Guiding Galway into the light

Mike McNamara comes with a blueprint and sooner or later, readers adhere to its principles. The arrival of the legendary Clare trainer to the stronghold of Galway hurling raised a few eyebrows at the start of the season. It had long been argued Galway lacked some indefinable substance - not steel or courage or will but something more intangible - and it was not hard to envisage Mike Mac literally running the torpor out of them. But was it a workable marriage?

"The initial difficulty was the simple matter of identifying the names of the players. You'd think that when you are around inter-county hurling, you'd know most lads but it was hard at the start with a bunch of new lads in front of you. Once I got over that though, it was just a matter of applying the methods that I believe in."

McNamara's contribution to Clare's evolution as a sporting force of incomparable belief and will has been well documented. Coaxing Galway into a similar mind-set, however, must surely have presented an original task.

"Well, it would have been a new departure for them, yes. At underage, no one would have experienced that level of training and a lot of this bunch are still young. But because of that, once you showed them the light at the end of the tunnel, once they saw what I was trying to do, they would follow you to the end of the earth."

With the dissolution of the famed Ger Loughnane management team, McNamara had begun to look forward to Sunday hurling as a paying customer. That Noel Lane was a friend was the main consideration in accepting his new role. This week, though, has reminded him why it is he was possessed by the wish to put in the countless hours.

"I said to the lads the other night that, really, we worked for nine months to arrive at a week like this, when the anticipation of a big match is right there and you have arrived at a point where you get to test your fitness and skill and it is a time that I have always enjoyed."

That Galway have been paired against Kilkenny in their first serious match of the championship has perhaps dampened enthusiasm in the county. McNamara has been struck by the muted build-up.

"I'd say the feeling is one of despair, really. People in Galway don't seem to expect much from this particular team. I don't know why, it's a strange one. For years, Galway were winning league titles and people weren't happy and now we are going a different route and they still aren't happy. I tend not to bother with what people think anyhow, I just go along with the job at hand and it is up to us to prove people wrong."