Conor Hayes: Leinster has been good for Galway

Former Galway hurling manager and All-Ireland winning captain Conor Hayes says that the move of the county into the Leinster championship has been every bit as beneficial as he believed it would be when advocating the change 10 years ago.

This weekend Galway take on Tipperary in this year’s second All-Ireland semi- final.

“I was looking at a programme and going down the list of past results and I keep going back to the classic case of 2004. I’m not making excuses – we were hammered by Kilkenny – but we had only played Down a fortnight before, whereas Kilkenny had been beaten by Wexford and played Dublin in the qualifiers.

“The Down game wasn’t very competitive and afterwards you’re looking at yourself and saying, ‘who was good’ and ‘who was bad’? It’s very difficult to develop a player in that sort of a situation. You’re going from not playing very well and winning by 17 points to playing badly and losing by 19.

"You can try players in the league, but you don't know what the opposition are doing at that stage, how strong they are. Look at Galway this year: this is their sixth championship game. Okay, some of them mightn't have been that significant, but you've young lads like John Hanbury, Cathal Mannion and Jason Flynn, and they're going to have six games minimum played for Galway in this year's championship.

“It takes time for even Kilkenny to develop their teams. Look at players like Kieran Joyce and Cillian Buckley, who were in and out of the team before becoming established. It takes a while to develop into senior hurling and in Leinster Galway can get two or three games every year. It’s been a success for Galway and we might only now be seeing the fruits of it this year.”

Historic defeat

The county’s experience in Leinster had a slow start, but it has got stronger, and Galway have been in the provincial final three times in the past four years, winning the 2012 title with a historic defeat of Kilkenny, before going on to contest that year’s All-Ireland final against the same opponents but losing in a replay.

Last year was the exception, but Anthony Cunningham’s team played Kilkenny twice: a thrilling draw and defeat again in a replay, in the Leinster semi- finals.

Hayes believes Galway have become more attuned to the possibilities of the province as time has gone by.

“One thing I think has developed is respect for the Leinster championship and how important it is to push on and do as well as possible in it rather than just treating it as a preliminary to getting involved in the All-Ireland. It’s not too surprising, I suppose, because our lads wouldn’t have any tradition in the championship, but there was a little bit of that in the attitude.

“Now it can be seen how beneficial it is to play Kilkenny and particularly to play hard games against Kilkenny. It’s a great level to test a team.”

It was hardly coincidental that Galway’s best season since Hayes took them to the 2005 All-Ireland final came three years ago, when the county won the Leinster title.

Hayes would also like to see the under-age teams in the county be admitted to the Leinster championship, saying that the failure to do so unfairly penalises the game in Galway.

“Like every county we have serious fixture difficulties every year. Talk to Offaly, Kilkenny or Wexford and they’ll say, ‘look we’ve a reasonable under-21 team this year or our minors aren’t great’. When they get beaten in the championship they’ve no great qualms unless they’ve been surprised.

Middling

“We don’t know until All-Ireland time whether we’ve a good team or a middling team or what, but you’re holding up the whole show for that.”

Both counties are expected to name their teams this evening. Galway manager Anthony Cunningham has no injury concerns going into his second All- Ireland semi-final in four years.

Tipperary have players coming back, with Lar Corbett primed after making his first appearance of the season in the Munster final and even more positively, Noel McGrath believed likely to make an appearance off the bench just four months after he had to undergo treatment for testicular cancer.

The 2010 All Star returned to club action with Loughmore-Castleiney last month and has been taking part in panel sessions since then.

The only injury coming out of last month’s Munster final win over Waterford was Pádraic Maher who damaged his shoulder but he has recovered.