Big talk.
Galway are 5/4 favourites to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup for the second year running. The four leaders in the betting for hurler of the year are all Galway men.
These are exciting times for hurling folk out west. The Tribesmen have swept all before them with a relentless ease in this championship campaign to date and already, their firepower and solidity marks them out as an extremely daunting task for every other hurling county.
Monsters of men, some of the most physical, robust defenders in the game in Daithà Burke and Gearóid McInerney man their central positions.
Further down the field, the spine of the team only gets frighteningly stronger.
Most teams would consider themselves to be blessed if they had one, two target men at a stretch. Every attacker in maroon is a target man.
Micheal Donoghue has giants at his disposal in the two Cooneys, Conor and Joseph. Crucially, the unrelated Sarsfields and St Thomas’ duo are two of hurling’s most subtle bullies. After horsing a defender out of their way, they have the finesse, skill and lethal touch to punish.
A couple of weeks ago, Conor Cooney levelled Cillian Buckley with a shoulder as if to spark comparisons with what Kilkenny did to teams in years past.
On top of those two, you’ve Conor Whelan who’d conjure a score out of a paper bag. Big, burly Johnny Glynn flanks him and we’re all well aware of Joe Canning’s physicality.
Just when you think these bustling behemoths might be tiring, then springing from the bench you’ve twin towers Niall Burke and Jason Flynn to come in.
How are other teams supposed to compete with that?
Speaking on Thursday’s GAA Hour Hurling Show, former Galway forward Damien Hayes latched onto those comparisons with the Cats.
“I think Galway are brilliant. They’re such a fine team, such a big team. They’re strong, muscular, massive athletes and all of that.”
Then, the Portumna man piled the pressure on his former teammates by claiming that they’re up there with Brian Cody’s Kilkenny teams of years past. Cody’s Kilkenny have won 11 All-Irelands since the turn of the millennium so Hayes’ expectations are high.
“I actually think this Galway team is as good as some of them Kilkenny teams in the last ten years and I mean that.
“Niall Burke can’t make the team, Flynn can’t make the team. Them two boys would make any team in the country, they were the reason Galway won the All-Ireland last year, when they came on and scored four points between them.”
You can listen to Damien waxing lyrical about his county and much more from Thursday’s GAA Hour Show right here.
