SOMEONE unearthed Tina Turner's Simply The Best to blare out over the cackly public address system; the Galwaymen were decent enough to form a guard of honour for All Ireland champions Wexford, and over 9,000 supporters provided a purple and gold backdrop as the Church and General National Hurling League's Division One campaign gasped its first breath of air at Wexford Park yesterday.
But, there, the general bonhomie ended. Not for the first time, a side in possession of the Liam McCarthy Cup were acquainted with the facts of life. As Larry O'Gorman put it afterwards: "We know every other team will up their game just to try and beat the All Ireland champions.
So it proved. Galway, the last team to beat Wexford in a competitive game, almost 12 months ago in the League semi final, never trailed and, in the end, were well worth their comfortable margin of victory.
The hurling, admittedly, wasn't great. The sharpness of summer days was, not surprisingly, absent and, for teams in the middle of stamina training, the heavy underfoot conditions contrived to leave legs a little leaden and shooting a little jagged.
There was a surreal atmosphere too, with barely a handful of Galway supporters in the large expectant crowd and, consequently, each point from the visitors was greeted with an eerie silence interspersed with polite applause.
Such a lack of enthusiasm didn't unduly deter Galway, however. With the Athenry contingent to return sooner rather than later to reclaim places, Galway manager Cyril Farrell has plenty of aces up his sleeve and, yesterday, could hardly fault anyone.
To march into the lion's den - a venue which is to undergo a £1.5 million facelift shortly and playing host to its last inter-county fixture for some time - and emerge unscathed, particularly with so much, young blood in the ranks, bodes well for 1997.
Liam Burke, despite a number of sloppy wides from frees, was a tower of strength and inspiration at centrefield and, if the attack required rejigging midway through the first half (with only Michael Coleman retaining his original position), the end product, was entirely satisfactory.
The performance of Kevin Broderick, who was switched from the corner to wing forward, and who contributed four points from play, was especially encouraging, while the introduction of Rory Gantley provided hints of an emerging talent.
It was always going to be tough for Wexford. Since lifting the McCarthy Cup last September, the team has lost a manager, enjoyed the sort of holiday normally reserved for Lotto winners and witnessed a number of players undergo operations for injuries.
Martin Storey, last year's players' player of the year, has experienced the surgeon's scalpel on groin and knee injuries since then but his enthusiasm to get back into the thick of the action saw him take a place on the bench yesterday and, with 13 minutes remaining and the match slipping away from Wexford, an introduction to the action. There was no fairytale story, though.
Wexford threatened to burst into life on a number of occasions, but stern and competent Galway defending and some waywardness in the shooting meant such hints of promise were extinguished. Apart from Tom Dempsey's wily skills and occasional bursts from Larry Murphy, the attack, in particular, struggled to find its form, while midfielders Adrian Fenlon and O'Gorman experienced as tough a 60 minutes from Burke and Joe Cooney as is likely throughout the entire league.
Burke, in fact, missed a number of frees early on - but once the free taking duties were assigned elsewhere he had a greater influence on the game, making a number of impressive runs into Wexford territory and also doing a good job in aiding and abetting his defence.
Ironically, the pick of the first half scores was probably Dempsey's closing effort for Wexford. Dempsey finishing off a move which also involved Garry Laffan and Eamonn Scallan to leave the score 0-7 to 0-5 in Galway's favour at the break.
However, the second half didn't provide too much solace for Wexford fans. "Indeed, with seven or eight minutes left in the game, many of their supporters started the trek towards the exit, such was Galway's dominance on the game. Somewhat ironically, Galway inflicted most damage in the period from the 38th minute just after Fenlon scored a superb point from all of 65 yards; but it was to be another 21 minutes before Wexford again troubled the scoreboard operator and, in the meantime, Galway put the game well and truly out of their reach.
Galway, the League champions, but with wholesale changes in personnel since claiming that particular silverware last May, chose the clash of champions' to announce their clearcut intentions for the coming season. They could even afford 14 wides - to 10 from Wexford - and emerge with a double scores win. Not bad for the first league outing of the year.
O'Gorman's assertion that Wexford were playing at "around 75 per cent of our potential" due to the current training programme indicates that they will improve as the league campaign progresses. But Galway, too, will have considerable improvement to show. "I was happy with that win, especially knowing we have the Athenry lads to come back in," said Farrell.
Yesterday's first hint of hurling may not have shown the game at its supreme best, but it nevertheless provided confirmation that Galway remain as hungry as ever for the challenge ahead. And Wexford, too, can't afford to be ruled out of any equation.
