Kieran and Ian Hanrahan in no doubt about Loughrea's hunger

“There’s been a lot of work, even walking past that gym on top of the hill. I was in there many evenings throughout the summer. It’s getting there, all the work I’ve done is coming to fruition,” Hanrahan told Tribune Sport.

“It was a bit of a freak accident below in Wexford, these things happen, I just accepted it and got on with it.”

Although his first season at inter-county level was cut short, Hanrahan was pleased to experience life in the Galway senior set-up.

“It was very enjoyable, especially getting to an All-Ireland final. It was a great experience. I loved it, the boys (from Loughrea), we’re all kind of the same age (who are with Galway as well).”

Hanrahan has ruled himself out of Sunday’s county final against Tommy Larkins and admits watching his teammates from the sidelines has taken some adjustment.

“I’m a bit of a nightmare to be honest with you, any of the lads I’m sitting with would tell you the same. I’m terrible, I’m not getting used to it at all. I’m just very bad at watching it, I’d rather be playing.”

Loughrea now have the opportunity to win three Galway Senior Hurling Championship titles in-a-row, with Hanrahan pointing to the emergence of younger players as helping to maintain the hunger within the squad.

“We are always striving to win, we have a really good squad there, a mix of young lads which helps. Each year, we seem to be getting players through, this year we got Jack Shaughnessy, Mikey Maher, Lee Murphy, Ethan Coleman, there’s a few more there.

“They come up training, they don’t have any county medals, they’re pushing you to the pin of your collar. We always stay hungry, when you’re winning you want to stay winning. The management team knows well that hunger is there all the time. We’ve lost enough so, when you’re hurling well and winning you want to stay winning,” added Hanrahan.

His brother Ian will captain Loughrea into their fourth county final in five years and has the opportunity to lift the Tom Callanan Cup for a third successive year.

“Days like these don’t come around too often, it’s a county final we just want to try and grab it with both hands irrespective of how many the club has. It’s all you dream as a young boy, playing for Loughrea, first of all to break into a senior team and play senior. If you’re lucky enough to go on and win a senior title, it’s the best thing to happen to a player,” said Ian Hanrahan.

After losing to Tommy Larkins in the opening round, the reigning champions have responded with victories over Moycullen, Gort, Castlegar, Athenry and Craughwell.

“That’s a while back, Tommy Larkins have improved since then, there’s no denying it. They’ve beaten Turloughmore and Clarinbridge, they’re the in-form team, they are unbeaten in the championship this year, we are under no illusions that we have a massive challenge ahead of us. It’s one that we are looking forward too, we've got a lot of work to do to prepare ourselves both mentally and physically and hopefully we can do that.

“Tommy Larkins are a serious side, they’ve been pushing the last couple of years. Last year, they were very unlucky to get caught at the quarter-final at the very end. They’ve a pretty good management team, they know what they are doing. It’s going to be a great game,” concluded the Loughrea captain.