Micheál Donoghue: 'There is a great mix of youth and experience'
Galway senior hurling team manager Micheál Donoghue. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
By Cian O'Connell
Galway manager Micheál Donoghue hailed the spirit in the maroon and white panel following a stirring All-Ireland SHC Semi-Final victory at Croke Park.
A defiant Galway outfit restricted Cork to five second half points, and Donoghue was delighted with the resolve demonstrated, especially after the restart. "We didn't say a whole lot to them," Donoghue remarked.
"I've said this a lot of the time, there's a brilliant team spirit, there is a great mix of youth and experience.
"You know, the older fellas take control of it and as I said, we were comfortable where we were at.
"Cork did come back, we still left some scores behind us and we had full trust and belief that we'd push on in the second half.
"I think throughout the league and throughout the Championship, as the team has evolved and as they've got more comfortable with what we wanted to do, we've had some really good second-half performances.
"We knew that if we were in the position we were in going into the second half, that we were well capable of pushing on again and thankfully we did."
Following an encouraging Galway start, Cork rallied to move five points ahead as the interval approached. Donoghue's team responded scoring five of the last six first half points to only trail by one at the break.
The Galway manager acknowledged that was a crucial spell. "Yeah, it was and look, I suppose we had huge emphasis on getting a good start for ourselves, just to put ourselves in the game and put our own stamp on it," he responded.
"Obviously, with the height of respect for Cork and they showed that in the second quarter, they came back into it, and the few points before half-time just kept us right there, which was really important."
