Galway hurling great no longer satisfied by trips down memory Lane

One of Galway's most successful hurlers sometimes gets tired of the attention. Noel Lane, holder of three senior All-Ireland medals, said that he wished his teams' status as the county's most recent champions might finally end in the upcoming final.

Speaking at the launch of the One Direct Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Hurling Sevens, which takes place in Glenalbyn on Saturday week, Lane said that he was becoming weary of being reminded of his achievements, which include scoring the decisive goals in the 1987 and '88 All-Ireland wins.

"Ah yeah and I'm sick looking at it on Reeling in the Years. If I could get down to RTE and get a hold of the tape, I know what I'd do with it. But look, it was important at the time, we won the All-Ireland and again in '88, so they were great times.

“It’s a long time ago too, 27 years. There’s people 30 years of age in Galway that don’t know what it’s like, the passions and the emotions of winning a senior All-Ireland, so it’s time now to change that.”

He is one of four managers to have taken the county back to the All-Ireland final since that era but like the others his team fell short, in 2001 against Tipperary.

Extended run

As was common at the time, he didn’t get an extended run at the position and he believes that policy hasn’t helped Galway hurling over the years.

“Galway administrations don’t do patience. There was a lot of turnover of managers and I feel in hindsight, and at the time, it wasn’t the right thing to do, but that was the way it was.

“There were managers before me that got the two years and if you didn’t deliver an All-Ireland, you were out. You didn’t get time to build and to grow a team. You have to get experience as well in that role as manager.”

He approves of the fact that his current successor and former team-mate Anthony Cunningham is now in his fourth year despite two disappointing campaigns since he led Galway to the 2012 final, against this year's opponents Kilkenny, which was lost after a replay.

“Well, a lot of people tried to get rid of him last year. The vote was split and it was the chairman’s vote swung it in his favour.

“It was three against three. There was a lot of mood for change. Again, in my opinion that wasn’t the right thing but that’s Galway and the story up to now has proven that it was the right decision to keep him.”