Galway senior hurling manager Shane O'Neill.
By Cian O'Connell
It has been a strange introduction to inter-county management, but ultimately Shane O'Neill is glad that Championship hurling will be played in 2020.
Monday evening's news satisfied O'Neill, who is busy getting Galway ready for an October 31 date against Wexford at Croke Park.
"Yeah, really looking forward to it," O'Neill remarked at a press brief at the Galway GAA training centre in Loughgeorge on Tuesday.
"We had news last night that the Championship is on, so we’ve been working hard in the last couple of weeks, obviously with the view that it was going to be played.
"The boys have been working really hard, so we are really looking forward to it now."
The former Na Piarsaigh boss acknowledged that in this radically different year club form carries real significance.
"I suppose it’s very different to what we would normally had because the Club Championship was on and it was a very competitive Club Championship," O'Neill remarked.
Daithí Burke is an injury concern for Galway ahead of the Leinster SHC encounter against Wexford at Croke Park on October 31.
"Some of the matches were really good, we saw an awful lot of players across all 24 senior teams and some of the Intermediate matches as well, which we distributed amongst some of the management groups.
"So we saw a lot of matches and a lot of players, so I suppose from the panel point of view we have had different guys coming in and out, so it is fluid to a certain extent."
Daithí Burke is still an injury concern for Galway with O'Neill stressing that the maroon and white outfit firmly focused on delivering a dynamic display against Leinster champions Wexford at GAA headquarters.
"Yeah, we are going in cold to a large extent I suppose," O'Neill commented.
"All we can do really is focus on ourselves, we’ve been looking at our own performances in the league etc.
"As I said, we saw an awful lot of club matches so we are seeing who is in club form and guys have brought the club form that they had into training in the last couple of weeks.
"So it’s really just looking after ourselves really just to see how we are going. As I said, the boys are working extremely hard in fairness, and hopefully it will come to fruition in 10 days’ time."
