We’re in for a cracker.
For only the second time since 2006, the All-Ireland final won’t be contested by either Kilkenny or Tipperary. Is this a sign of a changing of the guard? Are the youth of Waterford, and the coming of age of Galway set to dominate the hurling landscape? There’s lots and lots of questions.
Galway are heavy favourites going into the game, and are widely expected to finally end their 29-year drought for a coveted Liam MacCarthy.
In fairness, their favouritism is justified, on the back of a sweeping march to the final. Their forward play has been nothing short of irresistible along the way, with Conor Whelan at his confronatational best, Joe Canning leading by example, and Conor and Joseph Cooney chipping in considerably.
On top of this, their defence has been ruthless, fiery and as tight as glue with Daithí Burke and Gearoid McInerney finally plugging the gaps that they always had at full and centre back.
Waterford shouldn’t be underestimated, however, as they have to be considered as the most skillful team in the country, with their short-passing and wristy approach to the game and with the mercurial talent of Austin Gleeson at their disposal.
A factor that may have worked to Galway’s favour this year is that, a selection of 14 of their players who have been involved in their games in this Championship year, every one of them is based in Galway and works in the county.
This is surely an advantage when it comes to training, to ensure that players don’t have to face the long, hard commute home beforehand, and for logistics when it came to midweek challenge games, so that players could all travel together.
- Colm Callanan – Fitness company owner (Callanan Fit Club, Kinvara)
- John Hanbury – Software Engineer (Storm Technology, Galway City)
- Padraic Mannion (College student, NUIG)
- Gearoid McInerney (Based in Oranmore)
- Aidan Harte (Secondary school teacher, Garbally Ballinasloe)
- Johnny Coen (Secondary school teacher, St. Brigid’s Loughrea)
- David Burke (Secondary school teacher, St. Brigid’s Loughrea)
- Jason Flynn (Personal trainer, JF Fitness, Galway)
- Joe Canning (Based in Oranmore, Galway, business)
- Joseph Cooney (Formerly of Arrabawn, Killimor.)
- Conor Whelan (College student NUIG)
- Conor Cooney (Primary school teacher, Galway)
- Cathal Mannion (College student, NUIG)
This turns out to be a marked difference to the set-up for the Waterford players. We took a look at where ten of their players are based, and it turns out that a huge amount of their players are based outside the county, and would have had a much longer distance to travel for training.
A lot of these lads will have been based at home since college ended at the beginning of June, but they had long journeys to training throughout the league campaing and early in the Championship.
- Stephen O’Keeffe (Banking, Dublin)
- Tadhg de Burca (Student, UCC)
- Jamie Barron (Student, UCC)
- Colin Duford (Student, IT Carlow)
- DJ Foran (Student, UCD)
- Shane Bennett (Student, LIT)
- Brian O’Sullivan (Technology Consultant, Accenture, Dublin)
- Conor Gleeson (Student, UCC)
- Patrick Curran (Student, St Pats Drumcondra)
- Stephen Bennett (Student, University of Limerick)
