By John Harrington

Dublin ended a 52-year wait for the Bob O’Keeffe Cup in style when they convincingly beat Galway in the 2013 Leinster SHC Final.

It was the greatest achievement of a generation of players that successfully put Dublin hurling back on the map in a major way.

When Joey Boland thinks about the day a rush of emotions come quickly flooding back despite the remove of seven years.

“Even when you mention the game to me, I could feel the goose-bumps come up on the back of my neck,” Boland told GAA.ie

“It really was a special, special day. We had won a minor in 2005, a group of us. It was the first minor that Dublin had won in years and we were all about the breakthrough and that kind of set us off on a bit of a hunt trying to really get to the top, get to that All-Ireland.

“The best thing about it was that we beat Wexford, we beat Kilkenny after a replay which not too many people do, and then you go on to meet a Galway that had just come into Leinster around then. So, when you look back five years previous to when we started out trying to win a Leinster, when Daly came in, you only really had to beat Kilkenny to win a Leinster.

“So, it meant a lot more, the fact that we proved ourselves that we were the best that year. Some of the stuff that the boys did that day, the likes of Danny Sutcliffe, Dotsie, Ryan O'Dwyer, Conal Keaney, Liam Rushe, was incredible. At the time you don't realise how good you are, the level that you're at.

“We had some great players, and then when you combine that with the likes of Dalo (Anthony Daly), Richie (Stakelum), Hego (Ciaran Hetherton), all of that management crew with the energy and level of commitment that they put into it.

“The ability for that management to get players humming from the exact same hymn-sheet and the culture of the squad as second to none. It just all came together pretty well.”

That 2013 Leinster title came a little bit later than a lot of people expected it would.

Dublin looked like the coming team when they hammered Kilkenny in the 2011 National League Final, but failed to live up to their billing in the subsequent championship and again in 2012.

By the time 2013 came around, Boland believes they were better able to cope with the burden of expectancy that the players themselves had put on their own shoulders.

“We did a lot of psychological work with Declan Coyle,” says Boland. “He's somebody that I would have always looked up to and still look up to in terms of his attitude and his philosophy.

“He was brought into the camp by Dalo and helped us shift our mindset to basically that your reaction to a situation is whatever you decide it to be.

“So if I'm running through in the middle of Croke Park and I puck the ball wide, then nine times out of ten the player loses confidence after doing that.

“But, essentially, the psychology behind it is that your brain doesn't know the difference between a wide and a point bar whatever you tell yourself. So when we started to implement a lot of Declan Coyle's positive Green Platform stuff, it definitely made an impact.

“Now if I pucked the ball wide I'd run back as if I'd scored it. You were in that zone that it doesn't really matter about what happens, you just know that you're going to go again and again and again and trust yourself.

“And then you'd also get confidence from the players around you.

“You just can't beat when you're leading a game and then it comes back to within two points and the tide might be shifting but you have somebody like Rushy who goes up, grabs a ball, and drags a free out of somebody. That settles everybody down.

“So, it's a combination of everything really, you know.”

The most surprising thing about the 2013 Leinster Final was just how convincingly Dublin won it.

Galway were reigning champions having blitzed Kilkenny in the 2012 Leinster Final and brought them to a replay in the subsequent All-Ireland Final that year.

They just couldn’t cope with the effervescent energy that Dublin brought on the day though, and the writing was already on the wall at half-time when they railed by 1-13 to 0-7.

Paul Ryan hit his second goal of the day early in the second-half for Dublin, and even when Galway scored two goals of their own they never looked like reeling in Anthony Daly’s super-charged team.

“I remember being very nervous and really wanting to hit the ground running,” recalls Boland of the match.

“Galway had some serious hurlers and obviously the likes of Joe Canning can punish you.

“We just didn't want to let people down. We didn't want to let the squad down, we didn't want to let our families down, we didn't want to let the fans down. It was such a big, big occasion that, to be honest, we were just working off pure adrenalin.

“The game just flew by. It was just manic. With about 20 minutes to go I think Galway were kind of coming back at us and we clipped on a couple of important scores just to keep them at bay.

“The fact that we had beaten Wexford and Kilkenny running into the game, combined with the fact that we had got such a good start meant that the psychology of the match was such that Galway knew they were never going to win.

“They knew that we were the real deal. Just like for many years Kilkenny would get off to a strong start and be six points up against Wexford, everybody in the stand would know at that stage that Wexford aren't going to come back here.

“I think that the fact that we'd beaten Kilkenny in a replay gave us a lot of confidence and it also shook Galway mentally.

“Combine that with a really quick start, then it makes everything a little bit easier. We were in automatic after that, just working off pure adrenalin.”

Not winning the All-Ireland Final in 2013 remains a source of disappointment for that generation of Dublin hurlers, but it shouldn’t sully their legacy.

They were history-makers who laid some very solid foundation-stones that future Dublin teams should be capable of building on in the coming decade.

“We put a lot of hard work into the thing and had some great days,” says Boland.

“You even bring it back to the 2005 minor crew and all the work that was done by Tom Fitzpatrick back then. Giving everybody hope and creating a bit of a bubble within Dublin hurling and a bit of excitement.

“I remember after winning the League in 2011 the sun was out and there were kids everywhere in Dublin playing hurling.

“If we had statistics of kids pucking ball on streets, it really did bring a blue wave to Dublin.

“That Dublin dressing-room always had such positivity and craic and hard work and honesty. It did really come together at a nice time for us.

“It was such a roller-coaster ride, and I'll always have great memories of those days with a great bunch of lads.”