WINNERS’ DINNERS

Tribe hungry for success again

SHANE WALSH believes Galway can continue to dine at the top table – even without their celebrated sous chef.

Paddy Tally made a massive impact in his one year as the Tribesmen’s coach but he has now taken the reins in Down, leaving Galway to find their way again under manager Kevin Walsh – having reached the All-ireland semi-finals last summer.

“Every year we’ve been adapting our game, trying to find what suits to go forward,” said Shane Walsh.

“We are tweaking things like every team, like Dublin has done the last couple of years. They haven’t won by doing the exact same thing, the exact replica of what they done the year before.

“We’ve to keep moving and hopefully it’s the right direction. That’s the trust we have in Kevin’s management.

“They’ve brought it from the bottom and now they’re starting to compete against the Division 1 teams. That’s the table you want to be dining at.”

The Kilkerrin/clonberne man feels Galway exceeded expectations, though perhaps not within the county.

“It’s funny because Galway expected that of us anyway, without us being at that level,” he mused.

As such, Walsh feels there won’t be a problem living with lofty expectations this year, following the Tribe’s Allianz Division 1 final appearance and extended Championship march. “For us that’s irrelevant,” he said. “It’s about Cavan in the first game, they’ve beaten us the last two times.

“We have to be on our guard and ready to go, to take it by the scruff of the neck and get two points out of it.

“If we look back and say, ‘Last year was a good year, we were in an All-ireland semi-final’, it’s not going to guarantee us an All-ireland semi-final or a League final again.

“So we have to take the positives from it and the areas we fell down in, try and correct those mistakes.”

The 25-year-old concedes that “subconsciously” Galway may have relaxed a bit against Monaghan as they were guaranteed an All-ireland semi-final after two rounds of the Super 8s.

That defeat in Salthill meant Galway played relentless Dublin rather than Monaghan or Tyrone in the last four.

“If you’re going to lose to

Dublin, I’d prefer to lose to them in a semi-final than a final,” he stated. “There’s this big whole thing about a final... I’m not a big believer in going that route.

“I said, ‘If we’re going to beat them, we might as well beat them in the semi-final’ and get on with it there.”

RYAN WYLIE has described Monaghan team-mate Conor Mcmanus as Gaelic football’s Lionel Messi.Farney defender Wylie was on top form last year during the Ulster men’s march to the All-ireland semi-finals. And he admits some of his toughest days in the summer came in training, when pitted against Mcmanus (above).“I mark him the odd time, whenever he’s training,” grinned Wylie. “He likes to mind himself!“Obviously‘Mansy’ is unbelievable, some of his point taking and some of the scores he is gathering up is unbelievable.“Barcelona have Messi and all these sort of players. That’s just the way, teams are always going to have star forwards.”