Corcoran relieved after defeat of native county

Since 2008 Niall Corcoran has soldiered with the Dublin senior hurlers and after watching his native Galway take provincial honours last year, he was delighted to secure an historic Leinster SHC success with the Dubs yesterday.

The Meelick-Eyrecourt native was an All-Ireland minor winner with Galway in 2000, with players such as Shane Kavanagh, Tony Óg Regan and Damien Hayes who form part of the Tribesmen's current senior panel.

There may have been mixed loyalties in the Corcoran household, but his family were firmly in the Dublin corner for yesterday's provincial decider.

"There was a small pocket in east Galway who were behind me today as well," admitted Corcoran after the 2-25 to 2-13 victory at Croke Park.

"I got some great text messages from home in the lead up to the game and it was super.

"It was a great win for us today, we just kept our heads down and kept the focus on our performance and see where that took us and thankfully it took us where we wanted to go - that was the Championship - and I'm just relieved to be honest."

Eight points clear at the break, Dublin moved 12 points in front on the restart with Paul Ryan's second goal central to this lead.

But Corcoran knew that a Galway comeback was always on the cards.

"In fairness they are a very good team and we knew that they would come back. When we conceded those goals we knew that we could keep ourselves going.

"That was the key, to respond every time they got a goal. The key was that the first thing to do was respond with a score and that's what we did.

"Thankfully we did. It looked easy, but it certainly wasn't and tagging on those points was tough. It was a tough day and a warm day too."

Dublin's fifth game in as many weeks may have taken its toll, but this squad of players are keen to soldier on.

"We were keen to battle on. Any niggling injuries we have now we can sort them out and hopefully look forward to an All-Ireland semi-final."