Proud Cunningham expecting Tribesmen to ‘kick on’ in final replay
Cunningham was naturally pleased to have a second bite of the cherry as Joe Canning’s free in the third minute of stoppage time salvaged a draw for the Tribesmen.
And Cunningham, a member of Galway’s last All-Ireland winning senior team in 1988, insisted that there’s no substitute for experience.
Just three players — Tony Óg Regan, David Collins and Damien Hayes — had sampled All-Ireland final Sunday before yesterday. Now, 16 other members of the squad know what hurling’s biggest day is all about.
Cunningham said: “They’re a brilliant set of players — a panel of 33 players willing to learn and they’ll kick on from today. I’m so confident of that — they will kick on and we have a lot of experience as well in the backroom. I’m extremely proud of the work that the two guys with me here have put in with the team — the coaching that we’ve done (Mattie Kenny) and the mental preparation that Tom (Helebert) has put in with the team. We will concentrate on that. We will meet and go through it in detail. We’ll get a huge reception from the players, they’ll be receptive to improvement and they will kick on.”
Cunningham was also anxious to play down his touchline spat with Brian Cody after the awarding of the controversial late free that allowed Canning to tie the game.
He said: “Anyone that plays on any team or involved in any team, if there’s a close call, a free coming up towards extra-time or injury-time or final whistle time, you’re going to challenge it with the referee. That happens, whether it’s a club challenge match you play or any game you play, you’re gong to challenge it. If it was me, I’d be challenging it on the other side, that’s for sure. There was no foul stroke in it — it was brilliant sportsmanship by all sides. That’s always been the case with Kilkenny; they’re tough, they’re hard but they’re honest. There’s no blackguarding.
“It was a brilliant spectacle and from that point of view, there are great sportsmen on both sides, on the Galway side and on the Kilkenny sides.”
Cunningham grinned when asked for his opinion of Henry Shefflin’s decision to take a point from a 68th-minute penalty.
In the 16th minute, with Kilkenny 0-1 to 1-2 behind, the Ballyhale wizard opted to go for goal from a 20m free but Fergal Moore diverted the sliotar behind for a 65.
Cunningham said: “He went for a goal in the first half and it was saved from the ‘21. It was a draw match at the time (of the penalty) and would have put them a point ahead.
“If they’d went for it and missed it, they’d be saying why didn’t they take the point? In that type of scenario, you’re better to take your point.
“In that scenario, they were going well and looking to get ahead. If it’s saved, it’s a big bonus for the other team. For us, we’d probably have done the same thing.”
Cunningham also felt Kilkenny had “upped the pace” considerably from the Leinster final, when the Tribesmen dished out a 10-point hiding.
He said: “I think tactically, they were probably a bit off the pace in the Leinster final but upped the intensity of the game today. Kilkenny are Kilkenny — they play their system, they have deadly forwards and their defenders are huge — their tackle rate is very high. It was nothing new for us today — I wasn’t surprised by the way Kilkenny came out there today.”
Cunningham admitted that Kilkenny “turned the screw” in the second half, with Galway outgunned by 1-4 to 0-12 after half-time.
He said: “They had turned the screw to some extent and started hurling but they were matching what we did in the first half. You’re always going to get periods of dominance in any match and we told them at half-time that this was going to go the wire. Even when things go bad, you have to stay hurling. We showed great character and the support we had today was the 16th man, it was tremendous. And the Galway supporters are going to get Version 3 of the saga for the summer.”
Roll on September 30.
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