Glynn striking happy balance between US commute and Galway glory

GALWAY forward Johnny Glynn said that trying to balance a work life in New York with a bid for All-Ireland glory is worth every bit of the effort.

The Ardrahan clubman commuted from the United States last summer and played a key role as Galway won their first All-Ireland title since 1988.

This summer he is mainly based in Galway with the odd trip to the Big Apple, and again showed his worth when he started in the Leinster final replay win over Kilkenny.

But he says that juggling life as a project manager in America with training for a second All-Ireland in a row is worth the endeavour.

“Well, I think anyone in this position would want to do it, Galway is where I’m from and the last thing I’d want to do is let them down so I’m just happy it’s working out.

“I’ve been with the team a good bit this year and training away, I don’t have to be going back and forth as much as last year, a week here and there, but the group I’m working with are very good to me so it’s working out.

“Galway understand me living over there and the group I work for understand what hurling means to me. They’ve been very good to accommodate this so hopefully we can just keep going,” he said.

CROWN

He was part of the Galway squad which claimed the Leinster title in

2012 and knows the value of a provincial crown, but it is all about the All-Ireland title for this group of players.

“It’s great that we won the Leinster final but it’s only part of where we want to get, we want to win the All-Ireland.

“It’s great how it turned out, Kilkenny came back at us in the second half and nearly caught us but we’re happy enough that we got over the line. We’ve Leinster won but we haven’t an All-Ireland won yet so we’ll have to knuckle down and go again.”

Glynn moved to New York following the 2015 All-Ireland final loss to Kilkenny.

He didn’t feature in 2016 for Galway, but did play in the Connacht football championship for New York when they came so close to shocking Roscommon.

Micheál Donoghue persuaded Glynn to commute last summer but a knee injury meant that he didn’t start his first game until the

0-26 to 2-17 All-Ireland final win over Waterford.

But he knows the value of a squad and is hopeful that Galway have the depth to take another huge stride towards retaining their crown.

“I suppose with the depth of the panel it doesn’t matter who starts. Whatever 15 lads are out on the pitch go and do your job and the three or four lads that come in do their job,” he added.