Wexford 1-21 Galway 0-16
Another Lee Chin tour de force did the trick for Wexford who rounded off their pre-season campaign on a high, claiming the Dioralyte Walsh Cup title for an 18th time.
In their sixth consecutive January decider, and having lost to Galway in last year's final, the Model County rose to the occasion and turned in a strong performance that left an out of sorts Galway with questions to answer ahead of the National League.
Chin struck nine points, including four from play, while substitute Seamus Casey delivered the game's only goal late on. There were big performances too from Wexford's wing-forwards Jack O'Connor and James Byrne who hit 0-05 between them while they were defensively solid throughout.
It's a first piece of silverware in the Keith Rossiter era and Wexford will hope to hit the ground running in the National League which begins with a testing tie against Kilkenny at Nowlan Park next weekend.
Henry Shefflin would still have expected more from his experimental side who struck just nine points from open play. They never led and were behind for much of the contest ahead of their own league opener against Westmeath in Salthill next Saturday.
Both sides were experimental again with Wexford including only three starters - Jack O'Connor, Kevin Foley and Chin - from last year's final Leinster championship game against Kilkenny.
Key men like Matthew O'Hanlon, Diarmuid O'Keeffe, Conor McDonald, Rory O'Connor and Liam Óg McGovern were notable absentees.
As for Galway, they were still missing the St Thomas' players, including David Burke, Conor Cooney and Fintan Burke, who won the All-Ireland club title last weekend.
There was no Daithí Burke, Joseph Cooney, Conor Whelan, Brian Concannon nor the Mannion brothers either.
It amounted to just five players - Éanna Murphy, Jack Grealish, Ronan Glennon, Gearoid McInerney and Kevin Cooney - that lined out for Galway in last year's All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Limerick.
They played second fiddle initially to a Wexford side boosted by the late addition of Chin, wearing number 17, in attack.
He stroked over five first-half points as the Slaneysiders hit the interval with a 0-11 to 0-08 advantage.
Cian Byrne, returning to the venue where he struck 0-14 for Wexford in the 2023 Leinster U-20 final, oozed quality and struck two cracking points from play.
There were a couple of eye-catching scores from Corey Byrne Dunbar as well, another who played in that underage decider last May.
The crossfield wind appeared to favour Galway in the first-half though Wexford made light of it and Jack O'Connor won three frees that Chin converted.
They would have been further ahead only for a couple of Chin point attempts that struck the woodwork.
Kevin Cooney pulled off two terrific fetches in the air for Galway which led to back-to-back points in the 17th and 18th minutes but the Tribesmen never led.
The third quarter played out upon similar lines with Wexford keeping the throttle down and extended their lead to six points by the 50th minute.
Chin pulled one puck-out from the air and slotted it over for the pick of the Wexford points. Both wing forwards for Wexford, O'Connor and James Byrne were on song and the team as a whole showed terrific levels of conditioning for January.
Galway needed at least a goal to rescue a result but it never looked like arriving an it was Wexford that finished strongly with Casey grabbing their goal in the 63rd minute. The Olyegate-Glebrien man shrugged off Eoin Lawless and bore down on goal before finding the net.
Wexford: Aaron Duggan; Niall Murphy, Conor Foley, Eoin Ryan; Charlie McGuckin, Damien Reck, Cian Molloy; Conor Hearne (0-01), Corey Byrne Dunbar (0-03); Jack O'Connor (0-02), Lee Chin (0-09, 0-05f), James Byrne (0-03); Richie Lawlor (0-01), Cian Byrne (0-02), Kevin Foley.
Subs: Seamus Casey (1-00) for Cian Byrne 56, Cathal Dunbar for Hearne 58, Simon Donohoe for Molloy 65, Jack Doran for Chin 67-69 blood, Doran for Lawlor 69, Darragh Carley for K Foley 71.
Galway: Eanna Murphy; Jack Grealish, Eoin Lawless, Daniel Loftus; Ronan Glennon, Gearoid McInerney, David Concannon; Tiernan Killeen, Ian McGlynn; John Cooney, Tom Monaghan (0-03), Sean O'Hanlon (0-01); Alex Connaire (0-02), Kevin Cooney (0-05, 0-04f), Greg Thomas (0-01).
Subs: Gavin Lee for Killeen h/t, Cianan Fahy for Concannon h/t, Evan Niland (0-02, 0-02f) for Kevin Cooney 46, Sean Linnane for O'Hanlon 49, Darren Morrissey for McGlynn 51, Martin McManus (0-01) for Thomas 56, Donal O'Shea (0-01, 0-01 65) for Connaire 61.
Referee: Owen Beehan (Kilkenny).
