Btterly disappointed by his team's one point defeat to Tipperary last weekend, Galway team manager Micheál Donoghue is trying to focus on the positives.
“Coming into the game, the chat was it was going to be a shoot-out. From a manager’s perspective you didn’t want it to turn out that way. Inevitably it did, and the game ebbed and flowed. We’re just bitterly disappointed that we didn’t get something out of it."
Galway lost the services of Adrian Tuohy and Joe Canning on the stroke of half time. A hamstring injury sidelined Canning, while Tuohy picked up an elbow injury.
Donoghue said their replacements stepped up to the mark, but that Canning is a presence you want on the field for the full 70 minutes.
“We lost two guys that were performing really well in Adrian and Joe. That was a big loss for us as a group, but in fairness to the lads that came in, they put in a huge effort."
“Someone of the calibre of Joe, of course, you are going to miss him. He is a huge presence for us in the dressing room and a huge player for us on the field. He started well, so it was really disappointing to see him go off. There was a bit of reorganising to do, but look, the first few minutes we were still going OK. We got the goal, but just in the aftermath of it, Tipp got those couple of scores.
“The prize at stake was getting into an All-Ireland final. We came up with a mission to get into the final. We are just really, really disappointed for the lads because everything we’ve asked of them, they’ve done it. We just have to regroup now and push on again for 2017.
“There is a great bunch of players. Take Colm Callanan out of it, and the average age is only 23. They have been around for a while, are experienced and highly motivated. We are bitterly disappointed, but we will regroup.”
