NHL Division One/ Galway 3-25 Antrim 0-12: The official beginning of Ger Loughnane's mission in Galway was always going to draw the curious to Salthill.
This opening day of the league would have been better served by more imaginative fixture planning, but, as it was, well over 4,000 people showed up to see Galway duly chasten Antrim.
When the same counties met here in the championship two summers ago, only 300 people paid in. The Clare man generates excitement and he brings the crowds, and, by the end of this lamentably one-sided match, Loughnane's most difficult task was to escape from the small army of photographers kneeling in front of him.
"I don't think there was any film in that camera - it was all for show," he quipped in the dressingroom later.
Those who paid in expecting to see Clare circa 1997 in maroon jerseys left disappointed. If anything, this match reconfirmed the old certainties of Tribesman hurling. Galway played some lovely hurling and made some maddening and basic mistakes. They struck many impressive points and took plenty of wrong options.
In full flow, they looked majestic, but there were other periods when even this brittle Antrim team made them look ordinary and error-prone.
The names that seemed destined for greatness a decade ago still shone yesterday.
Eugene Cloonan and Kevin Broderick were in prodigious form. Gregory Kennedy was an 11th-hour replacement for Damien Joyce (flu) and looked at home at corner back. Alan Kerins came in from the bench and clipped two nice points.
It took Galway 10 minutes to register their first score, a rudimentary Cloonan free, and not until Broderick cracked a goal from the meanest of angles on 20 minutes did they relax.
The scores began to fly over and goalkeeper Aidan Ryan produced an impressive save off Liam Watson to deny what was a strong Antrim goal chance on 33 minutes.
Two minutes later, David Tierney retrieved a nothing ball and soloed uncontested along the end-line before deftly snapping Galway's second goal. At 2-9 to 0-3, the contest was over.
"It was a very nervous start," conceded Loughnane. "You could see when we came here an hour before the game that the players were too uptight altogether. But we played okay.
"What is everyone in Galway most worried about? It is the defence. And we had some hairy moments in the first 20 minutes. God, we made terrible mistakes. But then we settled down and the half back line came into the game. Some people will go away and say this was a useless exercise. But it is the first game out of the way for us."
Antrim found the Galway men keen to hurl for 70 minutes and it was clear that Loughnane is carrying out auditions for starting places. Chances are he will like the look of Kevin Brady's ferocious, bristling style. John Lee, the Liam Mellow's minor sensation, made judicious use of an hour at centre back.
Big Diarmuid Cloonan was introduced as full back and it was his long, direct ball that facilitated the brother's goal after several earlier chances went a-begging.
Galway accumulated a big score, but, in truth, Antrim were in a sorry state for the second half.
"We have emphasised so much that we want to get the ball fast into the full forward line," said Loughnane. "But it is very hard to get players in that practice. You don't eliminate a fault in just one game. And you just have to keep telling them that this is how we are going to play this year. Because everyone can see when the ball goes down fast to that forward line the dangers they create."
If Loughnane has his work cut out, what about Terence McNaughton? It cannot have been fun for the Saffron legend to watch his young team shorn to pieces here by a team scoring for fun at the close. Karl McKeegan hurled outstandingly on occasion, and in the first half a sweet flick from Paul Shields to Liam Watson drew ripples of applause. But after a bright 10 minutes, Antrim were overwhelmed.
"It is soul destroying," McNaughton said of seeing his players defeated in this manner. "You are trying to change the mindset of generations of people.
"In my career, we had a brief spell of matching the top teams. But to get back up there is fierce hard. In 1986, we gave Cork a rattle and it took us five years just to get back there.
"That match programme says it all. There are 20 teams in the Galway senior championship. There are two teams who can realistically win the Antrim championship. So we aren't going to set the world on fire."
It made for a long drive home to the Glens. Tougher days lie ahead for Loughnane and Galway.
GALWAY: A Ryan; G Kennedy, S Kavanagh, T Og Regan; D Forde, J Lee, D Collins; E Lynch, D Tierney (1-0); R Murray (0-3), M Kerins (0-2), F Healy; D Hayes (0-1), E Cloonan (1-10, 3 frees, 3 65), K Broderick (1-3). Subs: N Healy (0-4)for F Healy (half-time), A Kerins (0-2)for E Lynch (42 mins), D Cloonan for G Kennedy (50 mins), K Brady for D Tierney (59 mins), C Dervan for J Lee (59 mins).
ANTRIM: DD Quinn; B McAuley, K McKeague, S Delargy; C Herron, J Campbell (0-1), M Molloy; K McKeegan (0-2), B Herron (0-2); K Stewart, L Watson (0-3), M Herron (0-2); P Richmond (0-1, N McAuley (0-1), P Shields. Subs: A Delargy for P Shields (42 mins), M Magill for K Stewart (46 mins), A Graffin for B McAuley (60 mins).
Referee: J Keane
