Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TRIBAL DANCE Galway end 29-year wait to land Liam Maccarthy cup
GALWAY boss Micheal Donoghue last night dismissed the ‘chokers’ tag he claimed was attached to his team after watching them complete the clean sweep by winning the All-ireland SHC final.
The Tribesmen lifted the Liam Maccarthy Cup for the fifth time after beating Waterford, their first win since 1988.
They had lost six finals between then and yesterday – including two in the past six years. But this victory caps a magnificent 2017 that saw the men from the west win the National League, the Leinster title and now the All-ireland.
Donoghue said: “They’ve been questioned and doubted so many times – even in the build-up to the game, there were still references that they were chokers.
“Nobody came out and said these boys showed huge resilience and today, we knew coming up that we were in with a serious chance.
“We had a few setbacks in the first half but the character and unity and everything that is built in this squad was shown in abundance today.”
While Galway were the better side in the first half, they only led by a point at the interval.
But when Waterford’s Kevin Moran missed the chance to take a two-point lead in the 48th minute, Galway pounced by registering the next four scores and they never relinquished the lead again. It was an emotional build-up to the game for the county after the sudden death of two-time All-ireland winner Tony Keady after the semi-final win over Tipperary.
Keady was mentioned in captain David Burke’s winning speech along with Niall Donoghue, the panellist who died in tragic circumstances four years ago. But there was pressure on as well to finally get over the line after 29 years and Donoghue acknowledged: “One of the biggest strengths that we got off each other is that we really excluded everything outside of our own circle, outside of our own dressing room.
“We couldn’t control what was being said about our team. Of course, there was going to be pressure. At the start of the year we had our goals, we took one step at a time right throughout.”