Conor Whelan urges Galway to take ‘massive opportunity' in Leinster final and bounce back from All-Ireland setbacks
The
3
Conor Whelan has been starring for Galway for ten years
Credit: Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
3
He got to the All-Ireland final in his first year in 2015
Credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE
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He won Liam McCarthy in 2017
Credit: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
And the Kinvara ace enjoyed a dream start — scoring 1-2 against the Rebels in Thurles.
He then racked up 0-2 in a 0-26 to 3-16 semi-final victory over Tipperary at
Two years later, Whelan become an All-Ireland champion under Micheál Donoghue — and he was an All-Star that year too.
The 28-year-old is now captain and into his 11th campaign at senior inter-county level.
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But the Tribes have not made an All-Ireland SHC final since
That was also the last year they claimed glory in Leinster — having lost three provincial finals on the spin in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Whelan is determined to make up for lost time in tomorrow's provincial showpiece against Kilkenny at
But he admits forging special bonds is more difficult than before.
He said: 'It's gone very fast. I think the years where you get knocked out early in particular are definitely accelerated.
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'If you play only five
Championship
games in the year, you feel like 'Jesus, I never got going really at times'.'
Galway bowed out of the Championship in 2019 in the Leinster round robin — just as they did last year.
Tipperary GAA star 'had to do live apology on RTE' the day after cursing during All-Ireland interview -
They also exited in the second round of the
qualifiers
in 2021.
And Whelan admits those setbacks felt like missed opportunities for the county.
He added: 'Last year, 2021 and 2019 — those three years feel like they accelerated faster.
'It goes very fast and there's less opportunities for the group to spend time together with the way it is condensed.
'I don't think we've been on a night out since the start of the year because of the nature of the league and Championship.
'When you have lots of fresh faces coming in and spending time together, it's a massive part of it.
'We missed out on that an awful lot during Covid as well.
'There's something to look at around the structure of it. Even if you give players two weeks between certain games, just to have that down time and spend some time together.
'When you were there and part of the old system, you had two or three weeks until your
next
game. It feels like it goes faster now.'
SPECIAL BOND
Whelan's bond with Donoghue will always be special thanks to that 2017 All-Ireland triumph.
But the Clarinbridge man left under a cloud after their 2019 Leinster round-robin loss to
summer
.
Galway suffered the same fate against the
Sky
Blues last summer with Donoghue in charge of their opponents as former boss
But two-time All-Star Whelan always knew his former supremo
He said: 'We had fond memories with Micheál, so it's always
nice
to have him and his management team back.
'Micheál always brings a very high standard of what he expects and he's very good at moulding a group and bringing people together.
'He's experienced and brings a familiarity and standard. It has been positive.
'I always felt he would be back and he would have had a very close connection with the players from the first time. I knew that would always draw him back.
'I thought he'd leave it another couple of years until a good few of us were finished. But I always felt that he'd be back.'
Seven long years have passed since Galway's last piece of Championship silverware.
The Cats clawed them in the 2020, 2022 and 2023 finals and are going for six in a row tomorrow.
Kilkenny's 3-24 to 0-21 first-round win on April 19 was a rude awakening for the Tribes.
But they won their next four games against
And Whelan hopes they can end their hoodoo against Derek Lyng's men and
seal
their place in the last four of the All-Ireland series.
He said: 'As a group and individual, you have to look internally after a result like that and take what you need from that to understand that that's not the level.
'The group responded and we've been fortunate to turn it around but we haven't won anything yet.
'It's fairly prestigious to pick up a Leinster medal and put yourself in a great position, then moving forward heading into the last four.
'That's something we haven't done for the last couple of years.
'It's a massive opportunity from a silverware perspective and from the prize of going through the front door.'
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