IN HIS FIRST All-Ireland SHC final last time out, Fergal Moore found himself staring down the barrel of the gun.
The 30-year-old was one of the Galway men on the line when Henry Shefflin stood over that late, much-discussed penalty in the drawn decider three weeks ago.
But the physiotherapist refuses to be dragged into the debate around the Ballyhale forward’s decision to take a late point.
“Ah no. I think everybody has an opinion on it, there has a lot been said and written about it since,” says Moore.
“The fact of the matter was he took his point and we went down the field and drew the game and got ourselves another chance. He took his point, the records show that and it won’t have any relevance to the game the next day. It’s consigned to history now.”
The sides meet again tomorrow with the Liam MacCarthy Cup on the line. Did Moore enjoy the experience last time out?
“Arra yeah, leading up to it, the razzmatazz and the sideshows that go on around an All-Ireland final, it’s brilliant for the supporters to have that and it’s very, very important for that build-up to be there,” he says.
“But as players, there are 82,000 people packing into that stadium to watch 15 players play against 15 and as players, you have to perform on the day. So your job is to focus on that 70 minutes for the day, the supporters’ job is to go.
“Probably after the game you’re elated that you have a second chance, you’ve come through your first All-Ireland final and you haven’t won but you haven’t lost and it’s mixed emotions really. But the overriding feeling was one of relief to get the draw, tiredness after that when the relief wears off and excitement after that then, because you know you have three weeks to get things right and have another bite at the cherry”
Moore now has one final under his belt and he insists it’s up to Galway to learn from the experience ahead of tomorrow’s renewal of rivalries.
“Well that’s the theory anyway, that you’ll learn lessons for the replay and it stands you in good stead to go and win the next day. That’s fine in theory but you have to put it into practice, and we had a young team — probably 11 of the starting line-up hadn’t experienced it before — but we all made mistakes and it’s important to learn from those mistakes and put it into practice on the training ground.
“And if we can do that, and if we can raise our game up to another level again, we have a right good chance in the game the next day. The theory is one thing, it’s all about putting it into practice and there’s no point knowing that there’s lessons, you have to learn those lessons. We’ve very anxious to put them right the next day.”
