Wexford test has knockout potential for uncertain Galway
The beginning of the end. What was true for one Galway manager could become a turbulent reality for his successor this afternoon.
The beginning of the end for Henry Shefflin was last year's Leinster Round 3 defeat to Wexford. The beginning of the end for Micheál Donoghue's first season back would be Leinster Round 3 defeat to Wexford.
Anthony Daly began the Leinster segment on this week's Irish Examiner hurling pod by declaring that the losers in Salthill 'are probably out of contention for the Leinster final and scrambling for third'. TJ Ryan went further. His declaration was that the 'loser is not going to qualify unless they do something special in the final rounds'.
Former Galway insert-any-position-on-the-field Johnny Coen is with Ryan. His declaration on Galway Bay FM is that Saturday in Salthill is 'knockout'. The hosts, he added, 'simply have to get the win'.
What was once a maroon-owned fixture is now a fixture laced with trepidation. Galway are as unsure about this fixture as they are themselves.
Up to the 2010 Leinster quarter-final, the westerners had never scored a championship win over Wexford. Seven meetings, six defeats, and one 1976 All-Ireland semi-final stalemate at the freshly repainted Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Their entry into Leinster saw that relationship perform a Rhys McClenaghan flip. It was Galway's turn to go seven games unbeaten against the Model County. Included in the sequence was a 13-point thumping in 2020 and the 0-24 to 2-12 victory only two years ago.
There are four big beasts in Leinster. Kilkenny might be going for six-in-a-row in the province, but you wouldn't know that from looking at their round-robin record. There's been only one iteration of the current format - 2018 - where all four didn't take points off each other.
There's taking points, though, and there's actually bettering a fellow big beast. For Galway, it is over two years since they've taken down one of Dublin, Kilkenny, or Wexford. That aforementioned six-point win at home to Wexford on April 22, 2023, represents the last occasion of such.
There have, in the interim, been stalemate encounters with Dublin and Kilkenny, twice, but rather telling of the slippage out west, they've lost their last three outings against the other three. And by a combined total of 26 points too.
Maybe that's why there's a strong degree of belief being packed in with the tea and sandwiches in the southeast this morning.
'I'm so confident about this, it's not even funny,' said former Model defender, Richie Kehoe, on the Wexford Hurling podcast. 'I think from two to seven in the Galway team that they have absolutely no pace in their backs.'
That Galway defence has had to be rearranged for the red card issued to five-time All-Star Daithí Burke in Tullamore. They suffered for his absence at Nowlan Park, and with Jack O'Connor and Conor McDonald returning to the Wexford matchday panel, they're open to suffering for his absence here too.
Conor Whelan, though a constant on the field, has been absent in other ways. In that desperate hammering by Kilkenny, Whelan, along with Brian Concannon and Declan McLoughlin, was part of an inside line that managed just four shots and two points between them. By contrast at the far end, Eoin Cody alone had six shots for 1-3 from play.
Whelan's solitary white flag at Nowlan Park was the same as the solitary white flag that he contributed in the championship defeats to Dublin and Wexford last year. There was only a solitary white flag too in the League semi-final tanking against Cork that preceded the Nowlan Park disaster.
His form and confidence have been symptomatic of the wider malaise. Management's attempted corrective action was to bring the 11-season Whelan out to the half-forward line, for spells, against Offaly. Shane O'Neill attempted to make a No.11 out of Whelan during the county's short stay in the 2021 championship. Is Donoghue contemplating some sort of similar redeployment?
In a forward unit where half - Tiernan Killeen, John Fleming, and Colm Molloy - are newcomers, it is stating the terribly obvious that the more experienced hands such as 28-year-old Whelan have a responsibility to perform a degree of leading. Cathal Mannion and his 1-9 total from play against Kilkenny and Offaly has been the sole individual in that column of late.
Johnny Coen thought Whelan looked 'energised' around the middle against Offaly. Cyril Farrell went further. He viewed his performance against Offaly as Whelan announcing himself as 'back'.
'It is great to see him back, we all know he is a great hurler. For his own sake, twas lovely to see him back again. We need another big one the next day, but once he's back, he'll roar on and he'll have a good season,' said the All-Ireland winning manager.
Galway are going home today. They haven't been home since the February 8 League win over Clare. They haven't won a meaningful championship game at home since April 2023. The consequences of that run being extended were spelled out by former Galway boss, John McIntyre, in this week's Connacht Tribune.
'The last place the Tribesman would want to be is in Parnell Park for the final round of group matches trying to preserve their championship hopes. That could be decisive motivation on Saturday.'
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