All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship final: Galway v Kilkenny (tomorrow, Croke Park, 1.30pm, live on TG4)
IF there’s a scoring target that the Galway and Kilkenny minor managers want to set for tomorrow’s All-Ireland final at Croke Park then it should be 23 to 25 points.
That three-point range has been reached by the last seven Irish Press Cup winners with Tipperary’s 2-18 winning tally six years ago coming after a replay.
Of course nothing in sport is guaranteed. You just have to go back two months to when Kilkenny hit 7-12 in the Leinster final and still lost to Dublin by four points.
That defeat sent Richie Mulrooney’s side in the All-Ireland quarter-final group stage where they lost to tomorrow’s opposition before responding with a win over Limerick to reach the last four.
Ciaran Brennan’s first-half goal proved crucial in their two-point semi-final win over Tipperary and they are now preparing for their 10th game of the summer.
Galway, by contrast, have played just three times but they have looked mightily impressive on every occasion.
Their best performance so far came in the All-Ireland semi-final when they defeated Dublin 3-22 to 0-16.
Donal O’Shea’s 12 points took him to 1-27 over the three games while they have had 10 different scorers in all.
This is Tribesmen’s fourth final in six years and they are currently 2-1 up. Jeff Lynskey was the man in charge in those successes in 2015 and 2017, and he should guide his players to yet another triumph in what could be a memorable day for Galway.
