Hayes: 'Leinster needs Galway'

Galway manager Conor Hayes has repeated his call for the county's inclusion in the Leinster hurling championship, which he says could help address the currently disturbing imbalance in the province. Like many people, Hayes watched the footage of Sunday's semi-finals in Croke Park and sensed that neither match was doing the promotion of hurling any good.

Yet Hayes's motivation is twofold. As usual Galway are the last senior team to see championship action, their wait finally ending this Saturday evening when they meet Laois in round one of the new qualifier series. While the new qualifying format should bring Galway closer to the rest of the All-Ireland contenders in terms of match practice, Hayes also believes the Leinster championship would satisfy further their desire for exposure to the more competitive teams.

"My own view is that we should have gone in," says Hayes. "I've said it many times before that I think Leinster is the place we should be playing. If we got to play Kilkenny in a semi-final then win or lose at least we'd have played them by now, and would know exactly where we stand.

"It was decided at county board level that it just wasn't feasible for us to go into Leinster, that Galway needed to retain its autonomy, and represent Connacht. But it would have given us the opportunity to get out even earlier, and my view was we'd nothing to lose. It certainly wouldn't have set us back in any way if we'd gone in for say two years, and look again at our options after that.

"Kilkenny are an exceptional team at the moment, there's no doubt about that. And it looks like Offaly have gone back again. Wexford were also far too good for Laois. So I don't think those two games did anything at all for hurling. I think it has to be a cause for concern because it takes a huge leap of faith to get over a defeat like that."

Galway's inclusion would mean three counties contesting the top prize in Leinster, instead of the current two.

For the time being, however, Hayes has to be content with the new qualifier format which pits Galway against Laois, Antrim and Limerick in a battle for the two quarter-final places on offer in their section.

"There's definitely not as much pressure on us straight away compared to the last two years," adds Hayes.

"We were definitely unlucky last year when we had the one match against Down and then it was straight into the Kilkenny match. Obviously the matches are more evenly spread this time.

"And of course we have to be thinking about the top two, and aspire towards topping the group. Hopefully that will get us into the quarter-finals on an even keel with everyone else. But we can't afford to take our eye off the ball either. We've had some tough games with Laois over the past couple of years, and they're never an easy team to beat in Portlaoise. So our priority right now is next Saturday.

"But three games should also give us a good chance to test the strength and depth of our panel, and I'd like to think that we will use more or less every player over the next three games, between changing the teams around and the substitutes."

Hayes will finalise his team tomorrow evening, but is already resigned to being without Eugene Cloonan and Kevin Broderick. Cloonan continues to be troubled by a back injury, while Broderick is recovering from a groin operation and will be out for at least another eight weeks. Liam Hodgins is carrying a hamstring injury but should be fit to play some part.

Diarmuid Cloonan and Adrian Cullinane have opted out of the panel but Hayes has compensated by calling in defenders John Lee and Gerard Mahon, who both had a major role in Galway's All-Ireland minor win over Kilkenny last September.

Still, it will be eight weeks on Saturday since Galway last played competitive hurling, and as usual they have resorted to challenge games in order to retain some edge. Last weekend they recorded a 4-16 to 1-22 win over Cork, but Hayes admits he is still largely in the dark when it comes to knowing the true form of his team.

"The players have had plenty of club matches over the past few weeks, right up to last Sunday. They've come through them pretty well. There's been weeks there when we've only trained collectively one night a week because of the club matches.

"I think they're all in pretty good shape now. Between the club matches and the eight league games they've had a good run. So all we've really been doing is getting them focused. We can look at players in the club championship and say we're going well, but I only have to mention the DVD of last year's game with Kilkenny, and ask them if want to see it again.

"We were still in that game 10 minutes into the second half but then we totally collapsed."

Despite the improved qualifier series, Hayes still believes Galway are at a slight disadvantage to other counties by not getting any provincial championship exposure.

He said: "I'd make the comparison to being in a 200-metre race. We join in after 100 metres, from a standing start, and it's our task to catch up."