Galway's Ailish O'Reilly hoping for knockout spark

As we chat earlier in the week, national school teacher and Galway goal-poacher Ailish O'Reilly is still decompressing in the first few days of her holidays.

It is decent enough timing, with a mouth-watering Glen Dimplex All-Ireland quarter-final against Waterford at Croke Park to prepare for today (1.30pm, live on RTÉ2).

That this game comes hot on the heels of an uncharacteristically uncompetitive performance in the Cathal Murray era, against Cork with a direct route of the semi-finals up for grabs, can’t be ignored.

But as anyone who ever fell off a horse or a bike will tell you, getting back in the saddle immediately is the best and indeed only way to assuage any lingering concerns.

O’Reilly doesn’t attempt to soft soap how poor Galway were at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in their final game of the group series, when they scored three points in the second half and were beaten by 12.

And she acknowledges that the Maroons have been a bit hit-and-miss generally in the championship to date, just getting over the line against Dublin and drawing with Wexford before accounting for Down and Clare.

But it is not an unknown phenomenon for knockout fare to flick a switch in a group that knows how to get things done and if there has been some turnover in the panel in recent years, there remains a core of operators that have the bling of success in their lockers.

O’Reilly is among that cohort with wonderful memories of Croke Park, from winning her first senior All-Ireland as a teenager in her debut season in 2013. Six years later, in Murray’s first full campaign as boss, she laid the platform for success with two goals, either side of an assist for Oranmore/Maree clubmate, Niamh Hanniffy’s major.

They were at it again two years later, a