'Work like dogs' mantra serves Portumna well

PORTUMNA duo Leo Smith and Niall Hayes have admitted that being written off by the bookmakers and the national media in the run-up to their All-Ireland Club semi-final clash against Kilkenny and Leinster champions Ballyhale Shamrocks was one of the underlining motivating factors in securing a convincing win.Having won the All-Ireland club championship in 2006 and 2008, the reigning champions were stung at being 2/1 outsiders, while the views of the Sunday newspapers, in which Ballyhale Shamrocks were deemed to hold all the aces, was also a point of motivation for the Portumna contingent.Simply, the Galway men felt they didn’t receive the respect or credit that they deserved.“That was one of our driving factors,” said impressive midfielder Smith. “All the media had it soused that if Ballyhale were there last year we wouldn’t have won our All-Ireland. We needed a driving factor to get us over today, so that was definitely one of the main things that pulled us through.