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Place In Walsh Cup Final At Stake As Offaly Face Galway

Thursday, 4 February 2010

By John O'Callaghan
After their great victory over Kilkenny last Sunday, Offaly hurlers have little time to rest of their laurels before taking on Galway in the Walsh Cup semi-final next weekend.
Galway entered the Walsh Cup for the first time last year as part of the move that brought them into the Leinster Championship as well, and their first game in the competition was against Offaly. Galway won on that occasion by 1-17 to 2-10 en route to the final of the competition, where they were eventually beaten by Kilkenny.
Galway got a bye into the quarter finals so had their first outing in this year's competition last Sunday when they travelled to Rathdowney to face Laois. They found themselves seven points down at half time but battled back in the second half and at the end of 70 minutes the sides were deadlocked. The game went to extra time and Galway took charge at that stage and went on to win by 4-24 to 2-17.
Offaly have had the benefit of two games behind them at this stage with wins over DIT and Kilkenny and they will have taken huge confidence from last Sunday's victory over the Cats. True it was a very much understrength Kilkenny side, but they have fielded understrength sides in the Walsh Cup over the last number of years and still managed to win four of the last five titles. So it certainly wasn't a case of them just fulfilling the fixture.
It must be said also that Offaly were also minus a lot of their regular players, while a number of others were having their first outing of the year. The number of players absent on College duty should be reduced next weekend, so a few more of the regulars should come back into consideration for action against Galway.
It was the manner of last Sunday's victory that will probably please most. Having fallen five points behind at the end of the first quarter, it would have been easy to sit back and think 'more of the same old story against Kilkenny'. But they kept battling away and despite going six points down at one point, a goal on the stroke left them trailing by just a single point at the break.
That put them in good heart for the start of the second half but an early Kilkenny goal could have undone all that work as the Cats regained the advantage. However, Offaly never let up and they grew stronger as the game wore on. They were still trailing entering the closing stages, despite having so much of the possession, but in the latter stages they began to make that count and five points without reply steered them to a three point victory.
Like most teams at this time of the year, Galway weren't at full strength for their meeting with Laois, but they still fielded a fairly strong team. They are, of course, short of their Portumna contingent, who are preparing for their All-Ireland Club semi-final against Dunloy next Sunday week, but they were still able to field a team which featured such names as Damien Joyce, Shane Kavanagh, Fergal Moore, Tony Og Regan, Ger Farragher, Aonghus Callanan, Kevin Hynes, Joe Gantley and Richie Murray.
John McIntyre's side will have benefited from that game but the fact that it went to extra time could have taken a bit more out of the legs at this time of the year, when players are still regaining fitness. Last year's minor captain Richie Cummins came in as a sub and scored two goals in extra time, while Ger Farragher was as usual very accurate, shooting 1-9.
With the start of the league only two weeks away next Sunday, the benefit of another competitive game will be welcomed by both sides. It will give them the chance to try out more players and to bring players up to match fitness.
With so many players on Third Level duty over the last couple of weekends, Offaly will welcome the chance to bring some of them back into action this weekend, and blend them into the team again. As mentioned the league is only a couple of weeks away, and it is an opportunity to get good match action ahead of that.
Galway showed their scoring potential last Sunday, hitting 4-24, even though they had an extra 20 minutes, but it does show what they are capable of. However, Offaly will have noted that Laois led for a lot of the game and were level at the end of normal time.
Offaly have shown a lot of spirit in their two games to date and they will need to show that again next Sunday as Galway will pose another stiff test. However, with a win over Kilkenny behind them, Offaly will be full of confidence and are capable of claiming a place in the Walsh Cup Final.

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