Cunningham insists Galway 'thriving' despite exit from hurling championship
Galway boss Anthony Cunningham insisted that the Tribesmen are heading in the right direction despite exiting the championship well before the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.
The Westerners lost this evening’s All-Ireland SHC qualifier victory to Tipperary, their second loss in a week having suffered a damaging defeat against Kilkenny in the Leinster SHC semi-final replay in Tullamore.
Cunningham’s position will come under review as he has now completed a third year in charge.
The former playing star insisted that was talk for another day and believes that Galway are "thriving".
He said: “The performance was there, they're thriving really. In particular we had five or six new players this year who hadn't played championship before.
“We're in a building process, happy with that though not happy with the result - we were very, very close.”
Meanwhile, modest Tipperary star Seamus Callanan played down his matchwinning role at Semple Stadium.
Callanan, 25, was superb as Tipp blasted their way to a first championship win since the 2012 Munster final.
The Drom & Inch hitman bagged 3-8, including 3-1 from play, as Tipp came from six points down to claim a sensational 3-25 to 4-13 win.
Callanan scored two goals down the home straight as Tipp outscored Galway by 2-10 to 0-1 in the final 20 minutes, having fallen 1-15 to 4-12 in arrears.
And Callanan admitted that it felt good to shut up the critics who had rounded on the Tipperary players following last month’s Munster SHC semi-final defeat to Limerick.
He roared: “We are a team that works fierce hard in training. Things didn’t work out for us against Limerick and we came in for a lot of criticism.
“There was no need for a lot of it and I would hope that everyone will get behind us now and we all drive on together from here.”
Callanan acknowledged that Tipp had to punish Galway once they got momentum behind them at a critical stage.
He said: “It’s very important when you get a roll going that you capitalise on it. Today was just a lucky day for us when everything seem to go over.
“I didn’t even look at the scoreboard. We play every ball as it comes and do your bit for the team and hopefully the result will look after itself then.”
He paid tribute to the supply of ball coming his way for his matchwinning haul, adding: “It is my job to score when all the boys do the hard work outside.
“It doesn’t work out every day but we kept trying, a few breaks came my way but the next day they will come someone else’s way and we all try to do our best in our won patch and if we all work hard together the results will come.”
Callanan insisted that Tipp’s defeat against Limerick should be placed in context as the Shannonsiders are reigning provincial kingpins.
He said: “They are deserved Munster champions. They are going to be a strong team again this year.”
