I have already talked about Galway in the early stage of the Championship in a previous post, so I am not going to repeat myself here other than to say that Galway topped the table with 9 points, racking up 4 wins and a draw and Kilkenny finished second on 6 points for their 3 wins holding off the Dubs and Wexford who also had 6 points apiece, but the Cats (Kilkenny's knickname) had the better goal difference and so progressed to the Leinster final to face Galway.
The Leinster Final
Galway and Kilkenny togged out for the Leinster final on Saturday 4th June 2022 at the GAA headquarters Croke park in Dublin. Galway had already beaten Kilkenny in the Championship prevailing by the narrowest of margins at a typically windy and blustery Pearse stadium on May 1st. Galway may have only won by a single point, but that scoreline did not really reflect the match in which Galway dominated for large periods, and a last gasp Kilkenny goal made it a appear a closer game than it was.
Brian Cody's Kilkenny may not be the unstoppable force that they were in his early days at the helm, but nonetheless you never assume anything against the Cats, as they live, breath and eat hurling below in Kilkenny. Before the match, I actually thought to myself that we could actually meet Kilkenny 3 times this year. Yes, that would be unlikely, as it would mean that one of the teams would need to slay the mighty Limerick who have assumed the mantle of the team to beat in recent years, having racked up Liam McCarthy cup wins in 2018, 2020 and 2021.
So back to potentially meeting Kilkenny three times - my feeling was that if we beat them in the Leinster final, chances are they would take us in a third meeting of the teams.
In the end Kilkenny did win, and of course I was disappointed, as you never want your team to lose, but we were still alive in the Championship and would likely be facing the winners of a match between Cork and Antrim in a few weeks time.
Galway were a bit flat at times in the match against Kilkenny and Cooney will be very disappointed with his free taking, as he missed two or three very makeable ones, while his opposite number in the Kilkenny ranks TJ Reid put all of his over the bar with relative ease. It was a match that Galway could have won had they been sharper on front of goals, as they had three or four good goal opportunities, all of which they squandered.
I don't want to take anything away from Kilkenny though, as they were the best team on the day, but they did not play their best stuff either and for the neutral it was a fairly poor game of hurling and lacked the intensity and skill level that you expect at this level and stage of the hurling Championship.
All Ireland Quarter Final
On the 18th of June Galway will face the winners of a match between Antrim and Cork and Clare will face the winners of Kerry vs Wexford.
At this stage the Championship bears its teeth at last, as now it is knock out and to be honest, in my opinion that's how it should be from the getgo, if you lose you should be out, but let's not go down that particular rabbit hole right now.
Cork overcome Antrim without breaking much sweat at the weekend meaning that it will be Cork who Galway face in the All Ireland Quarter final and neither team will be too happy, as both have strong teams and strong ambitions for All Ireland glory in 2022. The winners here will face Limerick in the All Ireland semi final and any realist will say that it will be the end of the road for either team then, but sport and particularly hurling is never as simple as that, and when 15 face 15 on the weekend of July 2nd and 3rd, we could get a shock. That's the beauty of sport, nothing is ever 100% and many times the underdog can prevail.
I live in hope and I am a hopeless optimist, so as long as Galway are alive and kicking in the 2022 Championship, I will be visualising a Galway man hoisting the Liam McCarthy cup aloft in Croke park in July.
These photos are all my own captured on my Samsung Smartphone
