Donoghue: Young Galway cohort were 'earmarked way back'
Galway manager Micheál Donoghue credited the attitude and energy of their batch of under-20 players for invigorating the squad after their emphatic 15-point win over Kilkenny in Salthill.
The westerners secured their first Leinster SHC win over Kilkenny in four years with championship debutants Rory Burke and Jason Rabbitte responsible for all three of their goals, while another much heralded prospect Aaron Niland racked up 0-08 in his first championship outing.
Cian Daniels was an influential figure in midfield, while Cillian Trayers manned the full-back line, with the experienced Daithí Burke released to centre-back. Darragh Neary also had an eye-catching cameo in the final quarter, snaffling 0-02 from play.
The younger cohort of Galway players have injected life into a panel which had been stuck in a holding pattern in recent seasons, still surviving on the fumes of the 2017 All-Ireland winning team.
"I've said numerous times, these boys [younger players] have been really good at coming through the underage system here in Galway," Donoghue told RTÉ's Saturday Sport after the game.
"All the lads that are on the squad would probably have been earmarked way back.
"In their humility and their workrate and their attitude, they're bringing a massive energy to the whole group. Even the experienced fellas are feeding off that.
"The last few weeks have gone OK but we're very mindful that this is the first game of five.
"The squad has gone through a fair transition but we still have a lot of experience, particularly at the back with Padraic [Mannion] and Daithí [Burke]. There's a nice mixture between experience and youth."
Micheál Donoghue: 'The squad has gone through a fair transition'
Donoghue's side had beaten Kilkenny by 18 points in their league clash at the same venue last month, a result which generated oceans of comment but was subsequently contextualised by talk of a sickness bug in the visitors' camp.
The build-up this weekend was accompanied by warnings that Kilkenny would not countenance losing in a similar fashion.
In the end, the margin of Galway's victory was roughly in the same ballpark as the March league game, though John Donnelly's sending off after half-time was a sizable contributing factor, while Kilkenny also missed several goal chances.
"I thought we started OK, and obviously the two goals just before half-time gave us a cushion of, I think, five or six going into half-time," said Donoghue.
"Obviously with the elements behind us in the second half and once the sending off occurred, it gave us the platform to go on and win the match."
Derek Lyng's side suffered a second successive double-digit loss in Salthill
Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng said that the result effectively left them in a knock-out situation but insisted he had no doubts about the character in the group.
"It's more or less knockout for us now and we have to face up to that and we need a quick turnaround next weekend," he told reporters.
"These things can happen. It's about character and how you turn it around now. That’s going to be asked of us and rightly so. I know they’re going to be hurting. They were hurting the last time as well. But today, it wasn’t good. I’m not happy with that."
Asked about the Donnelly sending off, Lyng accepted it without complaint, noting that his players had done the same.
"Obviously, I think there was no argument from anybody, so it was a red card as far as I could tell."
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