Fergal Moore realistic about Tribe task against Limerick

LIFT OFF: Galway captain Fergal Moore lifts the Bob O'Keeffe Cup after defeating Kilkenny in the 2012 Leinster final at Croke Park

It’s 10 years this week since Fergal Moore brought the Bob O’Keeffe Cup across the Shannon for the first time.

In a week where another seriously unfancied Galway side are trying to topple All-Ireland champions, there’s a neat symmetry as much as Kilkenny in 2012 came back to haunt them and their captain after he spoke from the Hogan Stand podium after the Leinster final. Just don’t ask him to remember exactly what he said.

“Damien Hayes could give you chapter and verse about a ball he struck in an U14 final,” smiles Moore about his old team-mate. “He could tell you about how the wind blew that day too. Anyone who knows me knows I can’t recall things that happened last week!” 

Wearing faces of thunder, the Kilkenny players looked up from the pitch as Moore gave them three cheers but the oration wasn’t something he put much thought into. When he proclaimed them as having set the benchmark, he meant it. 

Come September 30 after an All-Ireland final replay, they still were the pack leaders.

“When the final whistle blows, two maor foirnes come for you and they bring you up to the stand and you haven’t time to think at all. I was one of those fellas who wasn’t going to do anything in the build-up to the game that wasn’t going to help me win it or my performance. Writing a speech or thinking about one was not something I ever did. I’d remember bits and pieces of being with family after the match and the dressing room afterwards but that would be about it. It was historic but at the end of the day it was only a Leinster final and deep down we knew we would have to beat them again if we were to win the All-Ireland.

“I met Brian Cody in the tunnel afterwards and said, ‘See you later on in the year’ because I had a feeling we would. It was great to win the cup but it was great to beat Kilkenny. It was just great to get a win over that great team. As regards speeches, you just went on autopilot at that stage.” Moore has had to give them in defeat as well as victory. Supporters remember how he passionately spoke the night of the 2015 All-Ireland final defeat to Kilkenny. At the age of 33, he was close to the end of his career and received a standing ovation but modestly insisted fans sit down.

The Turloughmore man eked out one more campaign under new man Micheál Donoghue after a turbulent winter following the heave against Anthony Cunningham. But it turned out to be one short of the county’s All-Ireland winning season and the end of the 29-year wait.

“I knew my time was coming to a close. I had made up my mind with all that was going on with the wind down of Anthony’s reign. I said to my fiancée at the time if he (Donoghue) gives me a call, I'm going back for one more year. I was very grateful to Micheál for that call because I enjoyed it although it was ruined by injury. I knew my time was up after that.” Another Turloughmore man now leads Galway and Moore has no intention of showing him the way. Not when Daithí Burke has five All-Stars to his name and been a mainstay of the team for eight seasons.

“The thing with Daithí, he’s very much his own man and he does his talking on the pitch. I haven’t spoken to him about the role or given him advice because you only need to look at the fella’s CV to know he’s grand. Every year he’s either winning an All-Star or in the running for one. He’s a big man for the big occasion and he doesn’t need help. I’d text him before matches wishing him luck but that would be the extent of it.” 

It is a fresher Galway team that go into tomorrow’s encounter against multiple All-Ireland winners. Moore will always give his county a chance but is mindful of Limerick’s force and considers it being a good year one for Henry Shefflin irrespective of what happens.

"You have to be realistic and look at this as not a new team but definitely one that is coming under Henry and his backroom team. This is different Galway team to the ones that ran Limerick close in 2018 and ‘20. The likes of Joe (Canning), Johnny Glynn, Aidan Harte, James Skehill are no longer there. Whether they’re going to be able to sustain the physical battle against Limerick and perform all the skills, we’ll have to see but this Limerick team are at the absolute pinnacle of their development. You’d be hopeful going into this game, but you’d be weary Limerick are on all cylinders. From a Galway point of view, we’re delighted to be there and we stand a great shout, but we have to be realistic without the physically strong players of a couple of years ago. We have a more mobile, skillful team now.”