In a league of their own

By Alan Dooley

THE SPECTACULAR manner in which Galway shredded the form book to destroy reigning All-Ireland champions Tipperary on Sunday may have given supporters genuine hope that September glory may finally be on the horizon, but the Galway camp were in no mood to get too carried away with their impressive show of strength in the Gaelic Grounds.
On the nine previous occasions that Galway have captured the National League crown they’ve failed to even reach the ultimate decider at Croke Park, so the current crop of players should be well aware that this win by no means guarantees them a successful summer. Thankfully Galway manager Micheál Donoghue is not one to lose the run of himself.
“Our focus was all about the performance today,” Donoghue admitted. “Our thoughts haven’t really changed over the last couple of weeks. It was all about getting to the knock out stages and getting an opportunity to play the top teams and that’s what happened.
“It’s only April now and championship has yet to start.  Our focus has been on getting competitive games, but with one eye constantly on the 28th of May. I know after today, everything will be exaggerated again, but our job is to keep these boys feet on the ground and there’s a lot of stuff that we have to work on from this game.

See our full coverage in this week's edition