Home to the county’s ladies and men’s football captains, a current Olympian, an in-form Irish soccer international and any number of talented basketballers, it’s a high-achieving community.
They’ve been following Fiona Murtagh at the Olympics too while Davoren was quick to note that Julie-Ann Russell, who has scored for Ireland in recent soccer internationals against England and France, is another local. All of which seemed entirely unlikely just a few months ago. Galway were relegated from the top flight of the National League after losing to Waterford in April, manager Daniel Moynihan describing it as their ‘worst performance’ of the campaign. They also lost their All-Ireland SFC opener to Cork.“I suppose you could call us delusional but we always believed that we could turn it around,” said Davoren, who struggled to explain exactly how they steadied and redirected their ship.
“That was hugely exciting and meant so much to the girls,” said Davoren of the win over Dublin. “I don’t know, maybe from the outside it looks like we over celebrate our wins but we just were so happy to be, you know, kind of achieving really. Dublin are brilliant, they’ve driven the standard for years.
“We probably weren’t able to create them in the past and it’s been the difference this year in terms of getting through to this All-Ireland final,” said Davoren.