Joe Canning felt it was important that Galway laid down a marker against Dublin after what he felt was a lack of respect shown to the side after their demolition of Tipperary in the league final.
Canning's comments may come as a surprise to many given that many pundits heaped praise on the Tribesmen after they claimed the Division 1 title on 23 April, while also adding that this may be the year that Liam MacCarthy heads back west.
Galway did hold a mini-homecoming celebration at the St Thomas' club - home of captain David Burke following their spring success - an event that did raise eyebrows in some quarters.
However, Canning took issue with other claims made against the Tribesmen in advance of Sunday's 14-point win over the Dubs at O'Connor Park.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, the Portumna legend said: "We felt we didn't get too much respect coming into the game but I think we earned respect today with our performance.
"We were being labelled a Division 1B team. People were thinking we might have a stink today. There were comments made alright that we didn't take lightly, but we answered such comments on the field.
"We have put in two strong performances now and we were decent enough in the league semi-final and for the last 20 minutes in the quarter-final. The talk is all about consistency and we're doing our bit to achieve that."
"We were good in spells" - Padraic Mannion pic.twitter.com/sp9mMEI9xQ
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 28, 2017
Galway defender Padraig Mannion also highlighted the importance of the side putting in a strong performance after winning silverware last month.
"There was a lot of talk about us after the league final - talk we had to put to the back of our minds.
"Consistency has been a problem for Galway.
"It was a massive thing for us to put two solid performances back to back. Having said that, there are lots of things we have to work on if we are to progress further.
Reflecting further on the win over Ger Cunningham's side he added: "We were good in spells. We had a nice bit of a lead before half-time but we let Dublin in for a goal.
"Instead of going in six up we went in three up. We gave away a lot of frees. In saying that, you need things to work on for the next day.
