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Jeffrey Lynskey hails Galway's character

Jeffrey Lynskey has steered Galway to three All Ireland minor titles.

Jeffrey Lynskey has steered Galway to three All Ireland minor titles.

By Paul Keane

If Galway resembled a team with ice in their veins while defending the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor title at Croke Park it should come as no surprise.

For their successful defence was forged in the cruel chill of a winter that seemed to take over most of spring too.

Jeffrey Lynskey, after guiding Galway to back to back titles, and the county's third win in the grade in four seasons, said one of those brutal March evenings in particular was instrumental in moulding a winning team.

"We trained in the snow when no lads trained, that's how much we wanted it this year," said Liam Mellows club man Lynskey, who was asked to elaborate on the sub zero session. "We couldn't actually get a pitch. I brought my two kids up to my own club believe it or not and I got three shovels to try to move the snow off the astro turf.

"We realised after about 25 minutes that one of them bolted! He said, 'Dad, this is lunacy' One of them stayed, the loyal one I call him! So what we did was I looked out and the tide was gone out in Ballyloughane and I said, 'We'll go down to the beach'. So we had 54 lads there and we trained for an hour and a half.

"If you're looking for one moment that encapsulates the whole year, for me, it was that. It was the character they showed, it was minus whatever, four or five degrees, and the lads came out. They were falling into puddles of salt water, seaweed, you name it, and they didn't shirk it.

"Because at the end of the day they wanted to get to Croke Park, to wear a Galway jersey. There's a huge amount of hunger there and drive and energy. In fairness to them they showed that in the second-half against Kilkenny."

Galway trailed by four points early on, by one at half-time and by two with 35 minutes on the clock before outscoring Kilkenny by 0-11 to 0-2 from there to win with some to spare. Their substitutes had a strong impact with Colm Cunningham and Sean McDonagh in particular registering three points between them.

"When they're minors, 16 or 17 years of age, there's going to come a patch where they're going to lull in games, and you have to give them a chance, it's a big stage out there," said Lynskey.

"There's 50,000 people looking at them and you just need to give them time to settle down. I thought after 10 minutes, it was four points apiece then, we'd brought ourselves back into the game.

Kilkenny manager Richie Mulrooney before the game at Croke Park.

Kilkenny manager Richie Mulrooney before the game at Croke Park.

"Kilkenny pushed on again, they were a point up at half-time, but I knew for the last couple of weeks in training that we had a strong squad. There was no panic. It was like, 'Get these lads on' because they'd been impressing in games so much over the last three weeks.

"And all 16 years of age so that bodes well for next year. They've all worked incredibly hard since January. It's their 16th game undefeated this year. We haven't lost a game at any level this year, regarding challenges or championship, and we've had 70-something pitch sessions, 40 gym sessions."

Meanwhile, Kilkenny manager Richie Mulrooney admitted his players were simply beaten by a special Galway side. It was Kilkenny's second seven-point defeat to Galway in a matter of weeks having also lost at the quarter-final group stage.

But while Mulrooney reckoned his team were better than the scoreline suggested this time, he conceded that Galway have the mark of quality on them.

"That Galway team needed no luck this year," said Mulrooney, who guided Kilkenny to two minor titles in the past. "They were as good a minor team as I've seen, and I know our minor team was a really good team.

"I'm still disappointed we lost, disappointed that the margin was seven points because I didn't think that was a fair reflection of the 60 minutes. We're extremely proud of the performance we put in.

"We were such underdogs, we were determined to come up and put in a big performance and I think we did that but sometimes you have to admit that you came up against an exceptional team and Galway are.

"I think those lads today will serve Kilkenny very well in the future, several of them will play senior, as obviously will the Galway fellas.

"We're right up there at the top table with Galway but just today was their day, it was their year, they were the best team in the competition."

Galway were favourites beforehand and Mulrooney reckons they handled that expectation well.

"Remember, these fellas are 17 years of age, the age limit has come back a year," said Mulrooney. "A player has an awful lot to deal with on a bus coming up to play in an All-Ireland final. I thought they handled it very well and I thought we handled the underdogs tag well too."