Tribesmen are on a roll, says Lundy
COROFIN will hope to keep the good times rolling for Galway football this weekend as they meet Moorefield in the All-Ireland semi-final. The county side is joint top of the Allianz League Division 1 and star forward Michael Lundy isn’t surprised that Kevin Walsh’s team have a 100 per cent record from their first three games.
‘You can say it is a surprise but within the group, they are confident,’ Lundy said. ‘They have done this while missing a couple of players, Michael Daly is injured and he is a big loss and Gary O’Donnell is only coming back. But the younger lads that are in there, they seem to be stepping up to the plate. They have hit the ground running and they will gain confidence from all the wins.
Beating their oldest rivals in a tetchy match in Salthill last Sunday means that Galway have now beaten Mayo in their last five encounters. The Tribesmen seem to have the upper hand on their neighbours.
‘It is nice to beat Mayo at any time but at the end of the day, the Championship is the big one. That game in the middle of May is what all eyes in Mayo and Galway are focused on. Sunday will mean nothing if you go and lose in May. But it’s nice to have won and it might give us something of an edge. It might be playing in the back of Mayo minds come the Championship.’
Over the past three weeks, it is evident that Galway have become a bit more streetwise this season, although Lundy claims that it is not something that had been identified and subsequently worked on.
‘I don’t think it’s anything that Kevin would have focused on. You just see with a lot of the young lads on the Galway team now, they are big lads. It is not easy to push them around because it’s easy for them to push back.’
It has been an eventful season for the Galway champions Corofin. Their All-Ireland quarter-final against Fulham Irish was postponed back in December because of snow in London, which led to the two teams having a few drinks together. And Lundy himself has had a hectic few months.
Ten days after getting his appendix removed, he togged out in the Connacht final against Castlebar Mitchels and scored a goal.
‘It was the Galway team doctor who sent me in to see a specialist and I just remember when he saw me, I said to him that I had a game in 10 days’ time and was there a possibility of me playing in it. He said that it wasn’t impossible. We had to see how the stitches healed.
‘I tested myself in the warm-up. I wasn’t hiding away from a challenge because I wanted to get physical. The last thing I wanted to do was not be 100 per cent fit and cost the team, ruin our chances. I felt that I could contribute something although I did tire towards the end of the game and had to come off.’
Lundy says he has no regrets over his final involvement.
‘I would definitely do it again. Maybe if I wasn’t there, we could have won it in normal time. If I was there [until the end of the match], we could have lost but we won a Connacht title and I played a part. So I would make that decision 100 times over. It all worked out.’