Inside Track with John McIntyre

THE Galway hurlers or team management would hardly have imagined a few weeks ago that they would be out of contention for a place in the semi-finals of the National League after just three rounds of the competition – and two of those matches going ahead at Pearse Stadium.

With a month’s break between the ending of the league group stages and the opening round of the Leinster championship against struggling Wexford, it’s not an ideal scenario for the Tribesmen, especially as Henry Shefflin, Kevin Lally and Damien Joyce have still some way to go in reaching a settled team.

It was no great surprise that Galway came up short for the second game running in Salthill on Sunday. Hosting the All-Ireland champions Limerick, the men in maroon didn’t have as many regulars on duty as the Shannonsiders, who were still missing a quartet of influential performers in Hurler of the Year Diarmuid Byrnes, Gearóid Hegarty, Declan Hannon and the currently out of favour Aaron Gillane.

With Tom Monaghan bouncing back to form, Galway were committed before a bumper crowd of over 12,200, but you rarely got the impression that they would end up carrying the day. Limerick always looked comfortable and, significantly, were able to lift the tempo and hit the final three points of the match when Galway were threatening a successful comeback.

There were new roles for TJ Brennan and Tiernan Killeen in as reshaped defence, while Cianan Fahy, Dónal O’Shea, Kevin Cooney and Martin McManus were given the opportunity of making an impression further up the field. But without Daithí Burke, Cathal Mannion, who will miss the rest of the campaign due to a hamstring injury Ronan Glennon, David Burke and Fintan Burke, together with Conor Whelan, Brian Concannon and Darren Morrissey only being introduced as substitutes, it was always going to be a big ask for Galway to stay in the league hunt.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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