The Galway hurlers face a rare clash against Kerry at Austin Stacks park on Sunday afternoon. The last time the sides met was on March 24 1996 at Fitzgerald's stadium in Killarney as Galway ran out comfortable winners 1-13 - 0-8 points. The report from the Irish Independent is below:
The teams also faced each other on April 21st 1985 in the Ford Cup and previously to this clash they played each other in a league match in Tralee in the year 1971.
Here are the match reports on those two encounters:
Connacht Tribune match report – October 24th 1971
Galway made the long trip to Kerry over the weekend, a successful one when they came away with both points from this National hurling league tie which was played in Tralee.
The game the follow up to the Kerry senior football final between Mid Kerry and Shannon rangers, which was played before a huge crowd of well over 9,000. The win means the western side now has full points from both games and confirms them as favourites to win out their section of the league.
On Sunday they found themselves with a tough task as the Kerry team played well above their usual form when backed by their choir of supporters.
At half time thanks to some fine midfield play from John Connolly the winners were well in command and they led by 3-8 to 2-7. But in the second half 30 minutes they found themselves in a different position: after 11 minutes the enthusiastic Kerry men came back in fine style. And not only that but they held Galway score for score almost up until eight minutes from time. Then their bubble burst and Galway cruised home. Best in the Galway team were John Welsh and Ted Murphy in the back line. Thanks to their constant vigilance Kerry found the going very tough indeed. At midfield John Connolly as been said was in the best of form and incidentally he was playing his first game since getting on the all-star team.
And in the forward line Paraic Fahy and PJ Molloy and PJ Qualter turned up very well indeed as they proceeded to give Galway the winning scores. Best form was shown by the relative new comer Molloy his contribution consisted of three superbly taken goals throughout the hour. As a matter of fact he scored the same number of points 10 as did Paraic Fahy so they must have really been in top gear all the time.
Galway: Sean Kelly, John Coen, John Fawl, John Walsh, Paraic Niland, Ted Murphy, Peter Murphy, John Connolly, S. Murphy, Mick O Connell, Bernie O’ Connor, Paraic Fahy, Seamus Quinn, P.J Qualter, PJ Molloy.
Scorers: Galway - P. J. Molloy (3-1), P. Fahy (0-10), M. O'Connell (1-0), J. Connolly (0-3), B. O'Connor (0-1), S. Murphy (0-1).
Kerry - D. Lovett (1-9), T. Nolan (1-1), F. Thornton (1-0), J. O'Sullivan (0-1)
Ford Cup Open Draw Quarter Final - April 21st 1985
GALWAY 4-12 KERRY 0-8 by MICHAEL GLYNN
THE VAST gulf that exists between the hurling powers and those who aspire to join the elite band, is no closer to being bridged. That's certainly the case if one is to accept the bare evidence of this Ford Cup Open Draw miss-match at Tralee on Sunday when Galway, operating at low efficiency, coasted to a facile win over Kerry. The magnitude of their win was achieved almost despite themselves, for Galway failed utterly to find an acceptable blend and the outcome reflected more on the poverty of the home side than anything else. True, Kerry have achieved some notable results in recent years which signalled hopes of resurgence in the game in the county, but on Sunday there was no indication of potential whatsoever. All they had to offer was size and strength and a very small ration of ability — which combined was hardly enough to provide token opposition to a Galway side struggling, in its own right, to attain cohesion.
Galway will take little satisfaction from the margin of victory—and they would be wise to disregard it altogether and instead examine the many imperfections that laced their game, not least the fact that by the 5Oth minute they had only scored 1-2 from play, and a freak goal. They were poor from the outset, unable to find any sort of rhythm in attack, and it was only through the agency of a freak Tony Kilkenny goal seconds from half time that they really stamped their Scoreboard authority. And even though Kerry were reduced to fourteen men two minutes after the restart when full back Maurice Leahy was sent off, Galway still failed to make capital up front until the last ten minutes, registering their other three goals in that spell.
Galway were never under pressure so performances, particularly in defense, were probably flattering. The experiment of playing Steve Mahon at wing back must await a more searching examination, though on the evidence of the early minutes there must be reservations about his positional play if not about the quality of his hurling which became increasingly impressive in the second half. The big hitting Michael Mooney did his case for regular inclusion at centre half back no harm at all, while Seamus Coen was as vigilant as ever in the right comer, despite a two year absence. The midfield contribution from Michael Connolly and Tony Kilkenny was spasmodic and a repeat of their loose marking in the first half would be more severely punished against higher class opponents, may seem strange that little positive can be said about an attack that collected 4-12, but in truth the unit was extremely disappointing, and the only things of significance were the impact made by Anthony Cunningham when moved to full forward for the closing quarter and the goal scoring comeback by P. J. Molloy. But, perhaps, Joe Cooney was the liveliest forward throughout. Sitting Pretty Galway, with wind advantage were 0-6 to 0-1 ahead by the 29th minute but in that period were also guilty of seven wides to Kerry's four. Then a stroke of good fortune left them sitting pretty at the interval. Tony Kilkenny dropped his shot for a point from 45 yards and having never risen above head height, the ball dropped fifteen yards out and bounced straight in the direction of goalkeeper John Conway who fumbled his attempted catch and saw it drop over the line. In fairness Conway subsequently redeemed himself with a couple of superb saves.
Galway, leading by 1-7 to 0-1 at the break, put together one of their best moves of the afternoon two minutes after the resumption — and it led to the dismissal of Leahy who had already been booked seconds prior to the interval for striking Brendan Lynskey off the ball. Cunningham came across the field to gather a Connolly delivery that had eluded Michael McGrath and, skipping inside with a tremendous burst of speed, avoided an attempted trip before being flattened by Leahy's frontal charge. Referee Neilly Duggan had no option but to issue the full back, -over physical from the start, with his marching orders and from the subsequent penalty Michael Haverty, who had an earlier goal attempt from a 21 yard free blocked over the bar, and accepted the point.
Galway still never raised their game above mediocrity and the score stood at 1-10 to 0-5 until ten minutes from the end. For once the forwards gelled and Haverty, taking a diagonal ball from Cooney, played it inside to Cunningham, now at full forward, who finished it in clinical style. It was one of the rare occasions that the Kerry defence was torn apart by a premeditated move and it was not to occur again. Molloy's goal in the 55th minute was due to his own invention when he grabbed Cunningham's through ball and shot to the net on the turn and the fourth goal owed its execution to Sylvie Linnane's perseverance when he followed up after his first effort had been charged down. Linnane, in fact, had been hunting for the goal for some time — becoming the free man after Leahy’s dismissal and taking up duty between midfield and half forward.
Galway: P. Murphy, S. Coen, C. Hayes, S. Linnane 1-1, S. Mahon, M. Mooney, O. Kilkenny, M. Connolly 0-1, T. Kilkenny 1-0, M. Haverty 0-8 (four from frees, two from 70s, one from penalty and one from play), B. Lynskey 0-1, J. Cooney 0-1, M. McGrath, N. Lane and A. Cunningham 1-0. Subs: B. Forde for McGrath (38 mins) and P. J. Molloy for Lane (44 mins).
Kerry: J. Conway, T. Sullivan, M. Leahy, J. Hennessy, M. Burke, T. Canty 0-1 (free), J. Carroll, P. Dowling, D.J..Leahy 0-2, E. Fitzgerald, J. O'Connell, T. McMahon, B. Neenan, C. Walsh 0-2 (from frees), C. Nolan 0-1. Subs: B. Horgan 0-1 for Neenan (41 mins) and L. Hussey 0-1 for Fitzgerald (51 mins).
Referee: N. Dugan (Limerick).
