Big players for big games.
Galway will go into Sunday’s All-Ireland final as big favourites, and priced at 1/2 with most bookmakers, there is a lot of pressure on the Galway lads to end the famine and win their first All-Ireland since 1988.
Since that triumph, they have lost seven Liam MacCarthy deciders.
Waterford and Galway first locked horns in Championship hurling in 1938, since then, they’ve met ten times, all of which have resulted in victories for the Déise.
Waterford are Galway’s bogey team, and those who think that all the Tribesmen will have to do is show up to break their duck, they’ll be in for a surprise.
There is serious pressure on this Galway team. Pressure, that in recent history, they have struggled with.
Micheal Donoghue’s men have displayed new-found ruthlessness, physicality and hunger this year, but in all truth, until they raise Liam MacCarthy, there will still be questions hanging over them.
A man who has been on the periphery of the team for most of this year, has been Tommy Larkins club man Jason Flynn.
Galway’s league form was hard to judge this year, due to the fact that they were in division 1B, and both their quarter and semi-final clashes against a severely depleted Waterford and then Limerick were strangely flat encounters, but in the final against Tipperary, they were unstoppable.
Jason Flynn didn’t play a huge role in Galway’s league campaign, not appearing in the quarter final and only coming on in the semi-final, but when he was finally given the chance in the final against Tipperary, he was scintillating, scoring 2-01 and taking Michael Cahill to the cleaners.
As a consequence, the 22-year-old earned the start against Dublin in their first Championship game of the season, and he was again on top form scoring 1-02 from play.
Since then, Flynn’s form has been hit-and-miss. He didn’t score against Offaly, but that was just one of those games where they were so far on top, that it is just impossible to read into it.
In the Leinster final against Wexford, Flynn had a corner forward’s nightmare, not getting much ball and getting called ashore before half-time.
If there was ever a clear example of a confidence player, then Jason Flynn is your man, and after this Wexford game, his confidence surely took a hit.
Flynn’s place on the Galway team was much more assured over the last few years, and as a result his confidence was much higher than what it is now, and his performances were more consistent.
Jason Flynn is one of those players that just needs a vote of confidence from his manager, and the ultimate vote of confidence would be giving him the start on the biggest day of all, in the All-Ireland final.
The man who has taken Flynn’s place this year is Niall Burke, and the Oranmore-Maree has looked a shadow of the man that burst onto the scene in 2012, despite an impressive second half against Tipperary.
Flynn is tall, he is good in the air, he is quick, he is one of Galway’s wristiest hurlers, and as his 0-4 cameo in Galway’s last All-Ireland final appearance in 2015 suggested, he is a man for the big day.
Just watch one of his scores in the 2015 final against Kilkenny, from 1’28”. Scandalous.
If he was given the vote of confidence, he will respond.
Many hurling followers have been calling for his inclusion.
Galway should play Jason Flynn and put Cathal Mannion or Conor Cooney on De Burca.
— Michael McCarthy (@McCarthyMick) August 25, 2017
Jason Flynn should have started for Galway. It's time to bring him on and add some potency to the Galway attack.
— Michael Cooke (@MikeCooke92) August 6, 2017
