Hurt from last year’s All-Ireland semi-final loss drove Galway on says Olivia Divilly
STAR Galway forward Olivia Divilly said their eyes are firmly on the big prize when they face Kerry in the All-Ireland final. On August 1st, Galway will be hoping to win the Brendan Martin Cup for the first time since 2004. In the last two seasons, they have come close to winning, losing the All-Ireland final to Kerry in 2024 and suffering an extra-time defeat to Dublin last year in the semi-final.
Divilly said Galway used the hurt from that loss to Dublin heading into their last-four clash with Armagh last weekend. The Kilkerrin-Clonberne player finished with 0-4 in Galway’s comprehensive win over Armagh last weekend.
“We just wanted to get over the line, we were devastated last year. We had a lot of hurt from losing last year’s All-Ireland semi-final. We used that coming into the game to drive us on and make sure that we weren’t going to find ourselves in the same position as last year,” Divilly told Tribune Sport after Galway’s win over Armagh.
One of the most impressive aspects of Galway's performance was that ten different players got on the scoresheet, while Armagh could only muster three points from play.
“I think it was a huge defensive display from one to fifteen. We knew the pace and talent Armagh have throughout the pitch, we came up with a plan to stop them and we executed the plan quite well.”
“We will be very much focusing on ourselves. We know if we can get our performance right, we can beat anyone on our day,” concluded Divilly.