FERGAL MOORE SAYS Galway came into their provincial final with Dublin lacking match practice.
The Tribesmen entered the Leinster championship four years ago in search of more top-class summer games but after they limped past Laois, they fell short against a battle-hardened
“You can’t beat the benefits of playing regular championship hurling,” says the Turloughmore clubman. “It was a huge a factor and the other factor was Dublin’s performance on the day. You can’t take away from that they were excellent all over the pitch and they thoroughly deserved their win.
“I suppose people will talk about second-season syndrome and that is always a risk but people said we had a bad league but we still reached a league semi-final and I would class that as a fairly decent run considering we were in a relegation play-off last season. The facts are that we showed up in the Leinster final off the pace and our performance was nowhere near good enough and it wasn’t anywhere near the standards of last year and we paid the price.”
Galway now face into a mouth-watering must-win game against Davy Fitzgerald’s Clare in Thurles tomorrow.
“The challenge that is there is a Clare team led by a very passionate manager, a very passionate Clareman and they are match-sharpenend,” says Moore. “They are waiting for us and it is up to us now to find that championship intensity.”
Many pundits have tipped the Banner to claim a spot in the last-four. Does Moore see last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists as underdogs?
“We don’t really look at it like that. What is important now is that we get the performances up to the standard that we had last year. If we do that the result will take care of itself,” he says.
