Lally's Table Talk

Ballymacward native and Ballybrown coach notes finalists’ contrasting styles

By Stephen Glennon

IF there is one man well placed to assess the intricacies and state of hurling in the two counties contesting Sunday’s All-Ireland senior final, it’s former Galway minor and senior coach Kevin Lally.

For more than a year and a half, the Ballymacward native has made the 170km round trip from his adopted Craughwell home to Limerick’s Ballybrown, which he guided to a county senior championship semi-final appearance last autumn.

It is another entry on an impressive coaching CV. Lally has worked with Craughwell and Kilnadeema-Leitrim seniors and steered St Thomas’ to three Galway senior titles. More recently, he coached the Galway minors to the 2020 All-Ireland crown before joining the county senior set-up, where he spent three years coaching under manager Henry Shefflin.

Early morning, Lally sits at the kitchen table in his Ballymana home. The house is springing to life. His children, Sadie and James, are up, while his wife Emer, a teacher at Presentation College Athenry, has been correcting exam papers since the crack of dawn.

On Sunday, Galway’s hurlers face an examination of their own against John Kiely’s Limerick. Lally sees parallels with the counties’ last All-Ireland final meeting eight years ago.

“Limerick came in 2018 with a new team, a vibrant team, and I think there are a lot of parallels to where Galway are going now with the seven or eight new players they have in there this year. That is very similar to Limerick in 2018, where the flip of that this year is that Galway are coming with a brand new team.”

Limerick edged that 2018 decider, 3-16 to 2-18. Are Galway capable of doing now what the Shannonsiders did then?

“That’s the big question,” acknowledges Lally, “but I think Galway hurlers, historically, have been good when they have got a bit of momentum and are on a bit of a roll.”

Galway’s displays against Dublin in the Leinster final and Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final have certainly registered in Limerick.

“The vibe out of Limerick is very much that they are worried about Galway in terms of the style they play,” continues Lally.

“Obviously, Limerick are very structured and Galway, you could say, are very unstructured in terms of withdrawing players. So, there are going to be two contrasting styles. Whereas Galway will play with one up top in Jason [Rabbitte] and withdraw everyone else, Limerick will hold positions more.”

Lally is a huge admirer of Rabbitte, a first-year student at Atlantic Technological University Galway, where Lally works and coaches the freshers team.

“Jason deserves massive credit. If you think of the two full-backs he has pitched up against over the last two days, Dublin’s Paddy Smyth and Cork’s Damien Cahalane, they are two experienced full-backs.

“The narrative might be that he is a willing runner and ball winner, but I think he is much more than that. His movement, his lines of lateral running and his link-up play with the guy delivering the ball have been outstanding. I think he is going to cause Limerick a lot of trouble this weekend.”

Lally also takes considerable satisfaction from seeing his former underage charges progress. 2020 All-Ireland minor winners Tiernan Killeen, Gavin Lee, Kieran Hanrahan, Colm Molloy and Shane Morgan, along with 2021 finalists Rory Burke, Darragh Neary, Joshua Ryan and Oisín Lohan, are among those advancing their inter-county careers.

“To see those guys coming through is brilliant. A lot of credit must go to the County Board because, last year, everybody was saying, ‘How is it these players are not coming through?’ But they were very conscious that our athletic development programme was on the right track and it is at this stage now we can see that with the volume of players thrown in this year.”

For Lally, a seminal moment for this Galway outfit arrived during their National League clash against Cork at Pearse Stadium in January. “There was a little bit of a coming together at half-time [between Galway and Cork players].

“I remember being in the back of the stand and the crowd really got behind the team and you could see, for the first time in a long while, that the connection was building again between players and supporters. When you bring in new players, there is obviously a vibrancy and a freshness to the group. It was lovely to see the supporters get behind the team and I think that league game was a big moment.”

Ballybrown boast three Limerick panellists in Aidan O’Connor and brothers James and Colin Coughlan. “There has been great fun around the club with Aidan, James and Colin being involved,” says Lally. “They are three really good guys. Coming from the Limerick set-up, which is very much player-driven, when those three boys return to our set-up, they bring that back and that can only add to the team and the club.”

As for Sunday, Lally pinpoints the third quarter as crucial. Galway must be firmly in contention at half-time and ready for Limerick’s second half onslaught. In their last two games, John Kiely’s side only conceded a combined 2-9 after the interval against Cork and Clare. Impressive.

“Limerick are a brilliant team to make in-game changes, be it personnel or tactical, to get the job done. To concede only 11 scores in 70-odd minutes of hurling is huge. That tells you they are doing an awful lot right in-game and, obviously, an awful lot right at half-time.

“So, the third quarter, or the moving quarter, is key. We have got to be in the game. The last day we got a good bounce off our bench and we are going to need that again on Sunday.”

Conor Cooney, Lally believes, is a player who has been offering this in recent outings. “Conor has had a cracking year off the bench. It shows his selfless nature that he is still pushing hard to get on the team and he is still such a vital member of the Galway hurling squad.”

A final verdict is difficult, but Lally believes winning the Leinster title provided a significant lift to those players who had enjoyed underage and college successes without previously claiming senior inter-county silverware.

“For them to put a cup on the table, I was convinced it was going to make a big difference to those players personally and to the group – and we saw that against Cork in the semi-final.”

One more big Galway performance. An opportunity to turn the tables on Limerick. Possibilities abound.