AS the ever-turning wheel of the Down senior hurling cycle rotates, Ballygalget appear to be at a lower point at present.
Victory over two-in-a-row champions Ballycran tomorrow (4pm throw-in at Ballygalget’s Mitchel Park) is a must, as is a win away to their other old rivals, in-form Portaferry, on the first Sunday in September – but even with such outcomes they are unlikely to secure a place in the county final.
Yet ’Galget boss Garrett Dynes remains optimistic, despite the setbacks they’ve suffered so far in terms of both injuries and results:
“It’s getting down to what we would class as old style Championship – you lose, you’re out.
“The league format is OK, but it just didn’t have that Championship feel to it at the start. Now, though, it’s definitely ‘do or die’.
“It’s still in our hands, so we have to go out and perform our best. We have to win our next two games, that’s just the way of it.”
Although they’ve lost to both Ballycran and Portaferry in their second and third rounds of the new six-game round robin series, only beating senior newcomers Bredagh (twice), Dynes offers explanations rather than excuses:
“We’ve had a most unfortunate year with injuries. Everybody gets them but we’ve been hit hard. Danny Toner, out in the first game with a really bad knee injury, he’s out for the year. Danny’s a big loss, he’s worth a good five or six points every game.
“Then Eoin Coulter, early stages of the Ballycran game, he got a ball to the helmet, fractured an eye socket, so he’s out for the year.
“Even so, we’ve performed very, very well. We only lost to Ballycran after extra time – and they had to draw level to put it to extra time with the last stroke of the normal game. We just didn’t finish out in the first 60 minutes.
“Portaferry, we were on top for the majority of the game...still up at the second water break – then a goal they got changed the momentum of the game.
“As Championship always has been in Down, it’s nip and tuck. It’s about the rub of the green, which we probably didn’t get in those matches.”
Bredagh would argue that Ballygalget were fortunate to beat them last time out, Dynes’s charges only squeaking to a one-point win at Carryduff last weekend, 1-20 to 1-19, after extra time, thanks largely to 1-11 from placed balls by Gareth ‘Magic’ Johnston.
Ballygalget did defeat the Belfast side by 11 points in the series opener - but Ballycran and Portaferry have cruised to 21- and 18-point wins respectively over Bredagh, so are better-placed in terms of scoring difference.
Tim Prenter is also out of tomorrow’s clash due to suspension, so it’s understandable that Dynes says: “Everything is against us and Ballycran will probably feel they are the stronger side – but it’s all on the day. The boys are feeling positive, we’re feeling positive, so we’ll just go out and give it a go.”
Yet not quite everything is against Ballygalget. Although home advantage is limited, with only 150 spectators from each club allowed in, Dynes still believes that the game being at Mitchel Park can help their chances:
“When it comes to crunch knock-out, having it in your own ground is a nice wee thing to have. Having such an important match on your home turf, you’d take that all day long.”
Given that Portaferry are also at home to senior new boys Bredagh tomorrow (2pm) the former are surely certs to reach a fourth consecutive final – although they have lost the last three.
’Galget have lifted the title more recently than Portaferry, twice in fact, in 2016 and 2017, but the tighter nature of their tussles with Bredagh is likely to cost them any chance of regaining it.
However, until they’re definitely down, Ballygalget won’t count themselves out, with Dynes concluding: “Ballycran is a good side, they’re going for three in a row, they’re the ones up there to be taken down.”
