Galway 2-18 Clare 1-11:FOR YEARS, Galway's one wish was to get good, hard championship matches, and plenty of them. That was the only way they were going to make the big breakthrough. Be careful what you wish for.
After dismembering and then fairly devouring Clare on Saturday evening, Cork are served up next, in just six days’ time – the one team who will unquestionably share Galway’s ferocious appetite for the final phase of the qualifiers. There will be blood; it’s a rematch of last year’s epic in Semple Stadium, where Joe Canning scored 2-12 and Galway still lost.
Saturday was always going to be something of a dog-fight. In the end Galway won it a lot more comfortably than expected. But then Clare looked a spent force, tired and surprisingly apathetic to their cause. Clare sure put it up to Galway physically, but they were no match for their rivals’ increasing array of skills.
Canning, for a change, was kept quiet so, as if on cue, up stepped Niall Healy (1-3), Cyril Donnellan (1-2) and Aongus Callanan (0-2). Eoin Lynch and Kevin Hynes lorded midfield, and Damien Joyce and John Lee were the class acts in the defence. Galway, finally, have found some shape – and more importantly, got a decent championship win under their belts when they needed it.
“This is my first victory as an intercounty manager over Clare, and I’m not going to apologise for it,” declared John McIntyre. “I’ve had an awful lot of defeats over the years.”
McIntyre knew his team had been in a battle, a heated one in front of 14,165. “We came here thinking if we won by a point we’d be absolutely thrilled, in the context of Galway not winning a championship match of significance for the last four years.
“I’d say half the team wouldn’t be happy with the way they played. We didn’t use possession that well. We were guilty of some panic hurling, and bad wides. But it’s a big step in the right direction, and maybe a monkey off some of the players’ backs, to win a championship match of importance.
“But the work rate was good all over the field. We hounded Clare, didn’t allow to settle. So the honesty, commitment and heart is there. If you have that you’ve something to build on. And I hope it does a lot for the confidence. Because as a team maybe that is still lacking. You can train as hard as you want, but there’s nothing better than winning.”
There were some immediate concerns. Ollie Canning and Adrian Cullinane both retired early through injury; Canning suffering from blurred vision, Cullinane from knee ligament damage. Canning should be fine, but Cullinane will leave a hole in the defence that won’t be easily filled.
Still Galway’s body language throughout the match said it all; heads up, focused, and eager to win every ball – and it drastically contrasted with Clare, who left the field looking forlorn. No one’s sure where they go from here.
Later, when manager Mike McNamara was reminded it was in fact into a relegation play-off with Offaly, Wexford and Antrim, he just shook his head: “Someone just told us that, inside in the dressingroom. What the hell are they doing? When you’re out of the championship you’re out of the championship. All those lads wants to do is get away from hurling from a week or two. They’re more disappointed than anyone else. It’s a crazy situation.”
Truth is, Clare need to go away and reinvent themselves. They went from bad to worse, and despite a series of positional switches never found their rhythm. For Niall Gilligan, Tony Carmody and Alan Markham it may well be the end. No one will be more disappointed than Tony Griffin by his own performance, while team captain Brian O’Connell was sent off for a dangerously high tackle on Donnellan, late on, which also ended his game through injury.
“We’d looked good in training over the last couple of weeks, and I would have thought a big performance was on the cards,” added McNamara. “Instead we struggled in key areas. Got the match plan wrong. And had a lot of bad wides. So we’ll have to look at the whole structure really, and why our level of consistency is so poor. We have loads of fellas who drop the heads when they shouldn’t. We have players that should be able to contest with the best.”
Clare were still in the game until the last 15 minutes, despite their poor use of possession. Carmody had a penalty saved on 27 minutes, and a minute after that Colin Ryan hit a desperate wide. Had those two scores been converted Clare would have gone level. Instead they trailed 1-8 to 0-5 at the break, Donnellan sneaking in the first Galway goal on 30 minutes after some slack Clare defending. Otherwise they had done okay, particularly James McInerney on Canning – who scored a single point from play.
Clare were still only six points down with 15 minutes left to play, but O’Connell’s dismissal sparked their complete decline. Diarmuid McMahon got a consolation goal in injury time but Galway went down the field and scored one of their own through Healy.
“We don’t have much time to dust ourselves down until next Saturday,” said McIntyre, “but we’re glad to be still standing. I just felt at times our players were penalised for their total commitment. The Kilkenny lads seem to get away with it, but we were penalised heavily, for just hounding players in possession. . . .”
GALWAY: 1 C Callanan; 5 F Moore, 3 S Kavanagh, 4 O Canning; 2 D Joyce, 6 J Lee, 7 A Cullinane; 8 E Lynch (0-1), 9 K Hynes (0-1); 10 A Callanan (0-2), 11 C Donnellan (1-2), 12 A Smyth (0-1); 13 D Hayes, 14 J Canning (0-7, five frees, one 65), N Healy (1-3).
Subs: 26 G Mahon for Canning (48 mins, inj), 28 G Farragher for Cullinane (50 mins, inj), 23 K Hayes for Donnellan (56 mins, inj), J Gantley (0-1) for D Hayes (65 mins), 30 E Forde for Hynes (70 mins). Yellow cards: E Lynch (nine mins). Red cards: None.
CLARE: 1 P Brennan; 4 G O’Grady, 3 J McInerney, 5 P Donnellan; 8 B O’Connell, 6 B Bugler, 7 A Markham; 2 P Vaughan (0-2, one free), 9 T Griffin (0-1); 10 T Carmody (0-1), 14 D Barrett, 15 J Clancy (0-1); 13 N Gilligan (0-2), 11 D McMahon (1-1), 12 C Ryan.
Subs: 17 J Conlon (0-1) for Griffin (38 mins); 21 C Morey for Barrett (43 mins), 19 B Nugent (0-2) for Carmody (48 mins), 18 C McMahon for Ryan (63 mins). Yellow cards: A Markham (nine mins), P Brennan (20 mins). Red cards: B O’Connell (56 mins).
Referee: J Owens (Wexford)
