Dara Bradley

TUESDAY afternoon, two days after Galway’s agonising one-point defeat to Tipperary in the All-Ireland quarter-final, and the losing captain Shane Kavanagh is still raw.

“It’s still sheer devastation. And it will be worse it’s going to get in the short-term when we realise there’s no training to go to during the week and we won’t be meeting. It will be worse again when we watch the championship progress with us not being there. It’s devastation.

Next year seems such a long, long way off,” said the Kinvara man.
After collectively playing heroically in a cliff-hanger; going so close only to lose by a point, in injury time, the mood in the Tribesmen’s Croke Park dressing room was understandably grim. The worst Kavanagh, and probably most of this group, has ever experienced.
It was even worse than last year, when Galway let a six-point final quarter lead slip and lost to Waterford by a point at the same stage of the competition.

Words won’t do justice to the atmosphere and pain of the dressing room but Kavanagh gave Tribune Sport an insight into what it was like, as the players and management gathered immediately after the final whistle.

“It was a killer. Lads were just devastated. Some lads weren’t able to take it at all and they’re still struggling with it. The dressing room on Sunday was the worst I’ve ever been in. We just couldn’t believe we were going into the dressing room after losing,” he said.

“There was sheer devastation – a lot of lads just broke down. It meant so much to everyone, grown men just couldn’t contain their emotion. John Mac (McIntyre) spoke. He was devastated. Everyone was getting so emotional. I spoke, and the main point I was trying to get across was that we have to stick together.

“We’d been training so hard all year. The break of a ball, a bit of luck went Tipp’s way and in an instant, three minutes, three points and we’re back to square one. We lost the match. Out of the championship. It’s really hard to take.

Pat McDonagh (managing director of Supermac’s, sponsors of the Galway senior hurling team) spoke. He said time is a great healer. It’s difficult to even think of next year but by and large we’re a young group of men and hopefully the management will stay on again for another year and we’ll stick together.”

The long-serving legend Ollie Canning was another man who addressed the room. His speech was poignant, as he told the group that he may never play for Galway again.

The 33-years-old Portumna man indicated the only reason he was playing inter-county hurling in 2010 was because he felt Galway, under this backroom team and with this group of players, would achieve success this year.

While Canning didn’t categorically retire – and was equivocal about it when doing radio interviews this week – the odds on seeing him in a maroon and white jersey ever again are slim.

Canning’s speech and the painful manner in which they lost, clearly shook Galway boss McIntyre, who, eyes bloodshot, was an emotional wreck when he came out and addressed reporters. “I just left the Galway dressing room – absolute devastation,” he said with a quivering voice.

“We fronted up to Tipperary today. We left everything out on the field. I know we lost the game today but I’ve never been as proud of the Galway players as I am this evening. We may have lost the match but we’ve lost no honour.

“I think Galway have answered a lot of the question marks that have been posed about them over the years. There was no shortage of character, commitment, honesty or courage out there today. Maybe Tipperary’s experience of playing in an All-Ireland final last year and the devastation that that result caused, maybe that stood to them in the final furlong today.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.