Galway centre-forward Cyril Donnellan may have bagged an impressive 3-1 on Saturday evening to help Galway hurlers reach the Leinster semi-final, but he readily admits both individually and collectively the team and panel must be more consistent in their performances if they are to collect any silverware over the coming months.
“We all believe there is plenty of ability and talent in our squad, but we do need to produce a few consistent and improved displays,” he says.
“We just fell shy of Tipperary last year in the quarter-final, and if we had won that, nobody knows where we could have ended up. On any given day we can beat any team, but we need to be less hit and miss in the quality of our performances. We were a bit flat against Westmeath and struggled at times and we missed too many chances, but we are focusing solely on Dublin now and trying to get back to the Leinster final.”
Although Dublin is the “form team”, he says Galway are in ideal position.
“ The expectations from our own supporters are low and Dublin will have to deal with a lot of hype. Training is going really well for us the past few weeks. We can all see improvement and the mood in our camp is very positive.
“ The result against Dublin will be about how we perform and how we approach the game. We need to come up a good few notches in intensity and we know that unless we do that, we will be in serious trouble. We believe we can. And will.”
Donnellan, who is 25 and works as a civil engineer with Finnerty Plant Hire, had a disappointing championship season last year due to injury having enjoyed a good league run. The Pearse’s man is keen to make amends and try to get back to the provincial final.
“Our first championship objective at the start of the year was to try to win the Leinster championship. We still aim to do that. Obviously we need to really ramp up in some aspects of our game, but we are capable of doing so and in some ways our championship really starts on Saturday week.”
