This Sunday in Parnell Park the Galway hurlers will face Dublin in a crucial tie which could decide the 2011 league finalists.
Dublin have been doing well under the guidance of former Clare captain Anthony Daly and they will be difficult to beat on home turf. They top the table and are unbeaten after three wins and a draw.
Galway are still missing some key players due to injury and they also will be without Iarla Tannian who is out of the country attending a family wedding. The powerful Adrahan man will be a loss as he led the full-forward line effectively against Kilkenny, scoring 2-2, and he was man-of-the-match in that encounter in many people’s opinion.
Joe Gantley, who also impressed at corner forward in that tie, is a doubt with a recurrence of a groin injury and he may not be available for selection.
Joe Canning and Damien Hayes are not expected to be back for a few weeks yet. Their continuing absence can be seen as a positive. It is giving them an extended break from hurling which will mean that they will be mad for the road from May to September (hopefully ) and importantly too, it gives plenty of game time to other players.
Galway selector Joe Connolly is cautious about Sunday’s tie due to the numbers of unavailable players and knowing that Dublin have been going so well in the league.
“We will be missing a good few players, and even our midfielders Ger Farragher and David Burke, who have been going well, are not 100 per cent, so we probably won’t be in a position to announce a definitive starting 15 until much later in the week. We want to win as many league games as we can and ideally we would like to get back to another league final, but we have one eye on the championship in June too.
“The most important thing is to have a full panel of fit players for the summer months. If guys like Joe [Canning] and Damien [Hayes] and the other guys on the injured list need a few extra weeks off to get back to being totally injury free, then we need to do that. Rushing a player back is not the approach we are going to take. We have some high quality games coming up over the following few weeks against Dublin this weekend, and Tipperary and Waterford, so we will know where we stand by the middle of April. We want to win every game, but we have to keep the big picture in view too.”
Dublin are weakened by injury too and they will be without their inspirational captain Stephen Hiney for the rest of the season. He suffered a cruciate ligament injury against Wexford. Alan McCrabbe, an All Star in 2009, is still recovering from surgery to repair cartilage in his hip, a problem which was described as career-threatening earlier in the year.
Galway are in good form after their stunning win over Kilkenny and, if they can keep their performance to the level that saw them outscore the Cats by 4-11 to 0-5 in the second and third quarter, they should have too much in the tank for Daly’s men.
Defeating Kilkenny provided the panel with a good psychological boost for the tests that lie ahead. The side showed terrific resilience to come back from their shocking start and the win revived Galway’s chances of getting to the league final.
From that perspective it would be disappointing to blow that chance on Sunday in the Parnell Park.
David Collins, Tony Óg Regan, Gerard O’Halloran, Andy Smith, Aonghus Callanan, Adrian Cullinane, and Eanna Ryan have been showing good form and if they provide the leadership again on Sunday, Galway will be hopeful of topping the division one table on Sunday night.
