The Bob O’Keeffe Cup is not Galway’s Holy Grail but success is now demanded

Before the 2013 Leinster final, we were listening to a standard backing track in Dublin.

We had beaten Kilkenny the previous week after a replay but the general consensus was that Kilkenny were finished. Other commentators suggested we would struggle to come down from the high of having beaten them.

Galway hadn’t exactly burned it up that summer but they had been in the previous year’s All-Ireland final and were expected to retain their Leinster title in 2013.