Cathal Mannion believes that Galway's crop of young players have helped to drive on the Tribesmen to higher standards, as they prepare for their Leinster SHC final showdown with Kilkenny.
Kilkenny are chasing six Leinster titles in a row against Micheál Donoghue’s Tribesmen, who haven’t lifted the Bob O'Keeffe Cup since 2018.
The Cats will go into the final as the favourites once again, particularly given they’ve already beaten Galway in the competition, running out 3-24 to 0-21 winners back in April.
However the Tribesmen recovered from that disappointing start to finish level with Kilkenny on points in the round-robin table and with a slightly stronger points difference.
Under manager Donoghue, Galway appear to have rediscovered their killer instinct and Mannion has been pleased with the way his side have bounced back from that opening day defeat to Kilkenny.
"Obviously Micheál and his team bring a lot of expertise to it and they demand a very high standard every day," he said.
"We didn't start as good as we wanted, but we got a reaction as far after that. We’re still only in a Leinster final which was our aim so we have to prepare as best we can.
"We’ll prepare like any other game, but we know it's going to be a bigger challenge than what we faced already this year.
"You know if you want to win any title at this level, you're not going to get it easy. Kilkenny are the standard bearers in Leinster for the last couple of years so it’s up to us train, get up to that level and see where it takes us."
Part of Galway’s success story - apart from Mannion's own career best form - has been the introduction of new blood to the squad with the likes of Anthony Burns and Declan McLaughlin catching the eye when given an opportunity.
For Mannion, having young players coming through not only adds to the squad’s depth, but drives the more established names to higher standards.
He said: "You need young lads coming through every few years and you know, even lads that are in their 20s, they're putting their hand up now and you need that.
"As with any of the good teams or best teams in any sport, you need competition because that gets the best out of everyone and that’s what we’re hoping to get.
"We have Anthony Burns, he played the last day, has played a few games up until now and he's been very good at inside forward and he has a good goal threat obviously for us.
"You have younger lads in who are on the fringe of the teams, the likes of Rory Burke and lads that are really pushing for a starting spot. I've no doubt before the end of the year some of them lads, younger lads, will win, see game play."
Watch Limerick v Cork in the Munster SHC final live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 5.15pm Saturday. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
Watch Kildare v Laois and Kilkenny v Galway live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 1.30pm Sunday. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport.
Highlights of all the weekend's football and hurling championship action on The Sunday Game, 9.30pm RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
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