Galway manager Micheál Donoghue pinpointed his side’s Leinster final victory as a key milestone in the aftermath of Saturday’s stunning victory over 14-man Cork in Croke Park. Darragh Fitzgibbon picked up a second booking for the Leesiders midway through the second half with Galway already well on their way to victory and a return to the All-Ireland final for the first time since 2018. In all 13 players contributed to their 2-26 haul while it took just 13 minutes for all six of Galway’s starting
forwards to score. Donoghue felt that his side’s facile win over Dublin four weeks ago paved the way for another impressive showing at HQ. “After the Leinster final with the four weeks, we just had a good regroup and it just gave us the time to settle,” said Donoghue. “And then we had a really productive two-week build-up into it, similar to all our other games. And the lads were just really good and really honest, so it was really encouraging from our point of
view. And I think after the Leinster final, you could see the confidence growing in the younger fellas. I think they transferred that now into another good performance today. He added: “I think throughout the league and throughout the Championship, as the team has evolved and as they’ve gotten more comfortable with what we wanted to do, we’ve had some really good second-half performances. “We knew that if we were in the position we were in going into the second half, that we were well
capable of pushing on again, and thankfully we did.” Cork boss Ben O’Connor, meanwhile, refused to use the sending off of his captain as any sort of an excuse, but stressed that Saturday’s display wasn’t a “true reflection” of his team’s ability. “Very disappointing. Didn’t see you coming, to tell you the truth,” stated O’Connor. “But it is what it is. They were better than us on the day. Outworked us, out-hurling us. No excuses. “The sending off made it near-on impossible. That’s not a
true reflection of our lads. For everyone watching today, people are saying ‘oh, Cork again’ but we’re better than that, but we just didn’t do it today.” Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond .
Galway, Cork, Micheál Donoghue, Ben O’Connor, All-Ireland final, Croke Park, Leinster final, Darragh Fitzgibbon, 14-man Cork, 2-26