The Tribesmen are on a different level entirely.
Kilkenny weren’t at their best in Pearse Stadium on Sunday afternoon but that was only because Galway wouldn’t let them hurl.
Oft’ criticised for having a soft centre in the past, those days are in the vapours now. Galway are a different animal now and the whole hurling world should be frightened.
Not only has Micheal Donoghue some of the country’s most technically gifted hurlers at his disposal, he also has a giant group of men who are towering above their opponents and bulldozing them over almost every single time they get near the ball.
Most teams are blessed to have one target man, two at a stretch. When you look at Galway’s forwards, you see seven or eight big, bustling men, each of whom are testing the seams of their maroon jersey with every move they make.
You’ve all 6 ft 4 inches and 96 kgs of animals Conor and Joseph Cooney. You’ve the deceptively explosive Cathal Mannion, the power of Joe Canning, the fight and clout of hurling’s most combative attacker Conor Whelan. The youthful Brian Concannon is an exception, but he has pace to burn as Enda Morrissey quickly found out in Salthill.
Units of men, surely they won’t stay all day. Then, just when you think these boys might be tiring, you’re hit again and again and again and they won’t stop until you’re panned out on the floor and accepting defeat. That’s because there’s more to come. There’s artillery in the stands ready and waiting.
You’ve the man with shovels for hands and the body of an army tank, the biggest beast of the lot Johnny Glynn to come in and pummel you.
Jason Flynn is just as tall and twice as wristy. Niall Bourke with the long, gaping strides pounds on then and he’d make Damien Comer look small.
What the hell were Kilkenny supposed to do? What is anyone supposed to do?
Brian Cody’s men tried their best to break the bronco but they got a dose of their own medicine when Galway grabbed the bull by the horns.
Galway did to Kilkenny what Kilkenny have been doing to other teams for years. They suffocated them, gobbled them up.
Padraig Walsh played well at full back for Brian Cody’s team. He caught some of those trademark skyscrapers and came out of defence like a tiger with balls he had no right to win.
But still, Conor Cooney took him for four points from play. And that St Thomas’ steam train is coming into his milk now. With Rolex wrists that suggest he could swing a hurley from a phone box, his style and grace is often underestimated because of his sheer bulk and destructiveness.
Cillian Buckley is a big man. The Kilkenny captain is usually the bully and not victim. After 53 minutes out west, the Dicksboro man felt the force of Conor Cooney in full flight and this is where it left him.
This is where Galway are at now.
The mammoths from the west are circling.
Then in midfield, you’ve David Burke who’ll stay all day. You’ve his namesake Daithí in defence who hops around the last line like a starving sheep dog.
What can you do against a team like Galway?
