By Cian O'Connell

Following an accomplished Connacht Final individual display at Dr Hyde Park on Sunday, Shane Walsh is hopeful Galway can move 'to another level' in the remaining months of the summer.

Galway became the first team to reach the All Ireland Quarter Final round robin series and Walsh feels the Tribesmen are moving in the right direction.

"Kevin and the lads have the worst job in the world in trying to pick 26 players to tog for Galway," Walsh says about Galway's developing panel.

"It's a great place to have it. I really do think that if lads keep driving it we can bring it to another level. We just have to take it as it was, we'll look back this week to go back over the mistakes we made and the good things we did."

Galway's substitutes contributed handsomely to a fine success over Roscommon which offered further encouragement according to Walsh. 

"Even with the players we have, we always say everyone empties the tank and we have the bench there to bring it on," Walsh admits.

"It's great to know that when you're playing a game you can give it absolutely everything and there's somebody going to come in and do the exact same thing all over again. 

"There's nothing worse for a team when you see a lad who's been running you for 35 or 40 minutes and you see another lad coming in willing to the do the exact same thing again, it's the last thing you want to see. I know from myself. It's a great position to be in. We're still learning all the time but it's great to take a result like that."

The 2017 provincial decider defeat against Roscommon was a blow, but Galway responded in impressive fashion.

"We were hurting from last year and we didn't do ourselves justice at all," Walsh states. 

"That was a big motivating factor. In the first 35 minutes we were probably saying, 'Was it a one-off or what was it?' It's hard to put last year into words, but this year it was just all about us performing and getting what we really wanted.

"Thankfully you saw the runners, you saw the subs coming on the likes of Adrian Varley, Eoghan Kerin, Peter Cooke, Army (Sean Armstrong) - was brilliant when he came on. They all chipped in and did their bits. That's what makes our team so strong."