Can Galway handle the pressures of winning?
Given whom they had beaten, not to mention the ferocity of Division 1 this year, they had reason for a momentary absence of composure.
Galway? Scratching a seven-year itch was worth applauding but when their league structure militates against a Division 1A team like Tipperary and benefits those from the lower rung on the ladder, their title comes with an asterisk.
Not once did Galway experience a game with the same intensity as Tipperary experienced against Clare, Kilkenny, and Wexford.
Their semi-final win over Limerick was a cruise compared to Nowlan Park last Sunday week. When Wexford asked questions of them in Salthill, they couldn’t answer and without the accompaniment of promotion, this title should ring a little hollow.
Hours after beating Tipperary, an impromptu homecoming was arranged in St Thomas, the home of captain David Burke.
In addressing supporters, he and manager Micheál Donoghue sounded almost embarrassed by the tribute.
“We’re not taking our eye off the ball,” insisted Burke. “The championship is the be-all and end-all for us.”
Donoghue added: “Just work really hard — that’s our ethos and we’ll continue to do that for the next couple of weeks in the lead-up to the Dublin game.”
The reception reminded us of Fergal Moore’s three cheers for Kilkenny as he looked out at them, having received the Bob O’Keeffe Cup in 2012, a premature and ultimately redundant act.
As an uncomfortable Moore gave his oratory, the camera caught the reactions of the Kilkenny players wearing faces of thunder.
The then Galway captain’s show of respect hardly lost them that year’s All-Ireland but when your hand is not yet out of the honeypot, it’s best not to poke the bear.
Because of the pitch invasion in the Gaelic Grounds, nobody can report how Tipperary reacted to Burke’s acceptance speech but it wouldn’t be remiss to argue they would have been displeased with themselves more than with anything Burke uttered from the Mackey Stand.
Having watched Burke accept the Allianz Cup, one manput the captain in something resembling a headlock so that he could take a series of selfies.
The gentleman that he is, Burke posed and smiled, if a little awkwardly. Later on RTÉ’s League Sunday, Cyril Farrell announced: “It’s Galway’s All-Ireland this year. I really believe they’re going to win it.” Cock-a-doodle-hoop.
Burke can maintain nothing is being taken for granted and Joe Canning can talk about pats on the backs being six inches from kicks up the derrieres, but, try as they like, this Galway group can’t be oblivious to the misplaced hype this success will bring.
They aren’t averse to exaggeration either. Prior to the semi-final, Pádraig Mannion spoke of how the team showed character in coming back against Waterford in their quarter-final.
Burke mentioned it in the wake of the final. Coming back from a 10-point deficit in the second half of any game can’t be dismissed but when it is achieved against a Waterford ‘B’ team it can’t be emphasised either.
In 2008, Davy Fitzgerald was carried aloft by Waterford supporters in Plunkett Station after leading the county to a first senior All-Ireland final in 45 years.
When Westmeath beat Meath for the first time in championship football two years ago they went crazy. Both were victories worthy of toasting but were followed by double-digit defeats.
Galway’s win wasn’t worth the fuss of a coronation of any kind or declaration like Farrell’s. They mightn’t be able to control comments like Farrell’s but whoever gave the green light to the players stepping off the bus and out onto the stage to show off the cup should be whipped.
Again, Galway had cause to celebrate; it was only their seventh piece of season silverware since 1988 and the first for so many of Donoghue’s panel but they didn’t have to do it so demonstrably.
In days when managers are so paranoid about a player saying the wrong thing or providing a quote that the opposition may interpret as a slight, it’s ironic that this group should allow themselves receive a league homecoming, be it of any size and no matter how good the intentions were.
What’s just as ironic is that Sunday’s result came against a county that knows just as much, if not more than Galway, about how to get ahead of themselves.
Tipperary may end up being more thankful for such a scolding than Galway of dishing it out. Galway didn’t need a title to prove they are ready to win the ultimate one in September — hurling-wise, they already are. But the way they have dealt with this league triumph suggests they may not yet be prepared to handle the expectation that will inevitably precede an All-Ireland tilt.
Email: john.fogarty @examiner.ie
