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Galway Championship Report for Galway GAA Yearbook |
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Awesome Attack Powers Portumna to Three-In-A-Row County Success
With their County and All-Ireland Club Senior Championships and League title retained in 2008, Portumna started their 2009 County championship campaign with a difficult assignment against Athenry, their conquerors in 2004, in Ballinasloe. It was a very close fought encounter and Portumna only succeeded in ensuring victory with a late flurry to collect their first brace of points. The result was 3-10 to 2-8 in Portumna's favour, Damien Hayes scoring three goals and Joe Canning hitting seven points. They next faced Tommie Larkins on a dreadful day in Killimor and again, while winning well in the finish, if Larkins had managed to score a number of good chances in the first half, it would have been a much closer contest. Joe Canning and the three Hayes were outstanding and accounted for 3-14 of their total. Next came Beagh, who gave them a right scare in the League final of 2008 but Portumna came through again 3-13 to 1-10 with Ollie Canning grabbing an early goal, Leo Smith and Joe Canning managing the others and Damien Hayes adding three point from play. Their final Group game was against Turloughmore and having already topped their group, there was little at stake for Portumna. Turloughmore needed to keep the difference low to avoid relegation trouble. Portumna raced into an early 1-4 to 0-0 and while they continued to press forward, Turloughmore's needs were stronger. They made a spirited comeback but Portumna managed to keep a safe distance in front and won on a 1-13 to 0-10 score-line. Again the Hayes and Joe Canning were the main scoring threat and put up a tally of 1-12.
The draw for the preliminary quarter-finals pitted Portumna against St. Thomas in Loughrea and they again overcame this challenge but Thomas's contributed to their own downfall with the early sending off of their goalkeeper for a needless infringement. Castlegar were their quarter-final opponents and with Joe Canning and the Hayes contributing 3-17, Castlegar could not match this scoring rate as the deployment of an extra defender weakened their scoring power. On to Athenry and another meeting with the 2008 finalists Gort in the semi-final. Portumna owned this match for almost the whole of the game and were a comfortable fourteen points clear with ten minutes to go. They were still ten clear as the game entered extra time but a freak breakdown in their defence-both Eoin Lynch and Joe Canning had left the field-allowed Gort to score four goals in the last ten minutes and Portumna were holding out by a goal when the final whistle sounded on a 4-14 to 6-5 final count. On the other side of the draw, rivals Loughrea had come through difficult encounters with Beagh and Mullagh to force a much-awaited showdown.
Much awaited it was, as a draw between Beagh and themselves, and an objection by Mullagh to the outcome of their semi-final, pushed the County final into mid-November, a full five week wait for Portumna and a full month for Loughrea. Pearse Stadium was in excellent condition despite the bad weather all week and Portumna were decisive winners this time with a 5-19 to 1-12 victory over their Co.Final rivals. Portumna made a dream start with goals from Joe Canning-a twenty metre free and two in quick succession from man-of-the -match Damien Hayes to put a bit of daylight between the teams and despite a major in reply from Johnny Maher, Portumna held a 3-10 to 1-4 advantage at half-time and another Damien Hayes goal in the first minute of the second half for Portumna all but killed the game as a contest. There was no way back for The Town and despite having the unfortunate Niall Hayes sent off midway through the second half, another goal from Martin Dolphin tied up the encounter in favour of Portumna.
It is true to say that the forwards have put up big tallies on the way to the title but behind them, the backs have proven themselves as top-class defenders, even on the national stage and Ollie Canning, Eugene McEntee, Aidan O'Donnell, Gareth Heagney, Micheal Ryan, Peter Smith and now converted forward Martin Dolphin gave huge protection to Ivan Canning all year. At midfield the tireless Leo Smith and versatile Eoin Lynch have controlled midfield with their incredible workrate and up front Damien, Niall and Kevin Hayes, All-Star Joe Canning, Andrew Smith and Ciaran Ryan have all contributed handsomely to the team's achievements.
They have now contested a record seven county finals in a row and won five. By any standards, this is exceptional and tributes must be paid to their dedication and to the management team of Johnny Kelly, Timmy Walsh and Vincent Treacy, ably backed by Oisin O'Neill and Dinny Cahill and the many others who support and sponsor Portumna through all their campaigns. Chairman Dan Lynch welcomed the squad back to Portumna before a large crowd on a miserable night. Flanked by Secretary Fiona O'Meara and Treasurer Celia Keane he praised their magnificent achievement of three Senior hurling County Titles in a row and their fifth success since their initial title in 2003.
Eight members of the present panel were on the Galway senior panel in 2009-Ollie & Joe Canning, both of whom were awarded Hurling ALL-Stars for their performances in 2009, Eugene McEntee, Eoin Lynch, Andrew Smith, Niall, Damien & Kevin Hayes. Joe also had a great year at U-21 where he was joined by young Martin Dolphin & Joe Keane. For the first time in many years we had no minor representative but must pay tribute to a magnificent Galway minor team on winning the All-Ireland in a very impressive manner.
At Under-14 Ronan O'Meara and Colin Burke represented Galway at the Tony Forrestal Memorial Tournament in Waterford.
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