Sean Silke on the day that changed everything: 'For too long we had been defined as losers'

Twenty-five of Galway’s greatest hurlers over the last 50 years remember the game that defined their lives in the new book, ‘Galway: Game of my Life’. Here, the legendary Sean Silke recalls how defeating Cork changed everything for him and his team-mates. He takes readers back to August 17, 1975 and the All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park

Galway's Sean Silke solos past Kilkenny's Frank Cummins and Mick Brennan in the 1979 All-Ireland SHC final.

After the League final win, the celebrations went on for a bit, but I remember I was in the midst of doing college exams starting on the Monday so my involvement in the revelry was limited.

There were a lot of people who were emotional because it was 17 years since Galway had competed in anything of significance. Along the way, we had taken out some of the big guns. We beat Cork in the quarter-final and that was a great game, a typical game of two halves. We were playing with a gale in the first half and led by 2-8 to no score when Cork got a point.