This Sunday at Parnell Park in Dublin ( 2.30pm ) Portumna hurlers will face Dunloy (Antrim ) in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Portuma are the hottest of favourites for the game and anything less than a solid Portumna victory would be a massive shock to the entire GAA world.
Their quest for success both within Galway and beyond over the past seven or eight years has been astonishing.
The fact that they are in the hunt for a third successive All-Ireland success is a credit to their hunger and desire to obtain the title as the best club hurling team of all time.
How can they keep the effort and desire for success going, year-in, year-out?
According to their former All-Ireland winning manager, Jimmy Heverin, the secret to their success is their superb focus and attitude.
“They are like a crowd of zombies,” he says. “Hurling comes first and they are fanatical about the club. They are a tremendous bunch of men and they don’t allow any distractions to get in the way of trying to maximize their abilities.
“ The scary thing for the other hurling clubs in Galway is that they don’t look like they are going to stop any time soon either. On their day they are almost unbeatable. They are a young squad and they have quality all round the field.”
Ivan Canning is a steady influence between the sticks, Aidan O’Donnell, Ollie Canning and Eugene McEntee have oceans of experience and are top hurlers, while the half-back of Peter Smith, Micheal Ryan, Gareth Heagney are practically unpassable on their day.
The midfield duo of Leo Smith and Eoin Lynch have been hurling together for so long in the engine room that they have a telepathic understanding of each other’s positional play.
While up front there are the scoring aces Joe Canning and Damien Hayes, augmented by the terrific graft of Kevin Hayes, Andrew Smith, Niall Hayes and the energetic Martin Dolphin.
All in all it is a exhilarating cocktail of power and poise and one that Dunloy should struggle to contain. The game will be refereed by Brian Gavin from Offaly and there is deferred coverage of the game on TG4.
In the other All-Ireland semi-final which is scheduled for Thurles and live on TG4, Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny ) take on Newtownshandrum (Cork ) to see who will emerge for a place in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day where hopefully they will be facing the Galway kingpins.
