'In the end we upped the ante'

IF ALL managers were as honest and rational and as thorough in their match assessment as John McIntyre then our jobs would be a lot easier.

The Galway manager doesn’t simply answer our sometimes tiresome questions but rather delivers the sort of polished monologue that you’d swear he must have rehearsed several times over. Of course McIntyre is a member of the Fourth Estate – and on this occasion things indeed went to script, more or less.

“It’s great to win a match by 11 points,” he started, “and not play as well as the league final a few weeks ago. But I knew that. I’ve been around dressingrooms a long time and I didn’t think Galway were in the same place as they were for the league final. We’d two rounds of the county championship since. We had injuries. So our preparations were a little fractured.

“But look, the result is everything. We’re heading back to Croke Park again (to play Offaly on June 20th) and it’s been a while since Galway were there. This was a fixture that had danger written all over it. Wexford carried the fight to us. They had some outstanding individual performances. We stood up to the test.

“We made life difficult at times, but in the end we upped the ante, upped the work rate, and got some great scores. The thing that distinguishes the good teams from the mediocre ones is they win the matches they’re expected to win. And Galway proved that here.”

Then McIntyre deepened his voice, to emphasise the seriousness of tone, and expressed his disappointed that three players ended up with red cards – even though two of them were from the opposition. Galway’s Andy Smyth was first to go on a straight red, followed by Wexford substitute David Redmond, for a second yellow, and then Diarmuid Lyng, late on, for a straight red.

“I actually went to Diarmuid Lyng and said to him it was a tough call,” declared McIntyre. “Players should be sent off if they’re committing a dirty challenge. But don’t send off players because of their will to win and total commitment. And I think Andy Smyth has paid the price for his commitment again today. Smyth typifies what we’re trying to establish in Galway.

“Players with incredible work ethic, total commitment, and I believe he’s been penalised for that. Andy is not a malicious player. What happens if a player takes the head off another player? He only gets a red card.

“I think those three players were hard done by. Some people have accused Galway hurlers of not laying their bodies on the line. These guys are certainly doing it.”

Wexford manager Colm Bonnar agreed the red cards were harsh, although that wasn’t the reason they lost. Instead Joe Canning’s goal from a 20-metre free before half-time swung the momentum in Galway’s favour.

“You can’t give Galway chances like that, a cheap goal. To be fair we got them back to three points with 15 minutes to go, with the extra man, and I thought we’d a chance. But maybe the bit of inexperience cost us then.

“The second goal that they got shouldn’t really have happened, and in the last 10 minutes lost our shape our bit. We probably depended too much on frees as well, but still we’d be disappointed to lose out by that much in the end.”