it next time?”

Every Galway person in the crowd was probably asking the same thing. But the big question now is whether Galway must whip the game into some kind of tempest if they are to beat Kilkenny.

“It will probably take the game of our lives to carry the day but you can be sure that is what the players will be primed for,” McIntyre stated in the Connacht Tribune this week. “This is a test of the strength of the squad and whatever Galway team takes the field must hit the ground running at Croke Park on Sunday.”

Winning a Bob O’Keeffe Cup would be nothing like winning an All-Ireland to Galway hurling people. But beating Kilkenny here and now would give the county a rush that probably has not been felt in 20 years.