Two-goal hero Ailish O’Reilly said Galway’s “mentality and belief” was key to their stunning All-Ireland final display in front of a record Croke Park crowd.
A cruciate ligament injury to star defender Tara Kenny on Thursday night forced a dramatic reshuffle for the Tribeswomen but they hit three first half goals - two from O’Reilly - to help them to a first O’Duffy Cup triumph in six years.
“Whatever Cathal has done this year with our team, there’s a mentality and a belief there that whatever is thrown at us, we were going to come fighting back even two times harder. We did it for Tara.
“The pressure was on them and we went out and put everything out there for 60 minutes and I’ll appreciate this one for sure.
“2013 feels like a lifetime ago. I was vomiting all that morning and I flew off on Erasmus a few days later so I didn’t appreciate it enough. By God am I going to enjoy this one.
“We beat them in the League final and all the talk was they beat us in the first round of the championship. What was the point of giving anything away then? We were definitely going to have to play them again and we were definitely going to have to play cork.
“The strategy was to play it down on the middle, thankfully we got on the breaking ball and it paid off.
“Teeny (Caitriona Cormican) went back and you would barely even know that Anne Dalton was in the game. I don’t think our backs have gotten enough credit all year.
“We said ‘workrate, workrate, workrate’ no matter who we were playing and I believe 100 per cent that got us over the line.”
Kilkenny manager Ann Downey backed her troops to come back from a third final loss in a row.
“The three goals really killed us. They’ve been here so many times and come back and come back but it’ll be a long winter.”
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