The Galway minor footballers will take on a very highly rated Dublin outfit in the All-Ireland semi-final in three weeks’ time at Croke Park, following their 1-9 to 0-9 victory over Cavan last weekend in Longford. Their semi-final is fixed for August 28 and will be followed by the senior semi-final between Donegal and the winners of Tyrone and Dublin.
Connacht champions Roscommon also produced a big display to beat Armagh last weekend and will face Tipperary in the other semi-final.
Kilkerrin/Clonberne’s Shane Walsh produced an impressive second-half display and ended the tie with 0-6 (4fs ) against the Ulster champions. Walsh, who was a key player for St Jarlath’s College getting to the Hogan Cup final during the year kicked six of his side’s seven points in the second-half. On form he is very talented and when his footballing skills are united with a high work rate and good link-play, he is very difficult to contain.
The key score of the day came from midfielder Sean Moran who had a very fine game. His goal six minutes before half time brought Galway back into the game after early Cavan dominance. Moran’s goal was created by Ian Burke and that three-pointer really rattled Cavan.
Dermot McCabe’s side held a 0-6 to 1-2 advantage at the break but when Walsh stepped on the gas Galway pushed on and merited their All-Ireland semi-final spot. The spine of Galway’s defence, team captain James Shaughnessy and Conor Cunningham, also did very well.
Team manager Tommie Joyce was thrilled with his side’s response after their Connacht final collapse to Roscommon: "We looked at ourselves the Monday night after the Connacht final and we said that we had two weeks to get things right. The lads trained very hard for the two weeks and got their deserved dues with a win."
Dublin who are managed by GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell defeated Cork easily and are the bookies’ favourites to win the title. However as the Mayo seniors proved brilliantly last weekend, ever the hottest favourites can take a tumble.
Team selector Terry O’ Regan and Tommie Joyce attended the Dublin quarter-final and O’Regan acknowledged that Galway will have to improve again if they are to advance.
“We improved a lot on our performance against Roscommon last Saturday, but we will have to improve as much again or more if we are going to beat Dublin. They are a very big, strong and skillful team. We got a lot of turnovers and won dirty ball against Cavan and we will need a lot of that kind of stuff in the semi-final. As a unit our defence improved the last day and we will need our forward division to do likewise for three weeks’ time. We have a few weeks of hard training ahead and there are places on the team up for grabs before that semi-final.”
Galway squad which beat Cavan last Saturday: C Gleeson, A Nolan, J Shaughnessy (captain ), E Murray, E Walsh, C Cunningham, C Mulryan (0-1 ), S Maughan, S Moran (1-0 ), P Glynn, T Curran, S Walsh (0-6, 4fs ), G Armstrong (0-1 ), I Burke (0-1 ), C Rabbitte. Subs: S Geoghegan for Curran, h-t; J Kelleher for Glynn, 42; L Silke for Murray, 51; G Canavan for Cunningham, 57; G Kelly for Rabbitte, 61.
