Galway selector John Connolly is concerned about his county's lack of match practice ahead of their All-Ireland Hurling semi-final showdown with last year's champions Kilkenny at Croke Park on Sunday. "Mike McNamara, our trainer from Clare, just could not get over the problem of trying to prepare a team for Croke Park on a big occasion without it being tried and tested beforehand," explained Connolly.
"We'd love to be in Kilkenny's situation where they have played Wexford and Offaly and going into their third game now. If they were in our situation where they had no game for 12 months, we'd feel then we'd have a better chance on Sunday," he added.
Connolly is also concerned that a downturn in support for the Galway hurling team will hinder their chances against the champions. "There's no doubt we're lacking a bit of support. It's a fact that Kilkenny looked for 20,000 tickets for Sunday and got 20,000 and are still looking for more while we looked for 8,000 and are actually sending some back."
"I would appeal to people at this stage that the team really needs their support. They're putting in a big effort and it would mean an awful lot to them to have support there on Sunday. We have to convince our supporters that we have a chance and I think it's going to take us to beat Kilkenny on Sunday to win them over," he added.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
