Galway 3-27 Westmeath 0-19
Nothing lasting is ever gained from a hurling mismatch of this extent, and not even Galway’s flashes of brilliance could redeem it. The only consolation on a day of searing heat was it could have been the complete burnout.
The game began with a burst of hard rain falling on Cusack Park, prompting supporters from both teams to up the umbrellas: that rain soon cleared but they might well have passed some of those umbrellas to the Westmeath defenders, such was the hard ball Galway constantly rained down on them.
They found some brief shelter from the storm, but with Joe Canning adding some thunder and lightning in the first half alone, Galway were soon home and dry.
“Up and running away, and put up a decent score,” said Galway manager Michael Donoghue. Four years ago, in Anthony Cunningham’s first championship match as manager, Westmeath scared the living daylights out of Galway - although no such worries for Donoghue.
“On reflection, we got a lot more out of the first half, in terms of what we were looking for,” he added. “There’s a lot to improve on what we did in the second half. Westmeath came in here with a great win at under-21 level, and with three games in the round robin, so we had to make sure we were in the right frame of mind, and in fairness I think the lads were.”
Indeed last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists came to Mullingar with plenty to prove, including to themselves: relegation from top-flight league hurling a few weeks back added further pressure to last year’s ousting of Cunningham, and nothing less than a convincing win would satisfy the band of travelling supporters.
They certainly didn’t leave disappointed, Galway’s 17-point win coming off 11 different scorers, and goals from Jason Flynn, Joseph Cooney and Conor Whelan. Canning set the trend early on, finished with 0-8, before retiring early in the second half with a neck injury, having been badly clattered, off the ball, by Shane Power (who was red-carded in the process).
“We’d be disappointed with our performance,” said Wesmeath manager Michael Ryan. “We know Galway are an exceptional team, but there was a stage in the first half we’d five wides in a row, the score was nine-three, and then of course there was a silly sending off in the second half. Galway don’t need help like that. I didn’t see it, but I’m disappointed by it.
“Our touch was a bit off, maybe we were a bit over-awed, and their physique certainly bothered us. We feel there’s much more in the team. We just didn’t perform. If we plugged one gap, another one appeared, but I’m sorry for the lads. I don’t think they did themselves justice.
“But no excuses. We were beaten by a fabulous side on the day. You still don’t know with Galway, but playing at their best they’re a match for any team. But our world didn’t end today. We’ve got Dublin coming up at under-21 level, and that’s going to be a serious game.”
Galway could have had three goals inside the first 10 minutes were in not for some heroic goalkeeping from Paddy Maloney - who made one spectacular close-range save from Canning. Still, the Portumna man made them hurt in other ways, moving into five different forward positions in the first half alone.
Flynn and Mannion, both notably beefed up a little on their 2015 editions, scored two each in the first half too, with Whelan, Shane Moloney, David Burke and Davey Glennon chipping in too. It wasn’t entirely one-way traffic but whenever Westmeath got a run at Galway they invariably hit a roadblock.
Niall O’Brien was trying hard to keep Westmeath from disappearing out of sight, reliable with his frees, but they trailed 0-17 to 0-5 at the break, and soon after the restart found themselves cut hopelessly adrift.
Flynn broke through for Galway’s opening goal on 44 minutes, before Cooney added a second with a pretty spectacular long-range shot. That put Galway 2-18 to 0-10 in front, and everything after that trailed off into insignificance.
Next up on Sunday week are Offaly, who took care of Laois in the other quarter-final, and will have been suitably forewarned of Galway’s considerable scoring potential.
When pressed on more lasting positives, the Galway manager pointed to the return of Conor Cooney, who scored four points off the bench: “It’s great to see Conor back. He’s had a rough 18 months with injury, but trained really hard since February.”
The result does, temporarily at least, also lift some of the negativity off Galway, following that spring league relegation: “Obviously that was very disappointing,” said Donoghue. “But i’s the first game today. We’re not getting carried away. I said to the lads that the league wasn’t going to define our year but we’re not getting carried away with this win either.”
GALWAY: 1 C Callanan; 2 J Coen, 3 J Hanbury, 4 F Moore; 5 P Mannion, 6 D Burke, 7 A Harte; 8 D Burke (capt) (0-3), 9 D Glennon (0-3); 10 S Moloney (0-1), 12 J Canning (0-8, three frees, one 65, one sideline), 11 J Cooney (1-0); 13 C Whelan (1-1), 14 C Mannion (0-2), 15 J Flynn (1-3, one free). Subs: 24 C Cooney (0-4) for Canning (40 mins, inj), 18 A Tuohy for P Mannion, 19 K Hussey for Moore (both 52 mins), 23 N Burke (0-1) for Flynn (56 mins), 21 P Brehony (0-1) for Coen (63 mins).
WESTMEATH: 1 P Maloney; 4 T Gallagher, 3 T Doyle, 2 S Power; 5 A Craig, 7 A Clarke (Capt), 6 G Neville; 8 C Boyle, 12 R Greville; 9 E Price, 15 N O'Brien (0-12, eight frees), 13 L Varley; 10 A Devine (0-2), 11 D McNicholas, 18 D Egerton. Subs: 14 B Murtagh (0-2) for Egerton (half time), 21 N Mitchell (0-2) for Boyle (51 mins), 17 A McGrath for Varley (55 mins), 20 K Doyle (0-1) for Price (59 mins), 23 D Clinton (0-1) for McNicholas (62 mins).
Referee: Diarmuid Kirwan.
Attendance: 5,263.
