Galway inflict another Salthill hammering on Kilkenny
Galway, bidding for their first Leinster SHC title since 2018, got their championship campaign off to a flying start as they dished out another hammering to the six-in-a-row reigning champions Kilkenny.
The expected Kilkenny backlash from their 18 points loss in the league at Pearse Stadium six weeks ago never materialised at the Salthill venue as they were blown away by a Galway side well worth their 15 points victory.
Fourteen Galway players hit the target in a game where Cathal Mannion, their main scoring threat for the past few years, didn't score although, inevitably, he had a hand in several scores who had an extra man for more than half the match.
Galway won the toss and opted to play against the strong breeze in the opening half and were in a very strong position by the break when they led by 2-08 to 0-09 despite shooting eight wides to two for the reigning champions.
The Galway half-back line of Padraic Mannion, Daithi Burke - making his 100th appearance for the county - and Gavin Lee dominated.
Indeed, Mannion and Lee went forward to get the opening scores before TJ Reid got the Cats off the mark after eight minutes with the first of his five points in the first half, four of them from frees.
He helped them lead by 0-05 to 0-03 at the end of the opening quarter but Kilkenny were struggling to make the breeze count and came off second best in a lot of the challenges.
Eoin Cody of Kilkenny feels the brunt of a Padraic Mannion tackle
Jason Rabbitte, one of four championship debutants for Galway, cut the gap and another one new to this level Aaron Niland kept them in touch with a couple of frees.
They then took over and outscored Kilkenny by 2-03 to 0-02 in the closing 11 minutes of the opening half with Rory Burke edging Galway in front when he collected a low pass on the left wing from Tiernan Killeen and peeled away from Paddy Deegan before smashing to the net after 25 minutes.
He got a second goal from a penalty eight minutes later after Niland was brought down as he bore down on a goal, which earned Mikey Carey a black card.
Cian Daniels, another championship debutant, and Burke added points, while at the other end Darach Fahy denied Eoin Cody and Daithi Burke saved the rebound after Gearoid Dunne, a late replacement, had earlier had an effort smothered as he bore down on goal.
Kilkenny suffered another huge blow just after the restart when John Donnelly was red-carded for a high challenge on Galway captain Darren Morrissey.
That killed off any notion of a Kilkenny comeback and the game was over as a contest when Rabbitte soloed through to finish in style to the back of the net to make it 3-12 to 0-12 after 48 minutes.
TJ Reid pulled back a goal from a penalty when Cody was fouled after 60 minutes but Kilkenny only managed three points after that as Galway, despite Whelan picking up a second yellow in the dying moments, pushed on to hit them for nine points in that time with five of their six substitutes scoring on a day when four of their starting defenders also hit the target.
Galway: Darach Fahy; Ronan Glennon (0-02), Cillian Trayers, Darren Morrissey (c); Padraic Mannion (0-01), Daithi Burke (0-01), Gavin Lee (0-01); Cian Daniels (0-01), Tiernan Killeen; Rory Burke (2-02, 1-00 pen), Cathal Mannion, John Fleming; Conor Whelan (0-01), Jason Rabbitte (1-01), Aaron Niland (0-08, 0-06f).
Substitutes: Kieran Hanrahan for Morrissey (36), Tom Monaghan (0-01) for Fleming (43), Darragh Neary (0-02) for Rabbitte (56), Colm Molloy (0-01) for Niland (59), Conor Cooney (0-02) for Trayers (61), Evan Niland (0-01f) for R Burke (67).
Kilkenny: Aidan Tallis; Mikey Butler, Mikey Carey, Paddy Deegan; David Blanchfield, Darragh Corcoran, Richie Reid; Cian Kenny (0-01), Jordan Molloy (0-01); Liam Moore (0-01), John Donnelly, Gearoid Dunne; Mossy Keoghan, TJ Reid (c) (1-08, 1-00 pen, 0-07f), Eoin Cody (0-03).
Substitutes: Tim Clifford (0-01) for Dunne (H-T), Killian Doyle for Molloy (48), Ed McDermott for Moore (50), Rory Garret for R Reid (52), Stephen Donnelly (0-01) for Moore (61).
Referee: Colm Lyons (Cork).
