YOU’D nearly be in dread heading to Pearse Stadium on Sunday. The prospect of witnessing another turkey shoot in the Leinster senior hurling championship holds little appeal.

After crushing Westmeath by 34 points at Cusack Park in their previous outing, the in-form Galway hurlers will be expected to run up another big winning margin against Antrim in Salthill (2pm).

With the two big Munster matches – Clare against Cork, Tipperary against Limerick – both being televised live on the same afternoon, the turnstiles at Pease Stadium will hardly be clicking merrily.

A crowd of around 4,000 is anticipated for Galway’s penultimate round-robin clash. After victories over Wexford and Westmeath, together with a courageous draw against Kilkenny, Henry Shefflin’s team is building up an impressive head of steam.

Of course, Antrim are better than Westmeath, but their limitations were brutally exposed by Kilkenny last day out at their spiritual home of Corrigan Park – a venue which usually protects them from that kind of hammering.

Antrim assembled a creditable tally of 3-20, but still found themselves 21 points adrift at the finish as the Cats put a whopping 5-31 on the board. With Martin Keoghan having a field day, Kilkenny had already put the issue to bed by half-time when they led by 4-16 to 1-7.

The home team did rally for a period with early second-half goals from Conor Johnson and Neil McManus, but it remained a clash of unequals as Kilkenny reasserted their dominance in running away with the spoils.

That mauling will have naturally dented Antrim’s morale, especially after being slightly unlucky to have only drawn with Dublin at the same venue a couple of weeks previously. They had also produced an honourable display away to Wexford, but all those signs of progress were wiped away in that heavy loss to Kilkenny.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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