Galway deliver ruthless display in Connacht Ladies SFC win over Leitrim
A ruthlessly efficient first ten minutes delivered 1-8 without reply and laid the foundations for an emphatic Galway victory over Leitrim in Round 2 of the TG4 Connacht Senior Football Championship at Avant Money Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada.
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RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Adrian Mullen readying for another Tribal test against Galway
Kilkenny and Galway meet at Croke Park for a Leinster final on Sunday afternoon looking to see who can claim the best-two-out-of-three seasonal series between the sides. It's the third meeting of the pair in 2025 and the balance is currently, well, balanced with one win apiece. Galway gave the Cats a rare home defeat at UMPC Nowlan Park during their Allianz League encounter back in early February while the Black and Amber turned the tables on the opening week of the Leinster championship round robin stage with a commanding 12-point win at the same venue. Can Sunday's decider help split the difference? Kilkenny forward Adrian Mullen is expecting the tightest of finals. "Every game takes a life of its own," Mullen told RTÉ Sport this week. "Looking back to the league, they gave us a lesson in Nowlan Park. They won the league game, we won the round robin game – it's all to play for on Sunday. "Down through the years we've had ferocious games against Galway and there's usually not a puck of a ball between us. We're expecting the same this time around." The two counties finished with similar records after league campaigns that seemed to ask as many questions as they answered. Both won three and lost three during their six-game Division 1A campaigns although Kilkenny managed to eke out a +4 scoring difference. The Tribesmen's lopsided -24 score difference owed to a trio of heavy defeats at the hands of Cork, Limerick and Tipperary – all three, remarkably, by 12 points. Mullen, for his part, is just happy to have ticked an early seasonal objective off the list. Another provincial final reached. "Your objectives at the start of the year are to try and compete in every game and try win every game," Mullen said. "We've won a few games in the round robin, we're here in the Leinster final now and we're looking forward to Sunday." The defending provincial champs have blooded some youngsters throughout the league but some of their veteran performers have continued to stand tallest when needed most. "We're trying to blood a few of the younger lads who won the Under-20 championship a few years ago," Mullen said. "They're still trying to find their feet and it's up to a few of the experienced lads to be bringing them through and showing them the ropes. "All the lads are putting in a ferocious shift this year. You look at Huw Lawlor, Richie Reid, TJ Reid of course, all the lads putting it in – you can't ask for much more."
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Goal-shy Galway too reliant on the masterful Cathal Mannion
Against Kilkenny, Dublin and Wexford in this year's Leinster championship Galway managed just three goal chances, while their opposition combined for a total of 19. Despite winning two of those three games en route to this afternoon's Leinster hurling decider against Kilkenny - Galway conceded eight goals and scored just the one. That came in the 71st minute against Wexford to give the Tribesmen an eight point lead with two minutes of additional time left to play. Ultimately when they face the Cats again at Croke Park, throw in at 4pm, Galway will need to create more goal chances and concede much fewer if they are to reverse a 12 point deficit. Kilkenny scored three of six goal chances in that comfortable first round victory in Nowlan Park on a day when Galway did not create even one half goalscoring chance. While in their two wins, against Wexford and last time out in Dublin, they scored one goal from three chances - the two missed chances were both easily saved from tight angles under extreme defensive pressure - and they were rather fortunate to concede just five goals from 13 chances. While Galway have been short on goals they haven't lacked for points - raising by far the most white flags of any county prior to the provincial finals. That is 131 in five matches, and in those three games they managed 79 points compared to 55 from the other teams combined. Central to that has been Cathal Mannion. The Ahascragh-Fohenagh forward has scored 2-43 in four games, with 1-28 from placed balls and 1-15 from play. In the county's three biggest tests to date against Kilkenny, Dublin and Wexford he scored a total of 0-35. The 2015 All Star has been in sensational scoring form for his team and in those three encounters his scores and assists have accounted for 54 per cent of his team's total. The 2017 All-Ireland winner has assisted 0-8 as well as winning two of the frees he converted himself. His other start came against Offaly when he scored 2-8, assisted 0-5 and was fouled for two of the three frees he floated over the bar. Meaning in the four Leinster championship games he has featured in, the 30-year old has scored or assisted 56 per cent of his team's combined scoring. Equalling 2-56. If he'd featured in the 28 point win over Antrim his numbers would be off the charts. Mannion's scoring is all the more impressive when you consider his shooting accuracy. From 24 in-play shots so far this championship he has scored 1-15. While in his first season being handed the free-taking reins - before this year he had not even been a consistent free-taker for his club - Mannion has again stepped up and delivered for his county. The number 11 has scored almost 81 per cent of his placed balls from 36 attempts in four matches. With five of his seven misses coming from his own half. Looking at the three games against Kilkenny, Dublin and Wexford in isolation he has scored 24 of 27 attempts, showing not only an impressive range, which was to be expected given his scoring ability from general play, but also an excellent temperament under pressure. On average (in-play) Mannion has been directly involved in over 10 scoring opportunities per game. In total he is averaging six shots and just under 0-5 from play per game, almost 0-8 from placed balls, and 0-3 in assists per match so far in the 2025 championship. While Mannion's form will give Galway fans hope, the reliance on him is a cause for concern. One of Galway's biggest scorers in recent seasons, St Thomas' Conor Cooney has started four of his team's five games off the bench. Along with his 11 points (nine frees) when starting against Antrim, in those three substitute appearances he has amassed 1-3 from play making him the highest scoring substitute so far in the Leinster championship. While eight Kilkenny hurlers have contributed to their team's scoring as replacements, only three Galway players have. Nevertheless in a tight encounter, if Micheál Donoghue again opts against starting the 2017 All Star, he could prove the difference maker when introduced. It was Cooney who scored his team's only goal in the games against Kilkenny, Dublin or Wexford. However, even if Cooney provides a similar impact off the bench and Mannion continues his free-scoring form - Galway will need a huge slice of fortune to win any game when conceding so many goal chances and creating so few.
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Enigmatic Galway seek to prevent Kilkenny sextet
Kilkenny v Galway in the Leinster final. Think up something new to say about this one. Not easy. It's the ninth time that the pair have met in a provincial decider since Galway were welcomed into Leinster back in 2009. Or, to put it more precisely, since Mammy and Daddy on Central Council insisted that the other Leinster counties were going to have to let Galway play with them. Kilkenny, with their masterful self-confidence, were the only Leinster hurling county to signal their approval for Galway's entrance into the province. Although past comments from 'Taggy' Fogarty suggest that Brian Cody may not have been consulted on this. "Brian would be a traditionalist," 'Taggy' said on Newstalk a few years ago, before indicating that the notion of Galway winning the Bob O'Keeffe Cup sat about as well with Cody as the prospect of a new Casement Park sits with the publicans of Clones. This latest edition of the fixture isn't thrumming with as much back-story as when Henry Shefflin wore the Galway manager's shirt. The Leinster hurling championship became the unlikely home of soap-opera melodrama back in the summer of 2022. Cody's post-match handshake with his greatest ever player after the Salthill round-robin game had all the warmth of the Bull McCabe's initial interaction with the Yank at auction. The many super slo-mos could have been overlain with the Eastenders outro sequence. If this were the States, 'The Handshake' would be a blockbuster ESPN documentary. But Shefflin is gone from Galway now after three seasons in charge. Two of his campaigns consisted of respectable runs to the All-Ireland semi-final - in which they managed to soften the cough of the Munster supremacists in successive quarter-finals. His third and final season, however, was damningly abject. Galway's 2017 All-Ireland winning manager Micheál Donoghue has returned, as one always envisioned he would at some stage. The big regret for most of their supporters is that he was ever gone from the role. Kilkenny are leading 6-2 on the head-to-head on those Leinster finals. Galway's victories came in 2012, after that stunning first-half blitz which left people rubbing their eyes at the scoreline, and the 2018 replay in Thurles, when Taylor Swift and her fans were occupying Croke Park. A couple of those Kilkenny victories were pure larceny. The 2020 Covid final belongs up there with the 1990 All-Ireland final in the Tribesmen's 'how-the-hell-did-we-lose-that?' hall of fame. Richie Hogan's genius is one reason. Even more sickening for Galway was the 2023 decider when Padraic Mannion's booted clearance off the ground somehow managed to fly straight into Cillian Buckley's paw. The 2022 Leinster final, Cody's last as manager, was more stop-start than an NFL game and probably the dullest televised hurling match of the 21st century. These two have traditionally not brought a great following to provincial final day, none more so than in '12 when a tiny crowd from the west were there to witness their historic ambush. Only 24,483 were there for the last Leinster final between them in '23. A perusal of the Leinster final attendances over the past 15 years indicates the two biggest by a distance were in 2017 and 2019, which were also the only two in that span to involve Wexford. While the Munster Council are cranking up the price to capitalise on demand, the Leinster Council are in outreach mode, with 20,000 free tickets made available to Under-16s. Galway seem to have finally recovered their standing among their public after the insipid opening day display in Nowlan Park. No assessment was gloomy enough after that particular no-show. Remarkably, it was Galway's fourth 12-point defeat of the year, all three of their league losses coming by that margin. (So far in 2025, Galway have either won... or lost by 12 points). Worst of all, they were devoured by a Kilkenny side without TJ Reid and who lost Adrian Mullen to injury after 15 minutes. The fallout was ugly from that one. Galway hurling supporters, never averse to bouts of cosmic negativity, were consoling themselves that they might at least beat Antrim to stay in Leinster. Coming on top of last year, it was confirmation that Galway were in the depths of 'transition' with no quick fix on the horizon. The Offaly game in Tullamore - viewed with rare trepidation beforehand - panned out roughly like every other Offaly-Galway game has since 2012. An imperious Cathal Mannion floated over 0-17 as they beat Wexford to at least ensure progression from Leinster. The Antrim game was a turkey shoot which doesn't warrant much analysis. It was hard to find a pundit beforehand who was tipping Galway in Parnell Park. Partly this was due to their spotty and careless record in that fixture. Niall Ó Ceallachain's team appeared to hold far greater allure to the punditry class than a Galway side still harbouring many of the same old faces from the mid-to-late 2010s. In the end, the five-point margin over Dublin in the finish grossly understated their superiority. One echo of Donoghue's triumphant 2017 season is the dearth of a Galway goal-scoring threat. They scored just one goal in the three relevant fixtures, which arrived very late against Wexford with the result already more or less settled. In the second half in Parnell Park, a couple of serious goal opportunities went completely unexplored in favour of tap-over points. In the context of the game, it probably made sense. With the backing of a big wind, the shoot-on-sight policy was a wild success and the remorseless rat-a-tat of points was killing Dublin in the third quarter. Amid all the talk of transition, the Galway team has a time-stood-still aspect to it. Micheál Donoghue seemed to give every able-bodied twenty-something male in south Galway a run during the league. John Fleming is one newcomer to nail down a starting spot but the team has a familiar feel. The Mannions remain prominent. Five-time All-Star Daithí Burke - who "could play full-back without a hurl," as Cyril Farrell is wont to say - is still relied upon in defence. Conor Whelan, struggling for form earlier in the season, embraced his blue-collar side with a scoreless but workmanlike display against Wexford, in which he turned over ball repeatedly. The scoring touch returned in the second half in Donnycarney when he looked to be motoring again. The venerable David Burke, indisputably one of the county's all-time greats, was superb against the Dubs, a model of awareness and game-intelligence. The Cats' heavy win over Galway in Nowlan Park in April was in fact their first round-robin victory in the fixture in six attempts, a detail that might trigger a double-take given Derek Lyng's side are pursuing a sixth Leinster title on the trot. Hogan previously suggested that they were a tad lukewarm about the whole round-robin business. Perhaps given that Kilkenny, more than any other county, know they will be in the All-Ireland series, giving to the provincial league process the air of an extended preamble. This might explain why they have yet to muster a 100% record in the group stages, despite hogging Bob O'Keeffe for the past half-decade. In 2025, they probably would have done so had they not put out an experimental side in the dead rubber against Wexford. Typically, they've shaken off any round-robin listlessness in time for Leinster final day in Croke Park, last year's frightful demolition of Dublin being a prime example. The busy midfield duo of Jordan Molloy and Cian Kenny were especially effective against Galway, hitting 0-05 from play between them. Mossy Keoghan, Kilkenny's designated scorer from play for parts of the league, has hit a goal a game in his four appearances so far, with 1-02 each against Galway, Dublin and Antrim. Significantly, he took TJ Brennan for 0-07 from play in the Nowlan Park league game. Mullen, recovered from his injury in the opening round, started the Wexford game in the odd location of centre-back though that's been written off as consequence-free experimentation. However, the absence of the still-injured Eoin Cody is a major loss for the defending champions. We're up on a decade since Kilkenny last claimed Liam MacCarthy, their longest barren run since 1947-57. The irritation at tossing away last year's semi-final against Clare may still rankle, especially in light of Limerick's exit the following week. In the eyes of the traditionalists, backing against Kilkenny in a Leinster final would be deemed as attention-seeking nonsense. Logically, they look like the more secure shout. But would be entirely in keeping with the enigmatic beast that is Galway hurling for them to turn up and win having taken a pasting in the fixture two months earlier.
