I’VE ALWAYS FOUND Galway unpredictable, you don’t know what you’re going to get with them from one day to the next.
They could come out one Sunday and put it up against the best teams in the country, as we’ve seen so often, but then fall flat in their next outing.
I said earlier in the year that consistency was Anthony Cunningham’s main aim and they have managed to put together a number of consistent performances throughout the summer.
My first big experience of Galway was in the 2001 All-Ireland minor final. I didn’t know much about them up to then but their main player at the time was Ger Farragher, who’s no longer involved at senior level.
Ger Farragher was a Galway minor in 2001. INPHO
INPHO
We had a good team and a lot of our guys progressed to the senior ranks.
In the second half we were up against it but we played well and when you’re that age, it’s a big deal.
We were playing in the biggest stadium in Ireland in front of a big crowd and while I had a pretty good game, I wasn’t the star of that Cork team by any means.
Kieran Murphy from Sarsfields was with us, Tomás O’Leary too, who went on to achieve big things with the Munster and Ireland rugby teams.
And we had a young whippersnapper by the name of Setanta Ó hAilpín, who went on to make a real name for himself.
At senior level, we met Galway in the 2005 All-Ireland final. They’d beaten everyone along the way, taking out Limerick, Tipperary and Kilkenny.
We beat Clare in our semi-final, a game we were under real pressure in but managed to pull out of the bag in the final ten minutes.
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We came through a tough All-Ireland semi-final against Clare in 2005. INPHO
INPHO
We were expecting Kilkenny to come through the other side of the draw, to be honest, but Galway pulled out a massive performance.
We were expecting another big one from them but they’ll probably look back and think they could have played better.
We had a very good, solid team and Ben O’Connor scored a goal that turned the game in our favour. Brian Corcoran was back, a big player for us, but Galway seem a different team this year than they have been in previous seasons.
They’re massive men, physically very big and they’re taking that physicality to opposition teams.
We saw them give enough of it to Kilkenny for the first 40 minutes of the Leinster final but they know they’ll have to keep that going for 70 minutes to have a chance on Sunday.
Ben O'Connor scored a crucial goal in the 2005 final against Galway. INPHO
INPHO
They’ll know what to expect from Kilkenny, who may decide on a personnel change either in attack or defence.
I don’t know if Walter Walsh will start or whether Jackie Tyrrell will be fit enough for corner back.
But overall, Galway will know what Kilkenny are going to bring and who they have to shut down.
It will be 100 miles per hour stuff from the first whistle, physically draining, but if Galway can withstand that onslaught, they have the few hurlers to bring them over the line.
Some people say that it’s an advantage for a team to play one that has already beaten them but I’m not so sure.
There hasn’t been a huge amount of change in the Galway team, bar a couple of switches, but it will be closer this time I suspect.
Will Walter Walsh start for Kilkenny? James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
I still think Kilkenny will have enough in the tank and if you remember the occasions when Galway have caught them in the All-Ireland series, most notably in the 2001 and 2005 semi-finals, they were different times.
Back then, Galway weren’t in Leinster but now Kilkenny have the advantage of going head to head with them earlier in the year before potentially seeing them again.
You might catch a team in a semi-final but champions are rarely caught in finals.
That probably stood to us against Galway in 2005. We’d been used to big days at Croke Park but some of these Galway lads will be carrying the hurt of 2012 and will feel that now is as good a time as any to make amends.
In the latter years of my career with Cork, I had some good and bad days against Galway.
We beat them in 2008 in a qualifier, despite having Donal Óg Cusack sent off.
Donal Óg Cusack was sent off when we played Galway in 2008. Donall Farmer / INPHO
Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO
Joe Canning scored 2-12 on the day when he really announced his arrival as a senior force.
He was marking Diarmuid O’Sullivan, who was still a huge player for us, and for Joe to come along and score that amount was a really big deal.
They beat us in the qualifiers in 2009 and again in the 2012 semi-final, a game that never really lived up to expectations.
It was point for point to half-time, 0-11 each, but the standard was poor and Galway pulled away.
They scored 22 points, I recall, and we finished with 17. I was sub in my last year and it was frustrating not reaching the final or getting a run from the bench.
Galway had the measure of us in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final. Cathal Noonan / INPHO
Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO
Now, I like the look of the Galway forwards. Young Cathal Mannion is a very good player and they have a good, workmanlike midfield.
The majority of their backs can do a job but the only reason I’m going against them on Sunday is because I had my fingers burned last year when I backed Tipperary in the final against Kilkenny.
Tipp nearly swung it the first day and I stuck to my guns but this time, I can’t look beyond Kilkenny, even though I do like the look of this Galway team.
John Gardiner: Unpredictable Galway, minor memories and Joe's big arrival
Updated at 21.30
I’VE ALWAYS FOUND Galway unpredictable, you don’t know what you’re going to get with them from one day to the next.
They could come out one Sunday and put it up against the best teams in the country, as we’ve seen so often, but then fall flat in their next outing.
I said earlier in the year that consistency was Anthony Cunningham’s main aim and they have managed to put together a number of consistent performances throughout the summer.
My first big experience of Galway was in the 2001 All-Ireland minor final. I didn’t know much about them up to then but their main player at the time was Ger Farragher, who’s no longer involved at senior level.
We had a good team and a lot of our guys progressed to the senior ranks.
In the second half we were up against it but we played well and when you’re that age, it’s a big deal.
We were playing in the biggest stadium in Ireland in front of a big crowd and while I had a pretty good game, I wasn’t the star of that Cork team by any means.
And we had a young whippersnapper by the name of Setanta Ó hAilpín, who went on to make a real name for himself.
At senior level, we met Galway in the 2005 All-Ireland final. They’d beaten everyone along the way, taking out Limerick, Tipperary and Kilkenny.
We beat Clare in our semi-final, a game we were under real pressure in but managed to pull out of the bag in the final ten minutes.
We were expecting Kilkenny to come through the other side of the draw, to be honest, but Galway pulled out a massive performance.
We were expecting another big one from them but they’ll probably look back and think they could have played better.
They’re massive men, physically very big and they’re taking that physicality to opposition teams.
We saw them give enough of it to Kilkenny for the first 40 minutes of the Leinster final but they know they’ll have to keep that going for 70 minutes to have a chance on Sunday.
They’ll know what to expect from Kilkenny, who may decide on a personnel change either in attack or defence.
I don’t know if Walter Walsh will start or whether Jackie Tyrrell will be fit enough for corner back.
But overall, Galway will know what Kilkenny are going to bring and who they have to shut down.
Some people say that it’s an advantage for a team to play one that has already beaten them but I’m not so sure.
There hasn’t been a huge amount of change in the Galway team, bar a couple of switches, but it will be closer this time I suspect.
I still think Kilkenny will have enough in the tank and if you remember the occasions when Galway have caught them in the All-Ireland series, most notably in the 2001 and 2005 semi-finals, they were different times.
Back then, Galway weren’t in Leinster but now Kilkenny have the advantage of going head to head with them earlier in the year before potentially seeing them again.
That probably stood to us against Galway in 2005. We’d been used to big days at Croke Park but some of these Galway lads will be carrying the hurt of 2012 and will feel that now is as good a time as any to make amends.
In the latter years of my career with Cork, I had some good and bad days against Galway.
We beat them in 2008 in a qualifier, despite having Donal Óg Cusack sent off.
Joe Canning scored 2-12 on the day when he really announced his arrival as a senior force.
He was marking Diarmuid O’Sullivan, who was still a huge player for us, and for Joe to come along and score that amount was a really big deal.
It was point for point to half-time, 0-11 each, but the standard was poor and Galway pulled away.
They scored 22 points, I recall, and we finished with 17. I was sub in my last year and it was frustrating not reaching the final or getting a run from the bench.
Now, I like the look of the Galway forwards. Young Cathal Mannion is a very good player and they have a good, workmanlike midfield.
The majority of their backs can do a job but the only reason I’m going against them on Sunday is because I had my fingers burned last year when I backed Tipperary in the final against Kilkenny.
Tipp nearly swung it the first day and I stuck to my guns but this time, I can’t look beyond Kilkenny, even though I do like the look of this Galway team.
‘It’s beginning to grate, becoming a bit of a pain in the butt’
It’s 27 years since Galway won the All-Ireland hurling title…but where are they now?
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