 He made his senior championship debut on 18 July 1976 in a 3–12 to 3–9 All-Ireland quarter-final defeat of Kerry.After three years of penultimate stage defeats, Galway shocked four-in-a-row hopefuls Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final and qualified for an All-Ireland final showdown with Kilkenny in 1979.In one of the worst All-Ireland finals of the decade, Galway goalkeeper Séamus Shinnors had an absolute nightmare of a game.