Coleman says Galway should take encouragement from 2012

Galway hurling legend Michael Coleman has encouraged the current crop of Tribesmen not to lose the belief they can end a 26-year drought for All-Ireland success.

Coleman, a three-times All Star, and All-Ireland winner in 1987 and 1988, was one of the driving forces behind Galway’s most recent championship successes, and he still thinks there is enough talent at Anthony Cunningham’s disposal to end the wait for their fifth title.

The Abbeyknockmoy midfielder refused to lash the young Tribesmen for struggling to overcome Laois last weekend and pointed to how close Galway were to beating Kilkenny in 2012 as the main reason behind his belief in the team.

“The way Galway hurling is, we have the ability, we have the hurlers there, it’s just a matter of getting things right on the day. Two years ago you’ll recall we had an All-Ireland nearly in the bag and it slipped away, so we’re not that far away. But for a couple of mistakes on the day Galway could have bagged the All-Ireland. That’s the luck of the game,” said Coleman who was brought into the Galway squad in 1987 by Cyril Farrell. “We saw it last year with Clare. They came through the qualifiers, were the best all day and they were very lucky to come away in the drawn game with a draw. And the second day out the same thing happened again.

“Clare were the better team again but Cork still were within a hair’s breadth of them at the end.

“Hurling is gone very competitive. If you look at the hurling championship last year, on any given Sunday any team who was willing to really, really knuckle down could take a win.

“Laois got a good run on Galway the last day, but credit to Galway, they reeled them in at the end. We used to have to play Roscommon and we played Kerry one time in a quarter-final and we were lucky to come away with wins. When you are at that level all they can do is go out and do the job. They did it last Sunday,” Coleman said.