Galway unshackled after Leinster clean sweep
Those Galway hurling diehards who were put out by the PA system choosing to play 'N17' at the end of the Leinster hurling final should take solace in the fact that it could have been worse.
In 2017, after Galway had dispatched Wexford, the Croke Park PA had greeted the result by blasting out Ed Sheeran's 'Galway Girl' at full-time.
Some might argue that a song called 'Galway Girl' which name-checks Grafton Street is in fact a fitting accompaniment to the Galway hurlers winning the Leinster hurling championship.
But it apparently didn't meet with approval from the smallish Galway crowd in '17, who were heavily outnumbered on the day by the Wexford contingent.
For those unfamiliar with the sporting geography of Galway, the N17 is not a highway that many hurling people would have much cause to be on, situated as it is in the far north of the county, running all the way from Tuam to Sligo.
Certainly, they wouldn't be inclined to warble nostalgically about said stretch of tarmac.
The Galway players and management team didn't seem to care about the soundtrack one way or the other. There was a striking degree of euphoria at the final whistle.
Joe Canning wrote a few years ago in one of his first Irish Times columns that his three Leinster medals "didn't mean a whole pile" to him.
But sentiment appears to have shifted on that.
The eight-year spell without silverware has seen the Bob O'Keeffe Cup gain a new lustre in the Galway sporting imagination.
The extreme distress at the final whistle after Cillian Buckley's last-gasp goal for Kilkenny in 2023 made that much clear.
Micheál Donoghue, who had spent the post-match leaping about deliriously, declared afterwards that it was their "number one target for the year."
Micheál Donoghue at full-time
It caps off a landmark year for Galway in the province. They conclude it with the minor, the Under-20 and senior provincial titles - or the 'grand slam' as some of the Roscommon football crowd have taken to calling it.
The rest of Leinster - or maybe just 'Leinster' - may not be entirely thrilled at this development.
On the Smaller Fish podcast, Brian Carroll did lay his cards on the table last week when he admitted - a touch playfully to be fair - that he was hoping Dublin would win, specifically to avoid this Galway/Connacht clean sweep of Leinster.
Wexford and Offaly were not keen on Galway being admitted into Leinster in the first place back in the late 2000s and it was essentially decided above their heads, with then GAA President Nickey Brennan - to the fore in promoting the idea.
We know from Taggy Fogarty's testimony that Brian Cody took an exceptionally dim view of Galway winning Leinster, finding it considerably more unpalatable than Wexford or Dublin doing so. ("Brian would be a traditionalist...")
With Kilkenny hurling suddenly at a low ebb and probably closing in on root and branch review territory, Galway could be set fair for a period of dominance in their adopted province.
There again, much the same was being said around 2017/2018.
After the stagnation of recent seasons, it's been quite an abrupt gear change - though not without precedent in the annals of Galway hurling (1985, 2012).
Their younger crop have adapted to the demands of senior hurling with shocking speed.
Jason Rabbitte is an enormous weapon in the full-forward line. At 19, he's easily able to prosper as a lone target man when all his colleagues in the forward line withdraw back to the middle third.
He's like his father recast for the digital age and with a touch more subtlety and dexterity. If it were still 1993, the fertiliser companies would already be banging on his door.
Aaron Niland is a magnificent, swaggering talent and probably the most naturally gifted of them all.
His free-taking style is somewhat idiosyncratic. He nearly stands at a 145 degree angle to the goalposts and then swings out of his shoes. It's all very loose-limbed and wild-looking. He jabs the ball up swiftly too, forsaking the modern practice of balancing the ball on the hurley momentarily as it's lifted.
He's a couple of off-days but he was unerring on Saturday, hitting 1-08 and lashing home his penalty with relish.
They won it largely without the services of Rory Burke, who is the other of the most celebrated trio to emerge. His final involvement was unselfishly setting up the goal for Darragh Neary, another impressive newcomer, who had been usually deployed as a sub until the weekend.
Conor Whelan (R) looks a player reborn in 2026
Of the older crop, Conor Whelan looks rejuvenated. He prowled around in his usual low-slung style on Saturday, stroking over five points and setting up the first goal with an interception and then a looped pass into space for Burke.
He might have competed with the prolific Tom Monaghan for player of the match but for the black card.
They were helped by Dublin's reversion to route one tactics very early in the second half.
Much of the game from 40 minutes on was spent watching the ball hanging in the air before dropping down in John Hetherton's general vicinity, a sight that presumably made Daithí Burke's eyes light up, knee strapping or no knee strapping.
The Leinster final was certainly a setback for the 'let-it-in' brigade as a team who continually pumped it long were destroyed by a side who crowded their half of the pitch with bodies and then worked it through the lines on the counter.
Having been so used to the quarter-final detour to Thurles or the Gaelic Grounds, Galway will take some pleasure in being able to relax on that weekend for a change.
The default assumption is that they'll be playing Cork.
If anyone was planning to take a shot every time the phrase "no disrespect to Offaly" is used in the next fortnight, they might end up in the emergency ward.
Johnny Kelly's side are relaxing in bonus territory now and should enter the quarter-final under zero pressure. Their younger crop have experience of playing a Ben O'Connor-led Cork team in Thurles from the 2023 U20 final when some of the Cork defending was uncompromising, to put it at its most euphemistic.
If it is to be Cork, it's a team Galway haven't lost to in championship since 2008. That was an evening when Joe Canning launched himself on the national stage in unforgettable fashion.
Unfortunately, most of his teammates decided to leave that stage clear for him and that they weren't going to bother chipping in.
A 14-man Cork were inspired in the second half and won by two. Gerald McCarthy was jubilant in his post-match though the mood darkened considerably by the end of the year.
Galway have won all five championship games since and Canning never lost to Cork for the rest of his career.
Hurling Nation is again anticipating a Cork-Limerick All-Ireland final, just as it was at this stage last year.
They might yet be frustrated again.
Watch an All-Ireland Football Championship double-header, Louth v Armagh (1pm) and Tyrone v Mayo (3.30pm) on Sunday from 12.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
