Leinster SHC Round Robin Round Five
Galway 2-27 1-24 Dublin
Kilkenny 1-24 to 2-20 Wexford
Henry Shefflin’s future as Galway senior hurling manager will be decided in the coming weeks after the Kilkenny legend admitted that he would consider things in advance of the final two years of his agreed term, following on from their championship exit in Salthill yesterday.
“It’s something after three years that I was always going to reassess, and that will be no different now,” said the Ballyhale man, after his team lost out by 2-27 to 1-24 by Dublin at Pearse Stadium.
“But I think today is not the day for that. I’m absolutely heartbroken because you put so much into this and we’ve thrown everything at it.
“We tried everything, but the more we seemed to try, the more it seemed to come back on us. It will be hurt for a few days, take a break and just try and get back to normal. What we said in the dressing room was that we’d take a few days and don’t make a rash decision, and that’s the only logical thing.”
The sending off of David Burke in the first half was to prove crucial. Galway responded well to the concession of an early Seán Currie goal, and they led by 0-9 to 1-1 when the red card was issued.
On a day when Michael Duignan’s view on RTE was that a “ten-point wind” was blowing down the ground, Galway’s 0-19 to 2-11 interval lead looked woefully inadequate.
So it proved as Dublin picked off a string of great points from Chris Crummey, Ronan Hayes, Dara Purcell and Danny Sutcliffe, with a brace of Donal Burke frees nudging them into the lead. They restricted Galway to just six second half scores, one of which was a well-taken goal for substitute Declan McLaughlin, but even that brief ray of hope was quickly extinguished as the Dubs shot four of the next five points.
Kilkenny will be Dublin’s opponents in the Leinster final on June 8th after they edged out Wexford by 1-24 to 2-20 at Nowlan Park, the key score a controversial TJ Reid penalty in the second half.
There was a measure of consolation for Wexford however as they secured third spot in the group thanks to their head-to-head win over Galway, and so they will play a preliminary quarter-final against the losers of the Joe McDonagh Cup final.
Wexford raced into a five-point lead with Cian Byrne and Cathal Dunbar impressive, and Conor McDonald’s goal restored that advantage at 1-8 to 0-6.
Kilkenny narrowed the gap by hitting the last three points of the first half, and a superb score from Paddy Deegan was one of the highlights as they carried that momentum into the second period, moving six clear when Reid slammed home a penalty awarded by Liam Gordon for a foul on Eoin Cody outside the area, though the Galway official didn’t show a black card to Liam Ryan, which would normally be part of the punishment for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Byrne got a late goal for the Model men, but time ultimately ran out on them.
