Cunningham: We showed great character
Galway boss Anthony Cunningham was a relieved man after Joe Canning's last-gasp point earned a 0-19 to 2-13 draw for his side in yesterday's All-Ireland SHC final against Kilkenny.
The counties will do battle once again at Croke Park on Sunday, September 30, with Cunningham insisting that his charges will 'kick on' from the drawn first game despite losing their grip on a five-point interval lead.
"At the finish, the team who gets the last score, there is always a bit of relief for that team. No matter what draw you get, whether it is the first round of a club Championship or an inter-county, or a club final, we're delighted to be still in it," he said.
"If we were walking out the door and weren't in it, we would be saying to ourselves we had gone so close and maybe let it slip, but we were delighted we didn't let it slip and we will kick on from this.
"It's a huge learning curve for our team. We are a young, developing team but it was always going to be tough against Kilkenny."
He was full of praise for his team who dominated the first half, although they did not take all of their scoring chances - the sort of chances they were putting away in the Leinster final win over the Cats.
"In an All-Ireland final, if you are playing Kilkenny or if you are playing any team in an All-Ireland final, there are going to be periods where they have periods of domination and we have periods of dominance.
"Our period of dominance was early on, in the first half. The first 15 minutes of the second half Kilkenny kicked on and went ahead but then we came back, rallied with a great goal and rallied again and could have kicked on from that and a draw was a fair result for everybody.
"They were matching what we did in the first half. You are always going to get periods of dominance in any match. When we weathered the storm, we told them at half-time that this was going to go to the wire and to stay hurling.
"Even when things go bad, you still have to stay hurling. We showed great character and the support we had today was the 16th man for us. It was tremendous. We are delighted for all our supporters. They are going to get a version three of the saga for this summer."
The question remains whether the Tribesmen have lost their opportunity to lift the Liam McCarthy Cup having not converted those scores, and Cunningham knows it will take a huge effort to beat Kilkenny in three weeks' time.
"Kilkenny are a fantastic team, fantastic hurlers and we are going to have to be on top of our game.
"We are going to have to take our game back to Croke Park the next day, and so will they. It will still be very close. We will be driving on. It puts us in a great place."
Cunningham and his Kilkenny counterpart Brian Cody were involved in a heated exchange after the final whistle. The Galway manager noted it was down to the awarding of the Canning free in the dying moments before adding that the game was filled with 'brilliant sportsmanship'.
"Anyone who is involved with any team, if there is a close call or a free coming up to extra-time or injury-time or final whistle time, you are going to challenge it with the ref. That happens.
"If it is a club challenge match you are playing or any game, you are going to challenge it. If it was me, we would be challenging it from the other side. That's for sure."
"That game, there was no foul stroke in it. There was brilliant sportsmanship, by all sides. That has always been the case with Kilkenny. They are tough, they are hard, but they are honest.
"There was no blaggarding, it was a brilliant spectacle. From that point of view there were great sportsmen from both sides, on the Galway side and the Kilkenny side."
Cunningham's men got their tactics just right in the Leinster final, and did so again for the first half of yesterday's high octane encounter.
The only difference was that Galway took their chances in the provincial decider, while they suffered a number of wides yesterday. Cunningham, however, put the reversal down to Kilkenny.
"Tactically they were a bit off the pace in the Leinster final, but upped their intensity. Kilkenny are Kilkenny. They play their system.
"They've deadly forwards and their defenders are huge, their tackling rate is very high, so it was nothing new for us today. I wasn't surprised with the way Kilkenny came out."
