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Christy OâConnorâs talking points: Here come the missing Galway minors
Galway have used more players (37) than any other side in this league.
UNDERAGE STAR: Galwayâs Aaron Niland has yet to feature in the league. Pic: Eamonn McGee
Fri, 07 Mar, 2025 - 18:30
The pattern for Galway began at the start, with the first team, the one that heralded a new beginning and ignited an era of dominance at minor level over 30 years ago.
The irony was all the greater again because Galway werenât necessarily depending on that 1992 team at that time. They won the 1991 All-Ireland U21 title and reached the 1993 senior final, but once the pattern began, it became a process, almost like a ritual for managers.
Ten of the 1992 All-Ireland minor team were tried, eight featured in championship.
Some of them only lasted a few years, or a couple of games, before the next wave of talented minors would come along and the senior management would trawl with their nets again, scooping up the best catches. The best would make the cut, but they were never too far away from the next brutal cull.
Galway had so many talented players that there was no desire to rehabilitate the ones that were scarred from the experience of being thrown into the deep end too early. When the choice was endless, managers just picked somebody else.
The turnover of players was extraordinary. Consistency was non-existent for the guts of two decades until Anthony Cunningham took over in 2012. When MicheĂĄl Donoghue replaced Cunningham after the 2015 All-Ireland final, Galway became more consistent and harder to beat than they had in three decades, which was reflected in a first All-Ireland senior title in 29 years.
By the time Donoghue stepped away after the 2019 championship, at least Galway looked in good shape to build on the foundations and principles established by Donoghue, particularly with the amount of young talent coming through again. Between 2017-â20, Galway became the first county to win four All-Ireland minors in-a-row.
Yet when Galway struggled at senior in the intervening years, that age-old question continually resurfaced again â where had all the successful minors gone?
A number of players from those minor teams between 2017-20 did feature under Shane OâNeill and Henry Shefflin but not as many as expected, particularly when the team needed more reconstruction. The S&C ladder has made it much harder for players to make that transition from underage to senior, but the bulk of that group between 2017-â20 are in their mid-20s now. And Donoghue has trawled that net once more.
When Donoghue picked his initial training panel of 57, there were 27 All-Ireland minor winners from those four minor teams on board. Fifteen from that group have already played in this league but how many are likely to consistently feature in the championship?
Possibly nine - Darach Fahy, Darren Morrissey, Tiernan Killeen, Ronan Glennon, Donal OâShea, John Cooney, Gavin Lee, Declan McLoughlin, Oisin Lohan.
However, that number could yet increase. Rory Burke, who played in the 2020 minor final and was U20 last year, is an outstanding talent. So is Shane Morgan, who played in the 2019 and 2020 minor finals.
Donoghue though, has cast the net as wide and far as he possibly could. Michael Garvey, who scored 0-5 against Wexford last weekend, got his chance on the back of an impressive club campaign with Cappatagle. Anthony Burns, who scored 3-4 in two starts against Clare and Wexford, was also brought into the squad in his mid 20s after an excellent season with Loughrea in 2024. Cillian Trayers was an All-Ireland minor football medal winner in 2022.
Galway have used more players (37) than any other side in this league, with Donoghue and his management setting out their stall from the word go when handing four starting debuts to Garvey, Burke, Lohan and SeĂĄn Murphy in their opening game against Tipperary, with Burns, Morgan and Cillian Whelan also given senior exposure for the first time that afternoon.
Murphy, another outstanding young defender, will line out for Presentation College Athenry in the All-Ireland Colleges final against Thurles CBS on St Patrickâs Day. So will Aaron Niland and Jason Rabbitte, two other members of the current senior panel who have yet to play in this league â but who possibly could feature against Cork after the colleges final.
Niland, who has been recovering from a long-term injury, got his first game-time in months when coming off the bench in last weekendâs All-Ireland semi-final against St Kieranâs. The best young prospect to emerge in Galway in an age, Niland is almost certain to play in the championship. So could Rabbitte.
A son of Joe, he displayed his immense power, ball-winning ability and scoring potential in the All-Ireland colleges quarter-final against St Flannanâs.
Murphy, Niland and Rabbitte represent the future but Donoghue and his management are establishing strong foundations everywhere to make the future look as promising now as it did five years ago after Galway won four All-Ireland minors in-a-row.
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I didnât realise Niland is expected to play championship this summer - lots of potential but has he done enough for that type talk? Iâm fairly sure Oisin Lohan has no AI minor medal, he missed out Liam Collins though who does and has played league.
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Heâs in the squad but not sure heâll play much if at all this year. Heâs only played 15 minutes of hurling after the guts of 9 months out. Iâd say they are more looking towards next year to introduce him.
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Niland is slightly one sided but other than that he is the truth.
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Heâs an outstanding talent, and is bigger than Evan, but I really hope they donât rush that injury.
Imagine a school team having three senior IC panellists.
He has wheels, which his brother lacks.
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Billy Joyce RIP 
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Ah brill. Iâll give that a listen now
Presentation Athenry hope to end Galwayâs long wait for Croke Cup success
11 March 2025 - 9:29AM
Jason Rabbitte of Presentation College Athenry, Galway, ahead of his teamâs Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools A Hurling Final against Thurles CBS, Tipperary, during the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Finals Captains Call at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
One of the quirks of the Masita GAA Post Primary Schools Croke Cup (Senior A Hurling) is that it has only been won once by a Galway school.
That was all of 30 years ago back in 1995 when a Kevin Broderick inspired St Raphaelâs College, Loughrea swept to victory over Midleton CBS in the final.
Since then Galway schools have reached seven more finals but lost them all.
When you consider that in the same period theyâve won 11 All-Ireland minor hurling titles it does make the relative lack of success in the Croke Cup all the more stark.
Seasoned observers of post primary schools hurling think thereâs a good chance Galwayâs long wait for success in the Croke Cup may well end on St. Patrickâs Day when Presentation Athenry play Thurles CBS in this yearâs final.
The Athenry school have beat a seriously impressive path to get there, but team manager, Paul Hoban, knows that history can weigh heavily.
âIt just shows the standard, theyâre not easily won,â he says when you mention the solitary Galway success of St. Raphaelâs in 1995. âThatâs 30 years ago now.
âI actually met one of them this morning and he wasnât long telling me. Clement Earls a friend of mine was part of that St. Raphaelâs panel. He said I hope ye pip our title.
âHopefully we can over the line and put our name up on that mantle-piece but itâs obviously going to be a huge challenge because Thurles CBS are a fine team.
âIâve seen bits of them and they were very impressive in the Harty Cup Final. Theyâre a very fast team.
âWhen you get to an All-Ireland Final youâre going to be up against a good team. Weâll just try to do our best, and hopefully weâll get a good performance and see where that takes us.â
The Presentation College Athenry senior hurling team that will contest the Masita Croke Cup Final on St. Patrickâs Day.
Athenry are fancied to end Galwayâs long famine in this competition because of the impressive body of work theyâve put together in recent weeks.
They cruised to a very impressive 15-point victory in the Connacht Final over a talented ColĂĄiste Bhaile ChlĂĄir team that subsequently defeated Kilkenny CBS in the quarter-final and ran Thurles CBS very close in the semi-final.
Then, in the All-Ireland semi-final, they beat the Kingpins of this competition, St. Kieranâs College Kilkenny, by eight points.
The same St. Kieranâs that had appeared in the last nine Croke Cup Finals in a row, winning seven of them.
Three of those victories came against Presentation College Athenry in 2018, 2019, and 2023, so finally getting the better of St. Kieranâs was a real monkey off their back for the Galway school.
âI think everyone has suffered against them,â says Hoban. âAh yeah, it was great. It was all about the performance for us that day, anything in the past didnât matter.
âThatâs all that mattered. You have to be a good bit better to beat them. At stages they looked like they would come back into it.
âThey bring a lot with them. The crowd, the noise, theyâre a big outfit. We were delighted to get the win. That was our first win over them which I didnât know previously, but it just shows you the class that they have.â
Class is something that this Athenry team also had in abundance, including two Galway senior panellists in the shape of SeĂĄn Murphy and Aaron Niland.
Aaron Niland in action for Galway in the 2023 All-Ireland Minor Hurling Final.
Murphy made his League debut for the Tribesmen earlier this year while Niland is one of the most promising hurlers that Galway has produced in a very long time and is ably supported in an impressive Athenry attack by the likes of Jason Rabbitte and CiarĂĄn Leen.
Itâs not the high-profile individuals that makes this Presentation College Athenry team such a formidable force, though.
Itâs the team-ethic and work-rate from back to front that will make them a hard nut to crack in next Mondayâs All-Ireland Final.
âYou have to work to get rewards and in fairness to them so far theyâve worked hard,â says Hoban.
âThey have a great work ethic, theyâre always ready to go and youâd nearly be holding them back sometimes.
âAt the start of the year we had a good few injuries and other lads came into the fray and added more to it. Thatâs probably been the most pleasing part of the the campaign, we could have 40 lads training and the 26 the next day could be very different to what you had the last day."
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Rumours are they wanted to do it to Salthill but hose hoodlums got sick of waiting in traffic and turned back for North Galway pastures.
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I have it on good authority, that the more âseasonedâ panelists canât get over the quality of Nilands touch and general skill level during training.
Personally, i wouldnât play either himself, Murphy or Rabbitte this summer. Let them be teenagers and let them develop. If they are good enough, they will have plenty of time to hurl with Galway in years to come.
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Putting lads who are doing their LC on a senior panel is madness. Does more harm than good.
Bring them in after the leaving.
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100%. Pure madness.
I was really surprised to hear that theyâre training with the seniors. Maybe they just have the U20s in to have full games or something.
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