Galway GAA discussion thread

Utopia Parkway

On tonight for those interested.

No posts for three days when we've a big game this weekend.... Don't think any other county thread would be that inactive the week of a game.
And to add to that we're off the back of two weeks running and have another game next week.

Are there that few of us here to keep it bumped?

TCDStudent1

gilberto_eire wrote: »

No posts for three days when we've a big game this weekend.... Don't think any other county thread would be that inactive the week of a game.
And to add to that we're off the back of two weeks running and have another game next week.

Are there that few of us here to keep it bumped?

It appears so. Meanwhile, over on the Mayo thread, they have been discussing possible teams etc. Quite the difference. I think there are more Galway Hurling GAA followers on this thread however.

sgthighway

Never mind the Internet. Lets just wait in the long grass for these Mayo boys

MfMan

Hard to get really talking about Sunday until the team is named I'd say. FWIW, I'd say it will probably be same as started v Leitrim, with Flynn coming in for Walsh (with Conroy moving to no. 11). Big performance needed from backs, (well, all over really).

Clutching at straws, Mayo could be vulnerable; no game in 10 weeks or so, new untested management, question marks about fitness of best forward, how hungry are they for another prolonged run at the championship, Corofin easily dismissed their county champions in the Club campaign (then again, Corofin's defence was probably better than the current Galway one). For all that they eased past Galway last year, remember that Galway always answered Mayo's goals with the next few scores and had Walsh netted that peno, they would have had the wind and momentum to buoy them along.

T0001

Galway by 3. I think its 3rd time the charm for these lads. Certainly gonna give us a great performance. Expect the main guys to give us a big performance. Kevin Walsh is giving us fighting talk and I imagine he has the players fired up for this. Could see us hitting 2-3 goals. Mayo wont be as defensive as other teams so Comer will have alot of space to work with

MfMan

Team announced;

1. Manus Breathnach

2. Johnny Duane 3. Finian Hanley 4. Cathal Sweeney

5. Liam Silke 6. Gary O’Donnell 7. Sean Denvir

8. Fiontán Ó Curraoin 9. Paul Conroy (Captain)

10. Gary Sice 11. Patrick Sweeney 12. Tomas Flynn

13. Danny Cummins 14. Damien Comer 15. Michael Lundy

Seems Breathnach is now first choice, after recovering from injury. Flynn in as expected, and P Sweeney for O'Griofa, rumours latter was carrying an injury also. The closer it gets, the weaker the team starts to look on paper. :-(

T0001

O'Gríofa is injured but may play as a sub I'm led to believe

Borders no.2

I was optimistic for this one when the draw was made and in early spring but at the minute i'm finding it hard to see where Galway can win this one. I can't really see us getting on top in the middle sector. If we are to do anything, we will have to try and use the full width of the pitch and move the Mayo midfield around, whether we have the kick out to do that I'd question. On their ball we'll have to just try and turn it into a scrap and hope the likes of Lundy, Sice and Flynn can pick up loose ball.

The Mayo full back line (Keith Higgins aside) is weak. David Clarke is there to give them physical presence for the long high ball but its an area I believe we can get joy if we play in the right ball.

If Tom Cunniffe is to line up at centre back that's the channel I'd be running at with any ball we get.

Having said that I've seen nothing yet this year from Galway that suggests the defence can hold up against any kind of decent attack and any attempts at playing defensive football proved disastrous during the league.

On paper, there is a good choice of forwards in the Galway panel but we haven't put up big scores in many matches and with Shane Walsh missing its asking a lot of Damien Comer to be our go to man unless he gets players working off him.

Mayo won relatively easily last year. I just don't think Galway have made the jump forward they needed this year. Even allowing for the absence of the Corofin lads we failed badly in a weak division 2. Mayo didn't tear up any trees in the spring but were comfortable in division 1.

Home advantage should be a help, even if the stand will be a Mayo area. U21 All-Irelands and All-Ireland clubs are all well and good but in reality this is the level where players have to prove their worth and we need everyone to turn in a big display to have a chance Sunday.

Worthwent14

Bar the injury to Shane walsh, KW has gone with what he feels is his strongest 15. O griofa is fit enough but maybe just not 100%. I expect lundy to play a similar role to that he played for corofin! It's a speedy dangerous FF line on paper. Breathnach is clearly Walsh's number 1 I presume since he was picked! Half back line is our weakest line and sice will need to drop back and help out! If we don't concede early goals and can stay competitive comin into the last 15 then I believe we can do it but it's a big if. Mayo are a serious outfit so this will tell us where we're at

naughto

sgthighway wrote: »

Never mind the Internet. Lets just wait in the long grass for these Mayo boys

Ya might as well cut that grass and bale it or it will go to waste:D:D

spiritcrusher

Honestly, I give us next to no chance of winning tomorrow. I don't think we're mentally tough enough, nevermind physically, and everything I've seen from Walsh so far suggests there's not much in the way of an effective plan on the field. Our biggest problem I feel is our half back line, it provides no cover for the full backs (who I actually think have some talent) and if Leitrim managed to coast through them Mayo should do crazy damage running from deep.
I'd love nothing more than to be wrong but realistically the game will probably be over with 15 to go. Another afternoon of going home with tails between legs awaits.

T0001

I'm calling Galway to win a low-scoring game by 2 points, Something like 1-14 to 1-12

Diabhal Beag

Expecting a strong showing myself. Not so sure of a win but certainly optimistic of guys like Liam Silke and Comer to announce themselves like Lundy did last year.

Midfield will be packed out anyways on both sides. Hoping O'Donnell can stand tall and lead that half-back line. The full-forward line could cause an awful lot of damage if they get quick ball in.

T0001

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Expecting a strong showing myself. Not so sure of a win but certainly optimistic of guys like Liam Silke and Comer to announce themselves like Lundy did last year.

Midfield will be packed out anyways on both sides. Hoping O'Donnell can stand tall and lead that half-back line. The full-forward line could cause an awful lot of damage if they get quick ball in.

Im not so sure. Breathnach has a long kick-out and it could be the Galway tactic to land the ball on top the HF line rather than Midfield :O

Baggy Trousers

Are there tickets available for this game?

Fr Tod Umptious

I'd be pretty sure there will be a Connacht council van or two outside the ground selling them

O.A.P

I'm disappointed because we could have won today but Galway are back, they cared about the result as much as I did and played like it mattered .
Still sickened though.

threeball

O.A.P wrote: »

I'm disappointed because we could have won today but Galway are back, they cared about the result as much as I did and played like it mattered .
Still sickened though.

I was happy enough with the performance today apart from the shambolic 5 mins after half time but experience will make the stronger and when going well they were playing much better football than Mayo. We need to learn how to tackle on the edge or at least harry and shield. We lost today due to stupid frees and a complete mess of an own goal. Those alone were worth 10pts to mayo and kept them in a game we should have been controlling.

A favourable draw in the qualifiers to get back on the road and I could see us making quarter finals or even semis this year.

Utopia Parkway

O.A.P wrote: »

I'm disappointed because we could have won today but Galway are back, they cared about the result as much as I did and played like it mattered .
Still sickened though.

The 5 minutes after half-time was the killer. Mayo got 1-3 and the goal was an absolute gift. Breathnach should have just picked the ball inside the small square. Instead in a panic he takes a swing at it and it rebounds into the net off one his own defenders. Also one of those points came after a Galway player was fouled and the ref didn't give it. Without that goal the game would have been right in the melting pot in the last 5 minutes.

Can't argue with the Hanley sending off. He had to go. Walsh should have moved him before that but I don't think he has much confidence in his defensive replacements. Thought Mayo got some very soft frees in front of goal as well as the deserved ones they got. The free near the end to put them back 4 up was ridiculous. Was right in front if it and it was textbook defending from Duane (I think it was him).

As it turned out Shane Walsh was a major loss. Thought Patrick Sweeney in his place was pretty quiet although he worked hard. Danny Cummins unbelievably frustrating. Just like last year he won a mountain of ball and wasted nearly all of it. Thought Cathal Sweeney was very good. Comer is an absolute horse of a young fella. Pity he was moved away from the edge of the square towards the end but with Hanley off somebody had to come back.

Borders no.2

Disagree completely, Galway are going nowhere. We finished closer to Mayo because they are a good side who are on the way down rather than us having made any significant improvements. Our midfield was once again completely cleaned out, defensively we were incredibly naive and up front we couldn't take advantage of the glaring weaknesses in the Mayo team.

For me Kevin Walsh proved once again today that he isn't the man to take Galway forward. I had my doubts during the league but the setup of the team today confirmed that he is a manager living in the past. He will always be a Galway legend and we could have done with someone of his physical presence today but for me this management team bring nothing new to the table.

We are in the tough side of the qualifier draw, can't see us lasting past the next game unless we get a very favourable draw. Roscommon will take the most heart from today I think, I'd fancy them for the Connacht final.

RobbieRuns

The game turned on the fluke of a goal, it was very unlucky but it should not have happened, we gave away some silly points as the heads went down, but they came back fighting and I admired them for it. Conroy going off was huge as well.

Got to disagree on the earlier comment about Danny Cummins, he fought like hell all game, never stopped showing for the ball and set up scores as well as returning 1-1 (I think). The second half when he put Sice through he should have rounded the defender and scored a goal, it was an easier opportunity than the great goal that he got in the first half.Some people want pure perfection from Cummins and for him to get a goal everytime that he touches the ball. He does way more right than he does wrong. Comer is a great talent but had wides and could have laid the ball off a few times as well. It is easy from the stands though !

The killer was the soft frees, you can give a few, but not as many as we did (8?) we can score and the forwards are good enough, put Shane Walsh in there and that is a good forward line. Thought that Lundy and Sice were very good as well.

I know it will be put down as being cute and experience, but I don't like the antics of the Mayo team. It does not take much for a Mayo man to go down these days. I have always thought that Lee Keegan was a great footballer but he was out of order today, constantly mouthing and laughing at players, hitting lads off the ball. Don't like it...... Don't like it at all.

Utopia Parkway

Anyone near the tunnel at the game? Apparently a Mayo fan got down there as the teams were coming off at half-time and confronted two of the Galway players. Not sure whether there was a bit of pushing and shoving or not.

Borders no.2

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Anyone near the tunnel at the game? Apparently a Mayo fan got down there as the teams were coming off at half-time and confronted two of the Galway players. Not sure whether there was a bit of pushing and shoving or not.

I thought Mick Barrett was banned from matches this year:)

homeofhurling

i hope someone but him on his hole if he did come down to confronted players coming off the field.

MfMan

Borders no.2 wrote: »

Disagree completely, Galway are going nowhere. We finished closer to Mayo because they are a good side who are on the way down rather than us having made any significant improvements. Our midfield was once again completely cleaned out, defensively we were incredibly naive and up front we couldn't take advantage of the glaring weaknesses in the Mayo team.

For me Kevin Walsh proved once again today that he isn't the man to take Galway forward. I had my doubts during the league but the setup of the team today confirmed that he is a manager living in the past. He will always be a Galway legend and we could have done with someone of his physical presence today but for me this management team bring nothing new to the table.

We are in the tough side of the qualifier draw, can't see us lasting past the next game unless we get a very favourable draw. Roscommon will take the most heart from today I think, I'd fancy them for the Connacht final.

Have to agree with some of this. I think we actually played better footballer last year against a better Mayo team than today's. A 10-minute spell in the first half apart when we played really quick, direct football which yielded scores, we never dictated terms and were always trying to retrieve a Mayo lead; once Mayo went ahead in the 2nd half spell, there was no back, and they could pick off scores more easily than us.

Very, very disappointed with the management. Duane and Hanley were both getting solidly cleaned throughout and no change or move was made to help them out. Sean Denvir had a reasonably good league in the HF line; was also badly exposed today and offered absolutely nothing defensively or in attack, yet Liam Silke was subbed late on. Patrick Sweeney is a great-hearted player but didn't kick a ball all day, yet was only changed with 5 minutes to go, far too late for a sub to make any impact. Wee Danny is also very willing and a good man to show for the ball but you can't continue to take the wrong options and waste as much ball as he does at this level and hope to prosper. Ian Burke would do the same role, but is much more clinical in his finishing. Why were he and Mike Farragher, players unafraid of Mayo teams, allowed to drop off the panel? This is criminal. I think the captaincy should be removed from Conroy - his head dropped when Mayo hit the front after HT, not the sign of a good leader. Galway have to be drilled properly in how to tackle and defend; too often coaxed into giving away hand frees in scoring positions - no odds in complaining about referees being hard on them, it's happening just too often.

On the plus side, C Sweeney, Sice and Comer were all good today, though the latter must not develop the habit of sometimes blazing the ball wildly about the place, while Flynn will come in from having a game under his belt. (Comer came in for fair treatment from the Mayo side, a sign that they feared him. When O'Se didn't get censured for elbowing him prior to Galway's goal, then the players themselves should have dealt with it.) Mayo may be in decline but are still a top-5 side at least and not all opponents Galway meet will have the same power as they, but a lucky opener in the back-door is needed now.

Plenty of talk about Galway still being a Div II side. It's their own fault, they were plenty good enough to go up; beat Roscommon away and should have gotten a result against Down, only to throw it away (and ultimately promotion) by messing at the end. Now they're still parked with a plethora of negative Ulster sides next year instead of improving themselves playing the best teams in the land. This is a year wasted in the team's development and another indictment of the management.

That was disastrous.

I won't focus on things like the goal but things we can change and haven't.

Kick outs... Again like AM's tenure we have done nothing in the most important aspect of the modern game.
Mayo scored directly from a short kick out in the first.
We stand static and hope someone's free before launching it to a general area. Even when its going long it has to be to your advantage, we kicked 3/4 to where Mayo had an extra man.

Free kicks.. Again the same principle, too many static players and kicking to 50:50s while Mayo got theirs to hand and moved it quick.

Backs... Too slow for the modern game. When you do kick it short you need guys who can beat a man to create the overlap and open space.
Too many lads who just want to try hand pass it out or back to MB.

Frees... Some stopped goal chances but others were pathetic, the biggest cop out in any sport is fouling in Gaelic football, scores from play are difficult yet a free inside the 65 is high percentage.
Let the player make the play, why on earth would you bail someone out with a needless foul unless there's a high percentage goal chance.
You should literally NEVER foul in football unless its a clear goal chance as you're just giving them a score each time which are hard got from play.

We also gave away free scores, free on the wing brought in and Hanley off the ball.... Just infuriating stuff.

The fight was disappointing, we gave up too early... Zero urgency in terms of subs/sent off players getting off ASAP.
Comer was the only one to put it up to Mayo.
AOS is a poor ball player yet he strolled in on 3/4 players a few times... You'll see his running against an organised defence as he'll cough it up continually.
Serious issues when someone like him is just strolling through.

Least others are mentioning Conroy now, a poor player who moves it too slow and kicks too many wides... Was happy to see him black carded tbh.

Lastly.. Comer out the field when we needed a goal?.

Rob Thomas

Borders no.2 wrote: »

Disagree completely, Galway are going nowhere. We finished closer to Mayo because they are a good side who are on the way down rather than us having made any significant improvements. Our midfield was once again completely cleaned out, defensively we were incredibly naive and up front we couldn't take advantage of the glaring weaknesses in the Mayo team.

For me Kevin Walsh proved once again today that he isn't the man to take Galway forward. I had my doubts during the league but the setup of the team today confirmed that he is a manager living in the past. He will always be a Galway legend and we could have done with someone of his physical presence today but for me this management team bring nothing new to the table.

We are in the tough side of the qualifier draw, can't see us lasting past the next game unless we get a very favourable draw. Roscommon will take the most heart from today I think, I'd fancy them for the Connacht final.

I'd agree with most of this but I don't think it's all completely doom and gloom. I think that the problems Galway experienced today are mostly to do with the management team and not completely the young players. While he is a legend, I cant see what Walsh brings to the table as a manager. For me, he only got the job because he was the front runner the last time it came up when Mulholland got it but he ruled himself out that time. It's like the end of his tenure at Sligo was ignored when, really, he completely lost that dressing room.

But Comer, Silke, Lundy and Sweeney are all going to be big players for Galway for the next few years, Sice back is a bonus and while Danny Cummins is never going to be a top inter county forward, he was incredibly honest and willing today in his work, he just lacks the overall quality. We know that for years so I wouldn't criticise him today.

But Walsh showed too much faith today in players who played on reputation. It's unbelievable that he left Finian Hanly at full back all day when he was roasted and clearly going to be sent off. Conroy just copped out with that black card, he is an experienced player and you have to assume he knew what was coming when up he did it. Patrick Sweeney was never the man to replace Shane Walsh, it was terribly unfair on him in his first serious game, and you won't have a solid defence with o'Donnell at 6. Tom Flynn is either a midfielder or nothing but I think he only played because Walsh doesn't trust some of the other players on the panel which to me says he does not have a clue of his best 15, not to mind where to play them.

I think Galway have the guts of a team coming in the next year or two. Michael Daly, Ian Burke and others are coming so it's not all bad. But Walsh won't make a team of them in my view.

flatty

I thought the desire and effort were top class, and they did the county proud. I was delighted with that. They should only improve now. Well done to each and all of them. Have the makings of a solid competitive team with a fair wind.

Diabhal Beag

I'll be the first to admit that I knew we'd lose but was still disappointed in the manner of the defeat. Really felt like Mayo were no great shakes and a chance was squandered on home turf.

Stupid goal to concede. Breathnach is usually a smart keeper but that's among the worst goals I've ever seen conceded. Killed a lot of momentum.

I agree with RobbieRuns re: Cummins. A lot of people I talked to raved about Comer after but Danny put in a very good shift. Took his goal well, almost snook in for another and set up Sicey for what should have been a 3rd goal. Missed a handy point but you couldn't say he wasn't one of the better performers.

Sice and Lundy were good. Lundy is playing a fairly thankless role in terms of checking back but he does it well.

Midfield was infuriating. Flynn and O'Curraoin can be too honest at times and when you see Aidan O'Shea making a remarkable recovery to go from looking like he was being welcomed by St. Peter to the pearly gates all the way to getting involved in the punch-up seconds later you can see the cuteness that they don't have yet. That's not begrudging AOS either as you do what you have to do to win in modern football. The breaking ball from kickouts is something that Galway never seem to come out on top of. Conroy was really disappointing.

I'm not his biggest fan but Duane considering what he was up against was at the helm of that defensive strong-holding at the end of the first half. Sweeney was very good but Hanley looked a shadow of himself.

Thought O'Donnell had a good showing. Denvir can be careless with his runs but he works his balls off.

That reads a dreary post but I do have confidence that these lads are a top 10 team and will give anybody a good run in the qualifiers from what's already there. They were up against a top 4 team today.

Utopia Parkway

Was at the match today and surprised there's so much negativity surrounding the Galway display. Plenty to criticise yes but a lot of good as well. I never felt the team gave up and they kept going until the final whistle. I didn't see any lack of commitment. Unlike two years ago when they were bet out the gate after 15 minutes and last year where they avoided a hammering but were never really in the game at all in any serious fashion. Today had Breathnach not blundered so badly I think there probably would have been max 1 or 2 points between the sides heading into the last 5 to 10 minutes.

On the debit side we conceded too many scoreable frees. Most were frees but some were awfully soft ones. Midfield did well enough in the first half but in the second half Mayo started winning some kickouts completely uncontested. And not from the Mayo big men but smaller lads like McLoughlin and Doherty caught kickouts at chest level. Which is just unacceptable. Patrick Sweeney at centre-forward did not work. You either have to play him closer to goal or not at all. It really exacerbated the loss of Shane Walsh all the more. Walsh's slashing runs through the middle were badly missed. And his ability to kick points. Thought Galway were also a bit too slow at times in getting the ball forward. It just allowed Mayo time to get back and reorganise their defence.

Not an easy game to referee as Galway today were clearly not going to allow themselves to be bullied by Mayo like in previous years. The first tangle at the beginning of the game was between Lundy and his marker and Comer came steaming in straight away to back him up. Which I was delighted to see because in recent games they let the Mayo players away with all kinds of nonsense. That said I thought the ref was awful. After 5 minutes you could tell there was going to be red cards as he was booking players early for innocuous enough fouls.

Thought Cathal Sweeney was really good by the way. Defended well and some of his direct runs forward opened up the Mayo defence and created space for others. Denvir needs to release the ball a bit quicker. 2 or 3 times he made good strong runs forward today and was caught from behind and dispossessed as he dithered on the ball. Lundy put in a huge shift of work but he spent a lot of the game a long way away from the Mayo goal. Hanley it is fair to say had his hands full with O'Shea who was like a runaway bullock.

Robson99

Thought the ref was very good. Game is ruined nowadays with all the pulling and dragging and off the ball sh*te. In fairness we were the biggest culprits and got duly punished.
Management were shocking. Hanley should have been moved after 20 mins and taken off at h-t. Took comer out of full fwd when he was playing well. Hope we get the strongest team available in the qualifiers so as not to prolong the agony

TCDStudent1

For me Kevin Walsh proved once again today that he isn't the man to take Galway forward. I had my doubts during the league but the setup of the team today confirmed that he is a manager living in the past.

To be honest, I dont see how you can come to that conclusion from today. Despite losing, today was probably better than any Galway performance under Mulholland.

The game turned on the fluke of a goal, it was very unlucky but it should not have happened, we gave away some silly points as the heads went down, but they came back fighting and I admired them for it. Conroy going off was huge as well.

The goal was not unlucky. It was a terrible mistake by Breathnach. If your club goalkeeper made that mistake you would be fuming. You cant make mistakes like that at this level. He should have been more composed, picked the ball and ran out with it. There was some terrific tackling by the Galway backs in the lead up to that goal which made the mistake even worse!

Very, very disappointed with the management. Duane and Hanley were both getting solidly cleaned throughout and no change or move was made to help them out.

It was very very dangerous leaving Hanley on when he had a yellow. But it is very easy to say "oh, the management should have taken him off". I looked at the names on the Galway bench and I would prefer a yellow carded Hanley on there than any of the players on the bench.

AOS is a poor ball player yet he strolled in on 3/4 players a few times... You'll see his running against an organised defence as he'll cough it up continually.

That is simply not true. A. O'Sé has had terrific matches against the top teams in the country where he has rolled over better defenders than Galway have.

Lastly.. Comer out the field when we needed a goal?.

It did seem strange. But Galway couldnt win anything at midfield - Flynn & Conroy were off at that stage. O'Curraoin didnt have a great day. You need some big men out there to win ball. Maybe you could argue that Ronan Steede or Enda Tierney to come on but I am not sure that would have been a wise move. They are inexperienced players and putting them on that stage may have done more harm than good.

***********************

Overall, I think the criticism of the management on here is harsh. Galway showed up with a lot of fire and put it up to Mayo (which they never did under Mulholland). If they had won more at midfield, they possible could have gotten a result.
Damien Comer looks to be the real deal - he was absolutely terrific today and had the beating of Cunniffe easily.
I am not happy that Galway lost, but I know player for player, Mayo are a stronger team (with a hell of a lot more experience). And I think you cannot blame the management for a 4 point defeat to Mayo with the players they have.

MfMan

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Patrick Sweeney at centre-forward did not work. You either have to play him closer to goal or not at all. It really exacerbated the loss of Shane Walsh all the more. Walsh's slashing runs through the middle were badly missed. And his ability to kick points. Thought Galway were also a bit too slow at times in getting the ball forward. It just allowed Mayo time to get back and reorganise their defence.

Sweeney played the majority of the game in the FF line, never showed much for the ball at all.

I agree re: Galway not getting the ball forward quick enough. This was particularly noticeable from frees and restarts; too often they stood up looking around for an option instead of taking it quick, working a quick 1-2 and rebuilding momentum straight away. Again, very poor from a preparation POV.

Borders no.2

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

To be honest, I dont see how you can come to that conclusion from today. Despite losing, today was probably better than any Galway performance under Mulholland.




The goal was not unlucky. It was a terrible mistake by Breathnach. If your club goalkeeper made that mistake you would be fuming. You cant make mistakes like that at this level. He should have been more composed, picked the ball and ran out with it. There was some terrific tackling by the Galway backs in the lead up to that goal which made the mistake even worse!



It was very very dangerous leaving Hanley on when he had a yellow. But it is very easy to say "oh, the management should have taken him off". I looked at the names on the Galway bench and I would prefer a yellow carded Hanley on there than any of the players on the bench.



That is simply not true. A. O'Sé has had terrific matches against the top teams in the country where he has rolled over better defenders than Galway have.



It did seem strange. But Galway couldnt win anything at midfield - Flynn & Conroy were off at that stage. O'Curraoin didnt have a great day. You need some big men out there to win ball. Maybe you could argue that Ronan Steede or Enda Tierney to come on but I am not sure that would have been a wise move. They are inexperienced players and putting them on that stage may have done more harm than good.

***********************

Overall, I think the criticism of the management on here is harsh. Galway showed up with a lot of fire and put it up to Mayo (which they never did under Mulholland). If they had won more at midfield, they possible could have gotten a result.
Damien Comer looks to be the real deal - he was absolutely terrific today and had the beating of Cunniffe easily.
I am not happy that Galway lost, but I know player for player, Mayo are a stronger team (with a hell of a lot more experience). And I think you cannot blame the management for a 4 point defeat to Mayo with the players they have.

I came to the conclusion the management aren't up to it as defensively we set up even more naively than we did under Mulholland which was hard to believe.

O'Shea is an extremely powerful man. Leaving him isolated 1 on 1 on countless occasions was asking for trouble. We gave away a lot of bad frees but that was due to the absolutely clueless setup we had in defence.

If we were going to win we needed to cover up our obvious defensive weaknesses and instead we left them wide open for Mayo to expose.

Aidan O'Shea said as much in his interview that there was a lot of space there today. Let's be honest O'Shea won't do the damage he did today against any serious setup. Cillian O'Connor was hardly match fit and he caused us ridiculous problems, same as last year no plan to counteract him.

Again today as with during the league there was no direction to Galway's play for large stages. We'd win a free and instead of getting the ball moving and taking on a very vulnerable Mayo backline which looked like it could be cut open with a couple of pieces of decent interplay, we stopped up allowed Mayo time to regroup and engaged in clueless, leaderless football with no direction around the middle third.

Comparing previous results against Mayo is ridiculous. In 2013 Mayo were a serious team and probably should have won the All-Ireland. They were still strong last year but this year they have most definitely taken a couple of steps back. A number of key performers for them are at nowhere near their 2013 level. We should have improved a lot in the meantime. There is plenty of Galway players there who aren't young anymore and if they are to make it needed to start showing it.

I know this sounds incredibly harsh but as with 2013 our choice of captain said it all about this team. We have no leadership either in the stand or on the field. Gary O'Donnell is an honest workhorse but if we hope to make progress we need to find better. Hanley was a disaster today and looks like his best days are long past him. Duane has been around but isn't quite at this level. O'Curraoin and Flynn have plenty of experience build up now and you'd have to ask question of them as well. The likes of Sean Denvir is he going to improve the team especially at half back. He's in the team for pace but at one stage Seamus O'Shea managed to catch up with him when in a scoring position

I just don't see Galway as having pushed on under the current management. We have seen so far in the championship how poor division 2 really was, yet we had 4 home games and were still battling relegation on the final day. All that would have been forgiven with a win or a serious sign of progress today but we brought nothing new to the party today only our handbags.

We are miles behind the likes of Dublin and Donegal both on the pitch and in terms of the professionalism of the setup.

TCDStudent1

Comparing previous results against Mayo is ridiculous. In 2013 Mayo were a serious team and probably should have won the All-Ireland.

What would you compare today's performance to? Of course, we should compare them to the results & performances of the last couple of years. Its the only way we will know if there is progress being made. I agree that Mayo may not be the team they were in the last couple of years, but they are still a top 4 / 5 team in the country.

Gary O'Donnell is an honest workhorse but if we hope to make progress we need to find better. Hanley was a disaster today and looks like his best days are long past him. Duane has been around but isn't quite at this level. O'Curraoin and Flynn have plenty of experience build up now and you'd have to ask question of them as well.

Can you suggest better alternatives to any of the players you have listed there? I genuinely cannot think of any that would definitely be an improvement. Its very easy to say Gary O'Donnell isnt good enough but a lot harder to come up with somebody who is actually better.


During the league, I was under-awed by Walsh as manager, and like you, still think he may not be as sharp as some of the top managers in the country. However, he got an average Galway team (and this is an average Galway team with a lot of issues, particularly in defence) playing with more fire and spirit than I ever saw under Mulholland.

Utopia Parkway

Borders no.2 wrote: »

I came to the conclusion the management aren't up to it as defensively we set up even more naively than we did under Mulholland which was hard to believe.

Ah now in fairness while I agree that O'Shea was left isolated 1 on 1 far too often for comfort, in recent games against Mayo they were literally walking the ball into the Galway net at times. Today they barely created a goal chance apart from Breathnach's terrible blunder. Granted Galway were content to foul at times today rather than let Mayo in near goal.

Borders no.2

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

What would you compare today's performance to? Of course, we should compare them to the results & performances of the last couple of years. Its the only way we will know if there is progress being made. I agree that Mayo may not be the team they were in the last couple of years, but they are still a top 4 / 5 team in the country.



Can you suggest better alternatives to any of the players you have listed there? I genuinely cannot think of any that would definitely be an improvement. Its very easy to say Gary O'Donnell isnt good enough but a lot harder to come up with somebody who is actually better.


During the league, I was under-awed by Walsh as manager, and like you, still think he may not be as sharp as some of the top managers in the country. However, he got an average Galway team (and this is an average Galway team with a lot of issues, particularly in defence) playing with more fire and spirit than I ever saw under Mulholland.

There aren't many alternatives. O'Donnell probably is our best centre back. There are plenty of average alternatives around the whole defence which we have tried in recent years. I'll be the first to admit that Walsh has a tough job trying to make a good defence.

The club championship in Galway is diabolical (Corofin aside) and quality defenders are hard to locate but its still possible to hide these weaknesses greater than we did.

However, the performances of Flynn and O'Curraoin haven't inspired me. Again they are probably as good as what we have but expect more from them.

How much fire did Galway play with really though, we had the good few minutes when we went from 5-2 down to 5-5. We were going out of it again when we got the goal and it was really only Mayo's lack of ruthlessness that gave us another way into the game with the 2nd goal.

2 goals aside, 8 points is a very poor total against a less than stellar defence. The players were always going to show some pride today on home soil and after a few bad defeats against Mayo but in terms of fighting spirit you could say we came back from an awful start against Kerry last year to get back to 2 points. Bottom line is this year like last year we never seriously looked like we could win the game.

T0001

Certainly a better performance by Galway than the last 2 years even if the football wasn't of the same quality. Personally I thought we could have had 2 frees from long balls where Comer was fouled before the ball came in. Hanley should have been moved after 15-20 mins and a stronger player put on O'Shea. The goal was just................... I'll say no more. 8 points is a shoking tally given that we had good possession. A lot of times we went for goal rather than take our points. Mayo were quite poor today but still took their scores easier than us. Overall the game was there for the taking but for bad mistakes from us in the 2nd half paticularly.

I think our goose is cooked for this year. We are on the same qualifier draw as Tyrone, Armagh and Down and unless we get drawn the winner of Louth/Leitrim we haven't much of a chance I'm afraid.

TCDStudent1

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

That is simply not true. A. O'Sé has had terrific matches against the top teams in the country where he has rolled over better defenders than Galway have.
.

Sorry I said that wrong, I meant to say ball runner.
Someone like him should not be running long distances through the defence.
He runs in straight lines, doesn't side step etc.
.

hardy_buck

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Sorry I said that wrong, I meant to say ball runner.
Someone like him should not be running long distances through the defence.
He runs in straight lines, doesn't side step etc.
.

I think it's a case of trying to stop a freight train.. stand in his way and you'll just be flattened.

RobbieRuns

or if you touch him at all he will go to ground very easily for a big man............

threeball

T0001 wrote: »

Certainly a better performance by Galway than the last 2 years even if the football wasn't of the same quality. Personally I thought we could have had 2 frees from long balls where Comer was fouled before the ball came in. Hanley should have been moved after 15-20 mins and a stronger player put on O'Shea. The goal was just................... I'll say no more. 8 points is a shoking tally given that we had good possession. A lot of times we went for goal rather than take our points. Mayo were quite poor today but still took their scores easier than us. Overall the game was there for the taking but for bad mistakes from us in the 2nd half paticularly.

I think our goose is cooked for this year. We are on the same qualifier draw as Tyrone, Armagh and Down and unless we get drawn the winner of Louth/Leitrim we haven't much of a chance I'm afraid.

Maybe we won't beat Tyrone, but I'd fancy our chances of putting Down or Armagh to the sword.
In fact I think we'd give everyone a game bar Kerry, Dublin and Donegal. This team has a nice mix of bite, work ethic and footballing ability. I wouldn't write them off so quick.

As for the posters saying AOS was left isolated, that's because our half back line pushed up on their half back line to prevent the runners that Mayo utilise so well and it was a tactic that worked but the downside is your full back line gets isolated.

Your defence can't be everywhere though and I'd preferred to have AOS inside than the entire Mayo back six running at us. If we hadn't been so silly with the fouling we'd have put them to the pin of their collar if not won.

Borders no.2

threeball wrote: »

Your defence can't be everywhere though and I'd preferred to have AOS inside than the entire Mayo back six running at us. If we hadn't been so silly with the fouling we'd have put them to the pin of their collar if not won.

I hear what you are saying but all I've heard all today is if it wasn't for the silly fouls we gave away we'd have had a chance. While some of the fouls were unnecessary, the majority were as a result of 1 on 1 mismatches developing in the inside forward line. The full back line can't solely get the blame for that. While I agree that we did limit runners cutting through us to some extent, we were still extremely open every time we turned over the ball. The Mayo inside forwards were getting ideal ball into them and 1 on 1 you are always going to give away frees like we did especially when you get the wrong side of the ref within the first few minutes.

threeball

Borders no.2 wrote: »

I hear what you are saying but all I've heard all today is if it wasn't for the silly fouls we gave away we'd have had a chance. While some of the fouls were unnecessary, the majority were as a result of 1 on 1 mismatches developing in the inside forward line. The full back line can't solely get the blame for that. While I agree that we did limit runners cutting through us to some extent, we were still extremely open every time we turned over the ball. The Mayo inside forwards were getting ideal ball into them and 1 on 1 you are always going to give away frees like we did especially when you get the wrong side of the ref within the first few minutes.

Most of the fouls were panic fouls, trying to get too tight when standing a metre off and shadowing while waiting for back up or making them shoot from play. Instead we dragged down people leaving frees than an u-14 player would tap over in their sleep. I think we got maybe two tap over frees over the course of the game.

MfMan

And so the attention turns back to the hurling Saturday evening. Will Laois continue their recent trend of worrying Galway greatly for an entire match, or will Galway reproduce the momentum shown against Dublin on the same pitch a fortnight later? What Galway team will line out? (There will be one enforced change in the forwards.) Saturday's match offers management a reasonably good, last chance of tweaking the line-up a bit more, *assuming* they overcome Laois the window for trying out new things gets smaller as the games get bigger. Personally I'd like to see Daithi Burke given a run at FB, outstanding there as a minor winner, with maybe Greg Lally coming in at wing-back. Joe Cooney may well lose out to David Burke in midfield, where we'd hope to see Aidan Harte continue his recent good form. Can see the HF line staying the same, some would suggest Brehony in for Glynn, but it's not a like-for-like switch to be honest. (How far away are Conor Cooney & Niall Burke from being fit?) Never Glynn's biggest fan but his replay performance was a fair improvement from the drawn match; main thing is that he and Donnellan concentrate on winning primary ball and distributing it properly immediately - no skying shots wide or embarking on pointless solo runs that usually result in the ball being lost in contact. Will Niall Healy / Shane Maloney / Brian Molloy further claims for a starting spot?

Should be a good crowd there anyway if it's a fine evening in what's becoming a home away from home for Galway fans.

T0001

Ah lads! Surely its that the opposition is poor and not Galway are impressive? 2 hammerings on the bounce a Leinster Final to look forward to!

Laois tbf were poor but had some good attacks and at least tested the defense. Our forwards played fairly well and moved well. Canning had a great game tbf to him and deserved MoTM. Full Back line contributing 1-03 was the highlight of the game for me!!

Nothing else to take from that game. A walkover if nothing else. Despite the nature of our wins I think we have good momentum going into a Leinster Final and I fancy our chances against whoever we're playing. Certainly more optimistic than any other year of late

T0001

Also, Camoige players had a good game. Very close and exciting game. 2 down going into injury time and hit 0-03 showed great character. As the crows grew so did their confidence. Fair Play and looking forward to their games over the summer

sporter1

People were questiong our full back line before today on this forum, We have a good full back, he proved himself at u 21 and he is growing in confidence with each game, keep the faith!!!!!!

MfMan

sporter1 wrote: »

People were questiong our full back line before today on this forum, We have a good full back, he proved himself at u 21 and he is growing in confidence with each game, keep the faith!!!!!!

No, we were questioning our full-back, and I still think he could be a weakness to be exploited. This evening was no test whatsoever.

Wasn't at the match so can only comment from what I saw on TV. Our defence was only under very moderate pressure all through and Tan hit any amount of ball unhindered, still vulnerable when run at and turned though. Padraig Mannion continues to impress, though Collins seemed to have a surprisingly ordinary match, given the opposition. Midfield still going well and supporting both defence and attack nicely. Davy Burke got an easy return but will need to up the pace of it more from now on. Donnellan put himself about as usual but not as prominent as v Dub. (Christ, he's awful awkward though!)
Glynn always at the breakdown and worked hard also but not a lot coming off him, (nearly put the Laois keeper in hospital with the poor pass to Glennon), and his aerial fetching is still poor. Was hoping Niall Healy would have a better game and could be under pressure as a first-choice forward sub from Glennon who showed well. JC nicely in form and Cathal Mannion will only get better again. Of the subs, Joe Cooney won possession quite well but did some headless things with it. Brehony still not doing enough to be a starter IMHO. Anyone know if Shane Moloney was named in the 26?

Incremental improvement needed again for the Leinster final, regardless of opposition, but it's nice to be there again.