By Mark Jones
Galway 4-23 Derry 1-11
WHERE there was life, there was hope. Remember, Derry had pushed Offaly to the limit at the same stage last summer, but the fire was extinguished quickly in last Sunday’s hopelessly one-sided All Ireland hurling semi-final at Croke Park. "In order to reach a semi-final, we had to win a quarter-final," philosophized Galway manager, Noel Lane. And there wasn’t much more to say.
Guilty of elementary errors, Derry’s performance a year ago against Offaly was a distant memory as they succumbed to Galway’s vastly superior teamwork, technique and finishing skills. The door was left open for the Connacht champions to run through their full repertoire, but it was hardly a meaningful challenge ahead of the semi-final clash with Kilkenny.
Goals came at regular intervals with Eugene Cloonan helping himself to a grand total of 2-11 that included seven frees, while Kevin Broderick hit 2-3. "It doesn’t really matter what I scored," said Cloonan, "Galway won and as long as that happens I don’t care who scores. We’d been 10 points up at half-time before and lost matches, so we felt we couldn’t take our foot off the pedal."
They didn’t, scoring 2-12 during the second half as Derry were completely outclassed. "After last year’s performance, this was a terrible blow," admitted Oliver Collins. "It puts us back to square one again. Ulster hurling is the poor relation and Central Council will have to look at the overall structures."
Sign up to The Irish Echo Newsletter
Collins hit Derry’s only goal with a penalty just after the interval and if Geoffrey McGonagle won some good ball around the square as well as contributing three frees, the losers were never able to pose a significant threat. Alan Kerins, newcomer Darren Shaughnessy and Broderick were constant threats to the Derry defense. "For a lot of years, Galway have been known as a bunch of individuals," said team trainer, Mike McNamara, "they’ve had difficulty putting together team performances, but you saw the opposite out there."
Positive talk, but Galway’s collective will won’t be tested until August 19 when the opposition are in amber and black.