The 90th edition of the National Hurling League belatedly gets underway this coming weekend and will undoubtedly be a unique one, with the prospect of joint winners and no Division 1 final ever taking place a very real possibility.
Shane O’Neill’s Galway panel will be on the road early on Saturday for the trip to TEG Cusack Park in Mullingar, ahead of a 2pm throw-in against a Westmeath outfit whose ultimate target for the year will be a route back into next year’s Leinster championship via the Joe McDonagh cup.
Touted as a campaign of little or no consequence, O’Neill will surely view it differently and look to use the four games against the Munster sides in Group A to build confidence and give the players, who will surely be itching to get back into competitive action, and get plenty of game time ahead of a Leinster championship semi-final date against either Dublin or Antrim.
The seemingly never-ending lockdown since last December has significantly reduced the amount of collective training that Galway will have under their belts, but there is no doubt that Head of Athletic Development Lukasz Kirszenstein will have left no stone unturned in designing individual training programmes that will have kept the panel members in tip-top shape.
While much of the panel are household names at this stage, O’Neill has not been afraid to draft in some fresh faces in his second year in charge, with the likes of Cappataggle’s Declan Cronin and Turloughmore’s Daniel Loftus reaping the rewards of excellent performances during last year’s club championship.
Liam Mellows clubmen Stephen Barrett and Jack Hastings have also been included, while Castlegar’s Seán Neary (2018 ) becomes the third All-Ireland minor winning captain in the group alongside Darren Morrissey (2017 ) and Seán Loftus (2015 ).
Perhaps the most intriguing addition, however, is that of Portumna’s Jack Canning to the forward division after a stint in Australia, while Fintan Burke and Shane Cooney will be looking to further cement their places in the starting line-up after impressive showings last year.
Westmeath are managed by Dubliner Shane O’Brien, but there are plenty of Galway connections in an impressive backroom team, with Alan Kerins working as a performance coach while Noel Larkin also came on board as a selector last year. Throw in Davy Glennon’s inter-county transfer late last year and there are plenty of plotlines to dig into.
However, with no disrespect intended to the Midlanders, Galway’s first real match of note will come a week later against the All-Ireland champions Limerick on home soil. Having been stripped of the Leinster crown by Kilkenny and outmuscled by Limerick in the final four in 2020, Galway have powerful motivational tools at their disposal this year.
With the chance of supporters being allowed back into venues still some way away, Galway fans desperate to see their heroes return to action received a major boost when TG4 announced that all of Galway’s first four games would be televised live, with the final round schedule to be decided at a later date.
