Following on from their 0-18 to 0-11 win over Clare last weekend in the All-Ireland quarter-finals at O’ Connor Park in Tullamore, the Galway minors will take on Meath in the All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park on the weekend of August 11/12.
Hopefully that fixture will be a double header with the Kevin Walsh’s senior side who are already through to the semi-finals.
Galway were expected to be too strong for Clare, however they trailed by 0-7 to no score with six or seven minutes to go to half-time, before they kicked into gear and won three frees that were converted by the impressive Ryan Monaghan.
Clare led by 0-8 to 0-3 at half-time, however Galway were making inroads into the deficit and seemed to be finding some form.
Driven on by captain Conor Raftery who hit two fine points in the second half and substitute Oisín Gormley from Barna who hit three lovely points from play, Galway who showed a significantly improved work-rate and some penetrating runs from deep positions from an impressive half-back line of Cathal Sweeney, Tony Gill and Ryan Monaghan eased themselves into control of the game.
Once Donal Ó’Fatharta’s side clicked into the form they had shown at stages of the Connacht championship they never looked likely to be beaten in the second half.
Substitutes Tomo Culhane and Niall Cunningham also got on the score-sheet late in the game and corner forward Eoghan Tinney who is a lovely player also raised two flags.
Their opposition in the semi-final (Meath ) had a solid win over Derry last weekend on a score-line of 1-15 to 1-10 with Luke Mitchell their star turn at corner forward hitting 1-06 (5fs ).
Galway: Donie Halloran, Ethan Walsh, Seán Black, Cian Deane, Ryan Monaghan 0-6 (6fs ), Tony Gill (0-1 ), Cathal Sweeney, Conor Raftery (Cpt ) (0-2 ), James McLoughlin, Liam Judge, Aidan Halloran (0-1 ), Éanna McCormack, Eoghan Tinney (0-2 ), Daniel Cox (0-1 ), Matthew Cooley.
Subs used: Conor Halbard for Black (24 ), Oisín Gormley (0-3 ) for McCormack (H/T ), Tomo Culhane (0-1 ) for Cooley (59 ), Niall Cunningham (0-1 ) for A Halloran (60 ), Seán Horkan for McLoughlin (60 ).
