GALWAY HURLERS HAVE turned to Connacht coach Pat Lam in a bid to dethrone Kilkenny in today’s Leinster SHC final.
Lam, who guided Connacht to their historic Pro12 crown six weeks ago, gave a motivational speech to the Galway squad on Friday night.
It’s expected that Lam will attend his first hurling match in Croke Park today as the Tribesmen bid to end Kilkenny’s march to a third successive Leinster title and their 71st in history.
Lam is the second member of the victorious Connacht squad to have been invited to address Micheal Donoghue’s side with captain John Muldoon having also spoken to the hurlers.
Muldoon, an All-Ireland minor winner with Galway in 2000 in a team which included current corner-back Fergal Moore, grew up just a few fields away from Joe Canning in Portumna and is a big hurling supporter.
Galway selector Francis Forde said teams were always looking to different ways which might give them an advantage and that the success of Connacht was inspirational.
“The way they have bought into it realising where they are coming from, just accepting where they are and having that hunger to improve. That’s the type of culture you want to create in these high performance teams, it’s no different for ourselves.
“We want to create a culture where lads want to continually improve regardless of where they are, be they at the top, middle or bottom of the game,” he said.
