'We didn't have the pampering they would have'

The legendary Galway All-Ireland winning half back line from 1987 and '88 pictured in 2015, l/r: Pete Finnerty, Tony Keady and Gerry McInerney ©INPHO/James Crombie

Galway hurling legend Pete Finnerty has recalled how dosing bullocks in a shed was his strength and conditioning.

The 1987 and ‘88 All-Ireland SHC winner, who formed one of the greatest half-back lines of all-time along with the late Tony Keady and Gerry McInerney, was speaking about the difference between training then and now after being inducted into the 2026 Gaelic Writers’ Association Hurling Hall of Fame.

"You'd always ask the question, would the modern day hurlers survive in our era, and would we survive in theirs? We didn't have the pampering that they would have,” Finnerty is quoted as saying by RTÉ.

"My strength and conditioning was done in a shed in Mullagh with a 200-weight bullock. While my brother was dosing him, I was holding him knowing that if the bullock got away he was going to kill one or the other of us.

"When you went out against Loughrea two weeks later, you’d prefer them to the bullock. For us, it was run around the field in circles until somebody got sick badly enough that we'd stop training.”

The former Sunday Game pundit added: "But we knew by putting in effort and hours that we were going to get fitter and stronger than other people. It was a different way, different methods of doing things, but I always think and I always say it when you walk out that white line and you're playing an All-Ireland final, and when the final whistle goes and you're walking past it again, going up into the Hogan Stand, it doesn't matter whether it's 1974, 1984, 2024 or 1987, the animal is still the same.”