Search Results for 'Jason Rabbitte'

Four teams remain standing in the race for the Tom Callanan Cup, with defending champions Loughrea continuing their pursuit of a third successive county title and Clarinbridge, Tommy Larkins and Craughwell all hoping to bring that remarkable run to an end.

The race for the Tom Callanan Cup reaches the quarter-final stage this weekend, with the four group winners re-entering the fray alongside four teams already battle-hardened from surviving the first hurdle in do-or-die hurling.

After an opening round dominated by tight finishes, Round 2 offers several teams an early opportunity to take control of their groups in the Galway Senior Hurling Championship.

There is an old saying that sport can be wonderfully uplifting one week and brutally unforgiving the next. Galway hurling experienced both ends of that spectrum in the space of a fortnight.

The second half of Galway’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Tipperary last summer made for painful viewing. The eventual Liam MacCarthy champions swept aside the Tribesmen with an ease that was as alarming as it was sobering in front of a sea of Tipp support.

Galway 3-25 Kilkenny 1-16

Some sporting victories end when the final whistle blows. Others continue long after the players have left the field. They travel home on buses and trains, into pubs and kitchens, across streets decorated with flags and into the memories of those who witnessed them.

As days following the Galway hurlers go, last Saturday afternoon in Croke Park will take some beating. Long after the final whistle had sounded, a wave of maroon euphoria swept around GAA headquarters as a unique rendition of N17 echoed around the stadium.

I’m not going to pretend I foresaw Galway’s Leinster final performance coming because, ahead of Saturday evening’s showdown, I felt a degree of trepidation about facing an in-form Dublin outfit.

It’s mad in one way, and perhaps somewhat unfair in another, but the success of the Galway hurlers in 2026 and Micheál Donoghue’s second season boils down to 70 minutes this weekend in Croke Park.