Galway GAA Discussion Thread #2

Just to chime in as a neutral. I agree 100% with you Stewball, this basketball type possession football should be banned. To quote Pat Spillane it's puke football and so boring, repetitive & monotonous to watch. Given Comers power & strength he should be positioned to allow to him to run at the defense, and may, on occasion, have to be fouled to be stopped so a score-able free would result even perhaps a penalty - that of keep lobbing the ball in to him and he would win a percentage of them….and it's all about percentages. It was so pointless leaving him literally starved and isolated for long periods in the edge of the square.

But overall it's by chance and a stroke of luck that both teams managed to reach the final - it's a sad reflection on the standard of football overall. It was a series to forget. But Armagh deserved to win today purely for their never say die attitude, it will be great boost for football in the county.

Two words for you "Tim O'Leary!"

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Anyway back on topic this is a Galway GAA thread. It will be interesting to see how Galway react from this loss. Will they learn from it. That is two close finals they were in.

At the moment I would say Galway Football is nearer to the big prize than the Galway hurlers are. Unlike Mayo it is not a mental block. Just more of a tactical sideline issue.

Nearly there though. That Galway football panel have all the tools required. It should be a very open championship in the next decade or so. And it would be a shame for Galway not to get the big prize, some lovely footballers.

Do Galway people think that Conroy will call it day now or will he hang on for as long as he can?

Hard as it is to say, the better team IMO won. Played with superior pace throughout, took their scores better and found it easier to take them. Galway's gameplan (not just today) wasn't designed to get the best out of the full forward line. Approach play was too slow and ponderous and no quick ball sent in. Hard luck in particular to McHugh, Conroy, Maher, D'Arcy who gave it their all.

The close nature of the defeat I think will give them hunger to go one step better next year.

Do you think there is? Two close finals, two losses.

Shame if there is nearly every county in the country would love to have a panel of players Galway have.

It would be an awful waste not to win Sam with them. Or a "fierce waste" as you would say in Galway. Not third time lucky?

I get the point on the tactics, not that Armagh were the better team. Galway had the chances to win the game. They just couldn't finish their dinner. Normally Galway shooting is better than that.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/c0vejxz8rr2o

From the article above -

"Galway ended the game with 13 points from 25 shots (nine wides, three dropped short), their profligacy dashing their hopes of ending a 23-year wait for Sam."

I don't think you can blame Comer, no forward could operate in the position he did today. Hidden behind 2 lines of defence, no chance of ball coming in. Clifford operated in less confined circumstances 2 weeks ago and got no where.

You have to run at blanket defences and have runners to offload to running in support. Pass the parcel from side to side will only get so far. It works in soccer as the ball can be transferred so quickly. In football it takes 2 to 3 times as long and it's easily covered. The only joy we got in the first half was when mcHugh cut in and took them on. We got 3 or 4pts off just him.

Walsh is a good ball carrier too and he should have made similar runs to draw defenders. Bring Comer out to run support from deep and he would draw defenders or fouls. We'd get plenty of point and goal chances. Might get turned over the odd time but it's risk reward and we're risk adverse.

In hindsight, losing Finnerty was a huge loss and maybe cost them the game. He surely would have offered a little more danger, and landed one or two of those frees.

But I really didn't see that performance coming from Galway. I know that the Armagh defence is of course very tight, and they generally don't concede high scores.

But Comer, Walsh, Heaney, Tierney, all underperformed IMO, Finnerty was injured and McDaid was quiet by his standards. Even McHugh's accuracy deserted him.

Leave off! We beat our closest rivals in Connacht, the league champions, and (in knock-out games in very tight finishes) the Leinster and Ulster champions en route. Nothing shabby or weak about that.

We made hard work of every single score we got bar the McDaid one on the break. Armagh manufactured their scores more easily. Just having possession doesn't make you the better team. Armagh pressure caused some of those misses and they had misses of their own, unless you think we should score everything we kick.

Agreed. Anyone talking about possession doesn't get how the Armagh and Galway systems work. They are counter-attacking teams. They draw bodies in, crowd them out, get a turnover and break up the field into space. The opposition are regularly going to have more possession in games. In fact, Id argue the fact that galway had more possession shows that they changed their style a bit and played into Armagh's hands. I see 9 pundits out of 9 picked galway to win in one paper - did this sort of thing have an effect on how they approached the game?

Galway's conservative approach stopped them from getting up the field at pace, which in turn was the reason why guys had to take on those longer shots under pressure that they subsequently missed. Short kickout after short kickout, when galway were bossing the skies on the armagh kickout underlines this further. This was the way to attack armagh from a galway perspective, but they shied away from it. I have heard a lot of galway fans lionising joyce post-match and blaming the players, but his decisions on the sideline created the situation on the field. The same fans lament finnerty going off, but they dont stop to consider who came on for him - heaney! Good player in his own right, but a goto inside forward he isnt. When you consider those hail-mary points that conroy kicked on top of their misses, it really underlines how galway were struggling to get normal scores. This was happening because they were too conservative, and that ethos came from the sideline. Armagh moved the ball more quickly and with more purpose when they attacked - that was really the only difference between the two teams.

Any team who gets into a defensive formation, with extra bodies playing zonally around their goals is setting up to crowd out and counter attack the opposition. That is how a counter attack works.

Armagh had 15 players defending inside their 45 for the entire game. When people criticise Galway for being conservative there was very little space to attack into. You can't just kick ball into a blanket defence. The defence will come away with it 9 times out of 10. The only time there was space was when Galway turned them over and then you could see they tried to move the ball very quickly. Sometimes they got scores from this but on a couple other occasions they messed up their transition. Like when they got the ball up to Silke and he probably could have taken the score himself but he turned back to give it back to Walsh who blazed his shot wide.

But this is a basic thing. How on earth do teams not prepare for the scenario where player A, B or C is injured?

Surely there should have been a free taker on the bench ready to come on if Finnerty was injured or tired? In the whole of Galway, there's only one consistent free-taker? Bizarre. And it's not just Galway that has this problem. Typical GAA team preparation for games, ah shur we only have one free-taker and if he gets injured, we'll just wing it. Simple stuff that eludes the average inter county manager.

Mayo are as bad, no left footed free taker.

They did but context is everything, that will be forgotten in years to come though. Can you honestly see Armagh dominating? Everything fell right for them after Ulster this year. The chances of that happening again is remote.

In Ulster -

Beat Fermanagh by 11

Beat Down by 1

Lost to Donegal on penalties

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Group Stage -

Beat Westmeath by 5

Beat Derry by 11

Drew with Galway

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QF - Beat Roscommon by 6

SF - Beat Kerry by 2 AET

F - beat Galway by 1

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I suppose you can say that if Galway did not inexplicably throw away that drawn group game, which Galway dominated. - Armagh would not have topped the group stage and got that nice QF draw v Roscommon.

Who knows who Galway would have met after that as the permutations would be different? And Armagh would have faced a prelim QF.

The home-coming in Tuam was streamed on the county council Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Galwaycounty

The lads look utterly devastated. I could hardly sleep last night so I can only imagine what it is like for them.

Those 3 or 4 breaks after the Armagh goal where we had extra numbers on the counter and panicked were decisive. You have to be finishing those at the top level to be the best and we just didn't have the stones to convert. Armagh also did well to ensure McDaid, McHugh, Silke and Tierney were nullified almost entirely in the first 45 minutes. We weren't prepared, oddly enough, to provide the support runners needed to break down that blanket. It was really poor man management from PJ, Scan and Co, being brutally honest.

Conroy, Maher and D'Arcy died with their boots on out there. They absolutely emptied themselves and should hold their heads high.

Absolutely devastated to lose that and would genuinely feel that was my lowest coming out of Croker in my 30+ years. Plenty of deserved sniggering messages but at the end of the day we led to our own demise.

Congratulations to Armagh finally. They've been able to edge out results against us since 2022 and if fairness it takes a damn good team to overcome their penalty shootout woes. Their supporters bring fantastic life wherever they go and they deserve to celebrate that for months to come.

You don't seem to be be grasping my point.

The point is Armagh got an AI against the grain.

I am not saying that this Armagh win be forgotten. I am saying it will be forgotten HOW they did it. Big difference. And the context of how the games were won, will be forgotten in time. And how the opponents would have/and should have won those matches normally, I believe the opponents helped Armagh. Again, just an opinion.

You have to admit that Armagh got plenty of luck, in a good few matches. The Galway group game keeper error, how often does that happen?, Kerry keeper error how often does that happen?

Drawing Rosscomon in the QF when they could have much harder draws. Roscommon getting a man sent off early. Still only winning by a few points at the final whistle.

Galway kicking it away in the final? Has Walsh had a worse game? How often does that happen?

To be honest I think it is a "one off" for Armagh they will do well to be as lucky again. Logically I think Galway have a better chance of Sam than Armagh have in the coming years. Given the style of play etc. Just my opinion.

The 2002 Armagh side was a miles better side than this Armagh team (IMO) and they only won one. So IMO I would be shocked if this Armagh side won another one. They will dine out on this, and that will be that.

The fact you said Armagh did it "the hard way" proves my point. Why did they make it look so hard?

Agreed had a great match both v Dublin and Aramgh, but all the replays of the end of the Final in future will show him losing the ball. Bit unfair on him considering the season he has had.