Galway relishing battle with Kilkenny, says Damien Curley

Galway hurling selector Damien Curley believes his side are a different animal this term and they cannot wait to take on the reigning All-Ireland champions in Croke Park.

The Tribesmen have had a dismal few years since reaching the 2012 All-Ireland final, where they lost to Kilkenny after a replay.

That year was Anthony Cunningham’s first in charge, when they claimed their maiden Leinster crown by hammering Kilkenny 2-21 to 2-11 in the final.

Galway also got the better of Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final, before coming up just short against the Cats in the decider.

Curley, who is a former All-Ireland club winner with Kiltormer, was brought into the backroom set-up for 2014, where he works alongside Eugene Cloonan and Pat Malone.

However, after a poor season where Galway were knocked out by Tipperary in the qualifiers, they will be looking to mastermind Galway’s second Leinster title on Sunday and Curley says they are primed to do it.

“The two words that I would have been trying to coin for the last year or two are momentum and confidence.

“Last year, we never really gained the momentum, we struggled over Laois, we had the two games against Kilkenny and we got beaten by Tipp.

“Whereas this year, we have already got three positive games under our belt. They have really generated massive confidence and that comes into the field as well, where you can see guys on the panel putting their hands up looking for a place on the team.

“That’s a big thing, guys now see that there is an opportunity there to go a bit further and everybody wants to be a part of it.”

Brian Cody’s men have finally kicked on from last year’s successes, despite seeing several big names call it a day.

They stuttered through the league only avoiding relegation to Division 1B thanks to a play-off win over Clare, but then annihilated Wexford 5-25 to 0-16 in their Leinster championship opener.

Galway beat Kilkenny by two points in the league this year, however the GMIT games promotion officer knows his side will be in a battle at the weekend, but it is one they will relish.

“The year that Clare won the All-Ireland and Kilkenny were beaten and everyone said that well, that’s it, this great Kilkenny team is gone and that famine lasted a total of one year.

“There is no better team to come back and say we haven’t gone away. They were poetry in motion again against Wexford.

“That is on the back of a couple of retirements and they still look the finished article so they are obviously going to be a massive challenge,” said Curley.

“It is a huge step-up, Kilkenny are Kilkenny and they are the All-Ireland champions, but they are the team that you want to be playing and you want to beat.”