Hayes wants reality check

GALWAY manager Conor Hayes moved to quell the expectation of players and supporters after Sunday’s stunning victory over Kilkenny.

Galway players over the past three decades are painfully aware of the high cost of not delivering on the promise of semi-final victories.

Hayes himself experienced that pain in 1986 before going on to captain the county to their last title victories in 1987 and 1988.

“The thing we need to do is to take a reality check and realise we have won nothing. There were great Galway teams in the past who ‘arrived’ and promised so much - and won nothing. We don’t want to be known as one of those ‘has-beens.’’

What encourages him is the maturity of his team, the reassurance gained from Sunday’s surprise win over Kilkenny that they could survive in a game of such intensity and, most of all, that they proved they could hurl.

And now he must try to repeat that against the All-Ireland champions.

“We don’t have any record with this team against Cork, so this will be a first in that context,’’ he said yesterday.

“But by qualifying for their third final in a row they have proved they are a very good team - a top-class team. I think we will have it all to do to beat them. But, there are patches of our game that are excellent as well.

“You could end up with a very good final. You have two very good hurling teams.’’

Hayes admitted that this victory was especially pleasing given the “doubts” which had been expressed about his side - and the still bitter memory of that 19-point hammering inflicted by Kilkenny in last year’s quarter-final.

He agreed that an impressive display against them in the League in Nowlan Park earlier in the year helped restore morale and provide a platform for their championship assault.

“We had building from one game to another and the Limerick game in itself was a turnaround for us. Once we got to Croke Park the attitude to training changed. Everything changed. We felt we had a chance against Tipperary because they did not seem to be as organised as they should be coming into the championship.

“Once we sensed victory that day we pushed on as we did on Sunday.”

But Hayes admits to having had concerns before facing last year’s defeated All-Ireland finalists.

“The big worry I had was whether we were going to be ready for the championship pace and the intensity of the game.

“We have been thrown in at the deep end up to now, but this was different. Our lads were just ready. I don’t think Kilkenny played any differently from what they did last year. They played with the same intensity, speed and skill, but we were able to resist it. The games we had were a great help. They gave us a great platform to build on.’’

Team coach Sean Silke, a member of the first Galway team to beat Cork in an All-Ireland semi-final 30 years ago, agrees with his manager in believing that if they are to dethrone the champions, they will have to get “back down to earth” as quickly as possible.

Silke, one of the outstanding centre-backs of his generation, takes satisfaction from the assurance that Galway are working back to the old days of playing hurling.

And it was their hurling, reinforced by their pre-match strategies, which ultimately won the match on Sunday.

“We were conscious that Kilkenny were a big threat to us in their half-back line. Accordingly, in the first half we tried to positively get the advantage over them - as well as doing the same in our own half-back line. The difficulty was that at times, the Kilkenny forwards were all over the place because players were changed around so much.

“We assigned Ollie Canning to follow DJ Carey and he did a good job. Ogie (Tony Óg Regan) did likewise with Henry Shefflin. But some of the Kilkenny subs in the second half caused us anxiety because they had fresh legs. We thought we would do better in the second half, but the effort that was done in gaining an advantage took a bit out of us.’’

Commenting that a number of factors “colluded” to lessen their chances last year, Silke conceded that the team felt they were better than they were. They paid the penalty when caught by a Kilkenny team on the rebound from their Leinster semi-final upset against Wexford.

“Look at it this way. The final will be our sixth game. Once upon a time if Galway won six championship matches they would have won three All-Irelands. We have won five and we are still only in the final. And, while I say only, we are honoured to be in the All-Ireland final.

“We believe ourselves we have had the hurlers (all along), but it was a matter of getting the most out of them. We are trying that all the time and on Sunday fortune smiled little bit on us. There were some mistakes made in both halves - and we made a number to let them back into the game at different times. That’s something we will have to look at. Against a team like Cork we wouldn’t get away with that kind of stuff.’

“We have it all do against a very experienced Cork team and we have to go back, take stock and realise that we have a mountain to climb against a team that will be going in as red-hot favourites.

“Cork are clinical and ruthless. They can put you away like they did last year when they beat Kilkenny by double scores. That is what we have to think about.”