Mannion reveals Glynn is back with Tribesmen
GALWAY star Padraic Mannion insists Lukasz Kirszenstein and Johnny Glynn will be part of the county’s set-up as they look to retain the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2018.
Strength and conditioning expert Kirszenstein had been linked with a move to Munster Rugby while it was suggested that Glynn, who had travelled over and back from the US to play last season, wouldn’t repeat the trick this time around.
“Johnny is back, he played club championship at the weekend,” said Mannion, who also confirmed Kirszenstein was continuing.
“He’s a massive addition on and off the field, and even off the field he’s great to have around the dressingroom. On the field he brings something different and has absolutely massive work-rate as well in the training ground and in games.”
The Tribesmen have made an indifferent start to the new season as they failed to gain promotion from Division 1B of the league after losing to Limerick. They surrendered their league title when going down to Wexford in the quarter-final.
PROGRESSED
“At the start we were a little bit behind in our preparation in terms of where we would have liked to have been. That went hand-in-hand with the success we had. Obviously we would have liked to have progressed as far as we could in it but at least we got to see a few new players that got a bit of game-time. I think we did improve with each game and we lost to Wexford but I think we did improve throughout the games.”
Mannion insists the “catch-up is behind us” now and believes that appetite for success won’t have been dulled by last year’s win.
“Most of us by nature are very competitive, so when you are going out to play, you want to win every game you play, whether it is a game of hurling or any other competition. You always want to try and come out on top. Coming back again, it is a massive challenge to come back and defend the Liam MacCarthy.
“If you are thinking about defending it now, you will be in trouble because it is the Leinster Championship first and last year what worked for us was taking it gamebygame.Takingitonegameat a time, one training session at a time, just building and building. This year will be no different. We are not looking past Offaly, we have seen what they did, the performance they put in against Dublin and against other teams in the league.”