Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship

Round 4

Antrim v Galway

Saturday 17 May

Throw in: 2:30pm

Venue: Pearse Stadium, Salthill

Referee: Thomas Gleeson (Dublin)

Brendan McTaggart looks ahead to Saturday’s Leinster Senior Championship game between Antrim and Galway in Salthill.

Antrim’s Leinster championship campaign goes Into The West on Saturday afternoon as they face Galway in their backyard.  It’s a contest that anyone with any kind of Saffron coursing through their veins should relish.  A chance to pit your wits against the Tribesmen under the cloak of championship and the intensity that comes with that.

The Leinster Championship itself has been an unforgiving mistress for Antrim as they go to Galway in search of their first points of the campaign.  Given that my old mate Paddy Power has the handicap betting at 21 points and the home side at an eyewatering 1/80, it’s going to take something probably never seen before in hurling circles for the Saffrons to get anything out of the game.  When you throw in the list of absentees, an already difficult task is stretched even further.  Conal Cunning is a long-term absentee with clubmates Seaan Elliott and Keelan Molloy joining him on the side line.  Elliott picking up his injury against Wexford while Molloy was originally chosen in the starting 15 for the Dublin game but is said to have picked up a hand injury.  Conor Johnston’s return from injury remains uncertain with his game time against Dublin reduced greatly, a game that Niall McKenna also missed after a close family bereavement.

James McNaughton will also be missing after his red card the last day towards the end of the Dublin game and that leaves you with potentially six forwards missing that if put together would make for a great starting unit.

To look beyond Saturday just for a moment, Antrim travel to Tullamore in the last day.  A game that could be a winner takes all contest but that is dependent on how Offaly fare against Wexford on Saturday.  A win for the Faithful County and it leaves all sorts of scenarios that, for the moment, don’t bare thinking about.

Back to Saturday in Salthill.  While it’s a championship game and there is always something to play for, really, Antrim have nothing to lose.  No-one, least of all Paddy Power, is expecting Davy Fitzgerald’s team to come away from Salthill with a positive result so they can play with a certain freedom.

While Galway are undoubtedly favourites, their form this campaign hasn’t exactly been eye catching.  As it stands, Kilkenny and Dublin are top dogs in Leinster with the Tribesmen not too far off them but they are a side finding their feet again under Micheál Donoghue despite reappointing the man who brought the Liam McCarthy Cup back to Galway in 2017.  He has taken over the reins from Henry Shefflin and is in the midst of a rebuild.

With Offaly laying in wait, playing Galway eight days beforehand with potentially, their Leinster Championship survival on the line, it’s not ideal.  An extra week maybe wouldn’t have went a miss in there.  Given the list of players missing, it’s going to take something miraculous for Antrim to get a result.  A performance where they die with their boots on, give everything they have possible and show that they are willing to fight to the very end is something that Davy Fitzgerald has been demanding from day one.  There has been periods within matches that Antrim can look to, those periods shown against Wexford and for the majority of the Kilkenny game, Antrim looked to be a match.  They travel to Galway with a weakened side, an ear for the result coming out of Wexford Park and an eye on Tullamore next weekend.