Galway defender Padraic Mannion not surprised by impact of young guns
GALWAY wing back Padraic Mannion hasn’t been surprised by the impact the young guns have made this season for Micheal Donoghue’s charges. Joshua Ryan, Cillian Trayers, Darragh Neary, Aaron Niland, Jason Rabbitte, Rory Burke and Cian Daniels have all enjoyed breakout seasons in the maroon and white jersey.
Mannion feels Rabbitte and Niland’s involvement on the extended squad last season has helped them adapt to inter-county hurling.
“They were probably close to even playing last year, you’ve Rory Burke, Joshua Ryan, Darragh Neary and Cillian Trayers, you’ve all these lads. It’s just a group effort and they’d be the first lads to tell you that it’s the whole group pushing the right way, management, backroom team and players, it’s not a few players here or there,” Mannion told Tribune Sport.
Earlier in the year, before the weather improved, Jason Rabbitte would make the journey to Galway senior hurling training alongside Pádraic and Cathal Mannion, wherever the squad happened to be training. The Tribesmen are now back training in Kenny Park.
“He is so easy-going, so chilled out. Just loves hurling. He has such a hurling brain,” Mannion said about Rabbitte.
“(Jason) is doing that at training every second day, if you ask anyone in that dressing-room, no one is any bit surprised by anything he does out there. Yeah, no surprise from anyone in our set-up,” added Mannion.
The Ahascragh-Fohenagh clubman, who is into his 12th inter-county season for the men in maroon and white, did admit that the young guns fresh energy this season has given the experienced players a lift.
“You do get a lift from them. Obviously that is not going to sustain you for a full season, but when you see lads putting in such an effort and really wanting to be there, really wanting to be successful, and just pushing themselves, that is what gives you the lift.”
The lack of fear from the younger players in the Galway camp is what stood out in their All-Ireland semi-final win over Cork.
“Great group there. The energy they have, they just love it. They don’t care about anything. They just rock up here and play like there is no pressure on them, and it is great for some of the more experienced lads to be seeing that and, hopefully, both kind of groups are complimenting each other.”
Mannion believes the four-week break between the Leinster final and the All-Ireland semi-final allowed Galway to put in valuable work on the training field.
“I think we got such a block of work done, we all felt there was a performance coming. When you’re playing a team like Cork, you just never know if a performance is even going to get you a result but we just focused on the performance. And if we get that, hopefully we’ll be there down the home stretch and thankfully we were,” added Mannion.
The 33-year-old said winning the Leinster Championship lifted a weight off the shoulders of this Galway team.
“We probably didn’t realise it was until the final whistle went, you know that kind of a way. It was great relief just for some of the younger lads to get their hands on silverware. Winning a big game up here, great experience and brings the group tighter together.”
Galway's remarkable turnaround over the past year has been one of the stories of this championship. Having been knocked out by Tipperary at the quarter-final stage last season, they have bounced back in impressive fashion to reach their first All-Ireland final since 2018 and set up a repeat of that clash with Limerick.
Although Galway's style of play has evolved significantly, with more players operating behind the ball, the Galway wing-back believes not much has changed in the way his side sets up.
“There’s a lot of people talking about it but if you break it down not really. If we have the ball we try and use it and get a shot. If they have the ball, we just try and get it back. That’s what it comes down to,” explained Mannion.