McIntyre believes Galway will rise again
Date Published: 07-Jul-2010
Dara Bradley
“HE doesn’t look too happy,” said the Croke Park security man of John McIntyre to the gang of press reporters who were waiting in the post-match media centre. We didn’t need to see the Galway boss to know that but was he going to make an appearance? “He’s already done de telly and he’s gone back to the dressing room,” he said.
Some reporters left thinking McIntyre would do another ‘no show’ and shun the media like during the League defeat to his own county earlier this year. When the Tipperary man eventually emerged, the security man was right – he didn’t look happy.
He was uncomfortable – “will I sit down or stand up” he asked awkwardly – before taking a seat and giving a frank assessment of Galway’s performance. “No excuses. We were beaten by a better team today, which reduces the scope for post-mortems and inquests,” he said.
“I thought in general we were a little bit flat. Possibly the two Offaly games took more out of us than we thought. Our use of possession was not as clinical as we would have liked it to have been. Overall I didn’t think Kilkenny were at their clinical best either, but their ability to win primary possession in our attacking half of the field really hurt us.
“Our fellas fought honourably to the end, didn’t give up when things were going against them and we have to heed the lessons from today. We’re still in the championship, we still have a lot to play for and we can’t rip up the template that has taken us so far this season.
“Prior to today we played 14 competitive matches and had only fallen once to Tipperary. We have the Walsh Cup and the National League trophies on the side board. We knew coming in here today that we were facing a stiff rise in standard. We had prepared mentally and physically for it, but it’s easier said than done when you’re out there against hurling’s greatest ever team.”
McIntyre continued to praise the Cats and echoed the feelings of many hurling fans outside of Kilkenny when he said we’re all sick of seeing them win. “Everybody in the Galway camp is disappointed because we feel we didn’t do ourselves justice. Now how much of that is down to Kilkenny and the reality that they didn’t allow us to do ourselves justice ... their work rate, their hunger, it’s like as though they’ve won nothing.
“And given their ability, their composure, their technique and all the rest – they’re two games away from hurling immortality and it’s easy to see why. Galway are not in a good place this evening but the game isn’t up for us," added McIntyre.