Donoghue hails "savage" Cooneys

Micheal Donoghue praised Galway's "absolutely savage" forward pair of Conor and Joseph Cooney following the Tribesmen's Leinster SHC Final victory over Wexford.

St Thomas' clubman Conor struck seven points from open play and Sarsfields' centre forward Joseph struck five as Galway turned on the style to end a run of three final defeats in four years and claim their second Leinster title.

Joe Canning pitched in with ten points, including one beautiful sideline cut near the end of Sunday's 0-29 to 1-17 victory at Croke Park, but none from open play.

"The two of them in fairness were absolutely savage," Donoghue said.

"That's the beauty of the team at the minute. On different days different fellas are stepping up and the fellas who aren't getting on the scoreboard are just working hard for the team. Thankfully the two boys had their shooting boots on today."

Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald felt his team were on top for long periods in the first half but were undone by a passage of play just before the break, when Conor Cooney scored two points and Canning hit two frees to give Galway a 0-14 to 0-11 half-time lead.

"To me there was probably one vital patch in the game, that was probably the 10 minutes coming in to half-time," said Fitzgerald.

"Were we a point up? Gave up two or three handy scores. I could feel the lads a small bit down. I thought that they felt 'we shouldn't be three points down'.

"I thought we played a good 22 or 23 minutes. We were there or thereabouts, but a small bit unlucky. That got one or two handy frees coming in to half-time."

Fitzgerald also lamented Conor McDonald’s 40th-minute weak penalty, which was brilliantly saved by Galway goalkeeper Colm Callanan, and was soon followed by seven unanswered points for Galway.

"That was momentum," admitted Fitzgerald, who led the Model County to their first Leinster final since 2008 in his first season in charge. 

"We had a point just disallowed by that Hawk-Eye system. Any chance they can bin that thing?! We had the momentum. That's four points. I’m not saying we would have won the game.

"But playing the likes of Galway, two things – one, you can't give that seven or eight-minute patch that we gave before half-time. And second, if we get opportunities we have to take them."

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