Galway 2-20

Kilkenny 0-14

John McIntyre in Portlaoise

THEY are only young lads who should be vulnerable to all the hype about them, but these Galway minor hurlers continue to make light of the expectations on their shoulders. Nothing appears to daunt them.

Fergal Healy’s team continue to deliver consistently top-quality displays as they sweep all before them. In five championship matches to date, every victory has been in double digits as Galway have laid waste to the challenges of Antrim, Laois, Dublin and Kilkenny – twice.

Keeping egos in check against that background shouldn’t be straightforward, but Seán Murphy and his teammates seem almost immune to the buzz they are creating. Galway remain focussed and ambitious.

They got what they came for in Portlaoise on Friday evening – a first Leinster title in their maiden provincial campaign and a tough physical examination which was required ahead of Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final against defeated Munster finalists Cork.

Yes, we know there was a dozen points between the teams at the end – just one less than when they clashed in the round-robin stages early last month – but this was a tougher examination of the winners’ worth. Kilkenny didn’t hold back physically and one of their three first-half yellow cards was unambiguously a sending-off offence.

That challenge on solid Galway centre-back Donnacha Campbell left him with suspected concussion and forced to retire prematurely. We are all for letting hurling flow, but head-high tackles are a blight at all levels on the current hurling landscape.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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