Farragher: Galway turning focus towards Wexford clash

HIS Galway underage hurling days yielded plenty of success yet it was not until Sunday evening that Ger Farragher reached the milestone of a national triumph at senior level.

An NHL Division 1 title is the perfect springboard to launch Galway into the championship but while Farragher appreciates the benefits of the triumph, he insists expectations should be kept in check ahead of summer combat.

“That’s the first national title I’ve won with Galway so it’s great. We started out this year and our goal was to win the Walsh Cup and we did that. The next thing we wanted to do was win the league and we’ve done that too.

“We wanted to win as there was no point in just getting to the final. We were there in the final 2008 but got blown away by Cork. We are hopefully learning from our mistakes and hopefully this year is going to be different.

“But championships aren’t won now. We have four weeks to get ready for Wexford and seeing them against Clare, they were impressive.”

Galway’s display on Sunday saw a marked improvement from their last visit to the Thurles venue, when they were soundly beaten by Tipperary in a league encounter in March.

“We left with our tails between our legs that day,” admitted Farragher. “It was a bad second-half performance against Tipp, but we’ve learned from that. In the Kilkenny game the same thing was happening to us, but we managed to turn it around. Hopefully we can push on from there and not let it happen again. Sunday was as good a pace as you’re going to play at this time of year. But it was still a little bit off championship pace.”

Galway have embellished their squad this season with Farragher’s club-mate Donal Barry and Gort attacker Aidan Harte proving valuable additions, and they also entered Sunday’s match without Niall Healy, the scoring star in their previous tie against Cork.

“There’s serious competition for places and hopefully that will make us stronger as a team. Look at the lads who didn’t make the panel for the final – Chunky Hayes, Eoin Lynch and Conor Dervan didn’t even make the 24. We didn’t have such a panel in the past, we barely had the 15, but this year with all the lads on the sideline we can hopefully improve. It’s going great for Donal. Last year he wasn’t even heard of inside the county, but this year he’s been excellent. He’s tremendous speed and skill.”

Farragher is revelling in the midfield role that he has been filling this spring after stints at corner-forward. Despite the presence of Joe Canning, John McIntyre has kept faith with Farragher on the free-taking duties. “There’s a lot more freedom in the middle. I’m enjoying it. I play midfield with the club and it’s my favourite position.

“John has decided that I’m on the frees and Joe takes the 21s, so both of us are happy. So long as they’re going over I don’t mind who’s taking them.”