Inside Track with John McIntyre

IT’S not the way either the Galway hurlers or footballers would have wished to conclude their National League programmes. Between them, they failed to register a single point from the final two rounds of the competition, leaving both teams on the back foot heading into the championship.

Up to a few weeks ago, the Galway footballers were bombing along. Unbeaten after five matches and with team manager Padraic Joyce proclaiming his desire to end the county’s 45-year league title famine, the least we expected was that the Tribesmen would end up in the final.

Maybe, we should have read more into Galway’s somewhat fortunate draw against Tyrone at Tuam Stadium in early March as it preceded sluggish losing displays against both Dublin and Kerry – results which ended the Connacht champions’ interest in the destination of the league title.

Falling to the Dubs at Croke Park was no shame, especially as Galway might have carried the day with a better conversion rate – a scenario which led to the premature replacements of both Shane Walsh and Rob Finnerty, who had missed a sitter with the net gaping. Understandably, Joyce wasn’t a happy camper afterwards.

At least, Galway’s destiny was still in their own hands with Kerry rolling into Salthill last Sunday and when the hosts flew into an early four point lead, the crowd of about 8,000 must have assumed that the men in maroon were primed to produce a no-holds-barred display, even without some key players like Seán Fitzgerald, Dylan McHugh, John Daly and Walsh.

Instead, Galway laboured for much of the match and though a smartly-taken Matthew Tierney second-half goal was to haul them back in the contest, the ease in which Kerry pulled away again was worrying. They repeatedly exposed the home defence in establishing a big tally of 3-24, and that was with leaving a couple of more goals behind them.

Kerry had quickly overhauled their early deficit with green flags from Gavin Whyte and Dylan Geaney, and when they led 2-11 to 1-10 at the break despite Finnerty’s goal for Galway and having faced the wind, you knew it was going to take something really special from Johnny McGrath, who did a fine policing job on David Clifford in the circumstances, and company to turn things around.

Galway didn’t die and with points from Damien Comer and substitute Johnny Heaney augmenting Tierney’s goal – the product of a brilliant delivery from Paul Conroy – their hopes of a league final place were still alive, only for Kerry to up the ante with Damien Bourke (surely, he was in the square) palming home the decisive score.

Pictured: Galway jockey Danny Gilligan completing a notable 189/1 four-timer on Lightkeeper in the Bluegrass Horse Feed  Novice Chase at Down Royal on St Patrick’s Day. Photo: Patrick McCann/Racing Post.