Trial and error.
“You win or you learn.”
The Galway hurlers were well used to losing. They were well used to learning.
The county’s Liam MacCarthy drought ran for 29 years. 29 years too long.
Galway are a hurling county. The Tribesmen are proud people, and if you go there, the topic of conversation will never be far away from the county’s hurling side.
Even though they hadn’t won since 1988, they still had this pride, but Jesus it must have been wounded.
Jesus, it must have hurt them to have seen neighbours Tipperary win in 2010 and 2016. 2016; a year when Galway were the better team in their semi-final clash with the Premier county. A year when they didn’t take their chances but the men in Blue and Gold did.
2016 wasn’t the only year. In 2012, they lost a replay final to Kilkenny. 2015; they lost again.
Did the weight of history weigh down on them? Were they crippled by the desperate desires of a whole county? It certainly seemed that way.
It’s no surprise, then, that their All-Star centre back Gearóid McInerney puts their 2017 triumph down to a new calmness. Manager Micheál Donoghue exudes this.
“One of the differences was probably a small bit of calmness about it. We’ve been there a few times and we kind of know how to cope with it a small bit,” said the Oranmore-Maree man recently.
Galway had been there before. They’d reached that final hurdle, only to fall at the jump. McInerney, who works in the family sports-shop in Oranmore, tried to avoid the build-up prior to that defining Waterford game.
A game that many said was the best chance Galway would ever get to end their drought.
“I’d say I never spent as much time in a store room (in the shop) in my life, just trying to get my head right,” said the 27-year-old.
If you came into the shop that week to talk to him about the big game, you wouldn’t have gotten much change.
“I normally leave myself a week just to clear my headspace and get all that right. Sometimes that involves staying away from all the conversation around it – I know they mean well but sometimes it can be draining enough. So you just try and get away from that a week or two before the game which was grand,” added the 6 ft 4 in giant.
If the men in maroon were able to create a calm atmosphere in the camp last year, this year should be tranquil.
For now, it’s all relaxed. Basking in the glory.
“Yeah, it has been grand. It’s nice to enjoy the time that we have off because it doesn’t be long coming around again so it has been nice to meet up with friends and to go out and that,” he said at the launch of the Coca-Cola Designated Driver campaign.
“At the minute it’s about enjoying it and putting the feet up even though it might feel wrong. It’s about just relaxing and enjoying this and then getting back to work in the new year because it’s going to come at us really quick next year so it’s important to be ready for that.”
He will be ready. The ambitious centre back is already thinking about ways to bring himself on, to improve his game.
“I do plan on sitting down and assess how it all went, everything that I need to do better and what I need to improve on and maybe what I did well,” he said.
He won’t cut any corners. He wants more.
“I haven’t really got to that point yet but I do have in mind when I’m going to sit down and assess the year and try to be as honest with myself as possible.”
There’s always room for improvement. Be complacent and you’ll go backwards. He’s going to put in the work to ensure the only way is up.
“I think you always do. You can go back the way too, just as easily. There’s no roof to what you can do. Even staying the same, you have to put in as much effort, and there’s always room to put in more if you’re smart enough about it. It’s even tricky to get to the level you were before and then to go on and beyond that. You have to keep learning,” he said.
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