Is galways time now

IT ALL comes down to this. Seventy-plus minutes in the cauldron of Croke Park on the first Sunday of September to decide if Galway’s hurlers can fulfill a lifetime goal and end a 27-year wait since the county last brought the Liam MacCarthy Cup back across the River Shannon.
Only a few of the elder statesmen in the current panel were alive when Galway last tasted All-Ireland success. There have been plenty of harrowing defeats since then and 1988 remains a year etched in time for the county’s hurling fraternity.
When the final whistle sounded on Galway’s seven-point defeat to Kilkenny in the Leinster final, Anthony Cunningham’s defiant words to Cats’ boss Brian Cody seemed more like loose talk than the prophetic line it has since evolved into.
Now? The St Thomas’ clubman is leading a re-energised and confidence-fuelled panel back to a first decider in three years with serious momentum in their sails after powering past Cork and edging out Tipperary in an epic.