Ready to abdicate throne of last winning Galway captain

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

GALWAY legend Conor Hayes says he is fed up as being referred to as the county’s last All-Ireland winning senior hurling captain and it is high time for somebody else to take up the mantle.

Indeed, the Kiltormer man, who captained the Tribesmen to Liam McCarthy Cup victories in 1987 and ’88 – in addition to having secured another coveted Celtic Cross in that historic win in 1980 – says he would have loved to pass on the torch long ago.

“It should have happened long before this really. It is a pain in the butt. It is getting a bit dated and is grating on me to be honest,” states Hayes, who does not make such a strong statement out of any disrespect to the achievement but rather that it sums up the frustration he and Galway supporters have been enduring since the late 1980s.

“You would much prefer if there were two or three of them who had captained teams to All-Irelands in between. It would be great. When you look back over it, certainly ourselves, we should have won it in 1990. In ’93, Galway were also in the final.

“S0, there were a lot of chances all the way up along. That I am the last man to captain a Galway team; it is just a thing that is there for the record books. For me, it is unfortunate from the point of view that it is that long ago.”

As manager of the team in the mid 2000s, Hayes almost guided the Tribesmen to an All-Ireland triumph but they subsequently came undone by a strong Cork team in the 2005 decider. Galway’s next opportunity was in 2012 and, again, they came close, only losing out to Kilkenny after a replay.

Three years on from that last All-Ireland defeat, the three-time All-Star, who also won an All-Ireland club title with Kiltormer in 1992, believes Anthony Cunningham’s men are better equipped this time round for the challenge. “I think they have never had a better chance, to be honest,” he says.

“They have had almost the perfect championship run-in. You wouldn’t have given them much of a chance after the first day but they got that draw against Dublin and it all kick-started for them from there. They had a good game against Dublin the second day out, then beat Laois well before losing to Kilkenny in the Leinster final. I thought that they faded a little bit in that game.”

Still, he is impressed with the way they dispatched of Cork in the All-Ireland quarter final and even more so by their ambush of hot favourites Tipperary in the semi-final. “We were up against it but we came through it because we were battle hardened to do that.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.