Galway GAA discussion thread

gpat14 · 10-01-2014 5:27pm

Bradshaw at CB- interesting

He'd do a super job at 10 but then again Sice is well able for that role.

CB is a major problem position for Galway- lost count of how many times Mayo and Cork sauntered through this channel at ease last year

loveBBhate · 10-01-2014 6:00pm

Late Niall Donohue to receive Galway All Star.

http://gaabanter.ie/late-niall-donohue-receive-galway-star/

A nice touch.

Ar dheis de go raibh a anam.

Borders no.2 · 11-01-2014 2:01am

I like the look of the Galway side for Sunday and I think there is a bit of a freshness to that side. Leitrim will be determined to try and win the FBD again. They haven't made any significant impression in division 4 in recent years so I'm sure they view this as their opportunity at silverware for 2014. It should be a good test.

spiritcrusher · 11-01-2014 3:36pm

Interesting to see Shaughnessy included. I'd love to see him put in some big performances and push on from the u21 days. He was very impressive in that team I felt. Sort of like Hanley but able to kick the ball. There's a big difference between u21 and senior though as Colin Forde seemed to find out.
Good to see Ian Burke in too. He's been doing quite well for the Corofin seniors from what I've seen so hopefully he can bring that to the county.

If Galway can find a decent centre back from somewhere then there's a good chance this team could develop to be quite successful I think. There are quite a few very talented young forwards coming through (Ian Burke, Shane Walsh particularly) who will also be surrounded by some very talented veterans for a few more years (Meehan, Armstrong, now Kavanagh). Our midfield prospects are also the best they've been for a good 15 years.
There are some nice young defenders in there too (Duane, Tierney, Shaughnessy, Moore perhaps) but other than Hanley and Sice really there isn't really a veteran back there that you would really look to for leadership and there is no one to stop attackers coming straight down the middle. Higgins for all his loyalty is too slow and gets turned inside out too often, Bradshaw probably isn't big enough and has been a bit of a hot head, Sice is a wing back/forward. Finding someone for that position I really feel is the key to this team clicking.

Borders no.2 · 12-01-2014 4:23pm

That was a reality check about how far back we still are. Beaten at home to Leitrim is poor. Fair play to Leitrim. It would have been nice to get an extra game in the FBD but its not the end of the world but shows there's a lot of improvements to be made before we travel to Meath for the first game of the league.

Utopia Parkway · 12-01-2014 4:47pm

No point getting worked up about FBD results, win or lose. It's at a time of year when counties are doing lots of heavy conditioning work. Sure Leitrim won it last year. Wins are nice but mean nothing at this time of year.

Syferus · 12-01-2014 7:15pm

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

No point getting worked up about FBD results, win or lose. It's at a time of year when counties are doing lots of heavy conditioning work. Sure Leitrim won it last year. Wins are nice but mean nothing at this time of year.

Losing to Leitrim is never good.

Utopia Parkway · 12-01-2014 7:29pm

Syferus wrote: »

Losing to Leitrim is never good.

Makes no odds. If it did then Leitrim would have stormed to a Connacht title last year on the back of their FBD success. I saw the Galway team that played in 3 All-Ireland finals in 4 years lose FBD games in January. Nice to win them but ultimately means nothing come the league and even less come the Summer.

TheCoolWay · 12-01-2014 8:42pm

Where could I get A Year Till Sunday on dvd?

windy shepard henderson · 12-01-2014 8:49pm

TheCoolWay wrote: »

Where could I get A Year Till Sunday on dvd?

great documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkqUjQRxiJA i watched it several times on youtube i am sure if you want the official one it should be knocking around the galway gaa website some where or else send them an e-mail

thinkstoomuch1 · 13-01-2014 11:56pm

Ye played wexford in a hurling challenge the weekend and were beaten,i think.
Anyone at the game?with news on it ?

cityman 18 · 16-01-2014 7:07pm

thinkstoomuch1 wrote: »

Ye played wexford in a hurling challenge the weekend and were beaten,i think.
Anyone at the game?with news on it ?

Thats not great. I believe that theres a rake of lads missing at the moment, Niall Burke, David Burke, Tannion, Cyril etc all missing. Will be an experimental line up on Sunday against Offaly, and no harm in that at all tbh. Galway need to start looking at a Full back, Centre Back, Midfielder, maybe a wing back. The loss of Niall Donoghue (RIP) will be sorely felt as well. A fine wingback. At least one wing forward needs to be found as well. Little expectation this year, which maybe is no harm at all.

It's going to be very interesting to see what sort of tactics Cunningham+Cloonan and co go with this year. Fast, nippy, Skillful hurlers won it for Clare last year. The big, brut force ways of the last two seasons might not cut it this year. The league should be interesting. As well as being very competitive, there won't be much scope for experimentation, and for morale reasons alone, i'd like to to see us survive in division Ia this year.

TheCoolWay · 17-01-2014 1:34am

cityman 18 wrote: »

Thats not great. I believe that theres a rake of lads missing at the moment, Niall Burke, David Burke, Tannion, Cyril etc all missing. Will be an experimental line up on Sunday against Offaly, and no harm in that at all tbh. Galway need to start looking at a Full back, Centre Back, Midfielder, maybe a wing back. The loss of Niall Donoghue (RIP) will be sorely felt as well. A fine wingback. At least one wing forward needs to be found as well. Little expectation this year, which maybe is no harm at all.

It's going to be very interesting to see what sort of tactics Cunningham+Cloonan and co go with this year. Fast, nippy, Skillful hurlers won it for Clare last year. The big, brut force ways of the last two seasons might not cut it this year. The league should be interesting. As well as being very competitive, there won't be much scope for experimentation, and for morale reasons alone, i'd like to to see us survive in division Ia this year.

Give Davy Glennon a genuine chance then

EliteC · 17-01-2014 8:39pm

Wexford 1-15 Galway 2-09

Galway had way too many wides. Frees kept us in it I think we got 6 pts from frees so 2-03 is a poor return. Full team wasn't playing, some new lads. Mid-field was just awful and as for the forwards..... we won't go there.

Utopia Parkway · 18-01-2014 3:46pm

Galway team v GMIT

Manus Breathnach - An Spidéal
Donal O'Neill - Cortoon Shamrocks
Finian Hanley - Salthill
Aongus Tierney - Tuam Stars
Peadair Seoighe - Oilean Arainn
Joss Moore - Mountbellew
Sean Denvir - Michael Breathnachs
Greg Higgins - Corofin
Paul Conroy - St James
David O'Connell - St James
James Kavanagh - Milltown
Gareth Bradshaw - Moycullen
Danny Cummins - Claregalway
Sean Armstrong - Salthill
Michael Martin - Milltown

cityman 18 · 20-01-2014 2:36am

hurling team that rallied well to win in Tullamore in the end.

1 Callinan
2 Coen
3 R Burke Turlough
4 Moore
5 G Mcinerney Oranmore
6 Daragh Burke st Toms
7 Sylvie Jnr
8 Brehony
9 Harte
10 C Cooney
11 J Glynn
12 C Mannion
13 R Cummins
14 N Healy
13 Darby Glennon

20-01-2014 3:39pm

Fair play to anyone who was involved in the hurlers come back, think it was 1-11 to 0-7 before the comeback started.

Was listening on GBFM and apparently C.Cooney missed a sitter.... memories of the Leinster Final when he had a straight forward goal chance and ended up putting it wide when going for a point.
Easy to say what might have been and we were dreadful all year, but that would have lead to a 4/5 point lead and momentum is a hell of a thing(we also rallied well late)
Think he's been given enough chances now, I could handle poor decision making and execution but his work rate is pathetic and he managed to go about 4 games two years ago without a score.
I think he optimizes exactly the kind of hurler we don't need into the future, ones prepared to let the game pass them by with a measly effort.

Have lost faith in Cunningham at this stage though, how he let Canning shoot us out of so many games last year from free's was mind boogling. It eventually lead to him losing confidence from play against Clare.
He lead us through the league without trying to shore up the obvious deficiencies and then reverted to type for the Championship.
Thank god this is the last of the 3 years anyway.

Footballers could surprise a few people this year though, we've a nice crop of U21s coming through and Mulholland has at least tried to rectify problem areas instead of watching the ship head for the iceburg.

toxicity234 · 20-01-2014 3:54pm

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Fair play to anyone who was involved in the hurlers come back, think it was 1-11 to 0-7 before the comeback started.

Was listening on GBFM and apparently C.Cooney missed a sitter.... memories of the Leinster Final when he had a straight forward goal chance and ended up putting it wide when going for a point.

I was at the match yesterday (now be warned i'm an Offaly Man.) Cooney Chance was far from a sitter. GBFM must have the Midland Radio 3 thing about it where the game your watching is different from the one they broadcasting.
Galway fitness was the winning of the game and Niall Burke made a big impact( but he a lucky boy, he arrived and use the handle of the hurl into the Offaly backs groin with the lineman looking at him).
The Ref for Carlow won't be welcome in Offaly for a while. Some of his calls were shocking.
But Galway have a nice set up about them. They going to be hard to beat If they can keep they head right.

MfMan · 20-01-2014 3:58pm

I genuinely fear the hurlers could be heading into a football-type prolonged spell in the wilderness. Our good older hurlers, Moore, Collins, Hayes are getting on (in hurling terms) and there were signs even last year that their legs were beginning to go. Of our younger lot, only Johnny Coen seems to be of the cut that's needed. Niall Burke doesn't excite overmuch and the St. Thomas' contingent are turning out to be a disappointment, (though the rest should do them good and David Burke is still well young enough to start showing more consistency.) Relying on big, awkward players like Donnellan and Glynn, honest though they undoubtedly are, is a thing of the past and the crucial central positions still show no signs of being filled satisfactorily.

The debate about playing JC at FF is starting to show up again in the media; all well and good if all the other positions around about him are nailed down, but when he has to carry so many other sub-par forwards it's no wonder he has to forage further afield.

20-01-2014 4:13pm

MfMan wrote: »

I genuinely fear the hurlers could be heading into a football-type prolonged spell in the wilderness. Our good older hurlers, Moore, Collins, Hayes are getting on (in hurling terms) and there were signs even last year that their legs were beginning to go. Of our younger lot, only Johnny Coen seems to be of the cut that's needed. Niall Burke doesn't excite overmuch and the St. Thomas' contingent are turning out to be a disappointment, (though the rest should do them good and David Burke is still well young enough to start showing more consistency.) Relying on big, awkward players like Donnellan and Glynn, honest though they undoubtedly are, is a thing of the past and the crucial central positions still show no signs of being filled satisfactorily.

The debate about playing JC at FF is starting to show up again in the media; all well and good if all the other positions around about him are nailed down, but when he has to carry so many other sub-par forwards it's no wonder he has to forage further afield.

Donnellan seems to play a lot at CB for club, so should probably be given a shot there. Same for Tannion.
If it's going to continue to be a problem area then try the two lads there who are playing it most.
They both have the physique while lacking in the accuracy stakes for the forwards.

Could possibly play Glynn at FF if they wanted to try Canning at MF. In fairness to Glynn he tries and has been given limited minutes, C.Cooney has nearly started every game since joining the panel and has done nothing of note(Managers club might have something to do with it).

There's certainly nothing to get excited about coming through from U21 anyway unlike the footballers, in fact the last few teams have been short of an embarrassment.
Any additions will have to come from the 23+ bracket.

We have shades of quality around the pitch, what AC needs to do now is compliment it with lads who are willing to battle for breaking balls like their lives depended on it.
Amazing how physical the club championship is, yet we never see a team that reflects that for county.

toxicity234 wrote: »

I was at the match yesterday (now be warned i'm an Offaly Man.) Cooney Chance was far from a sitter. GBFM must have the Midland Radio 3 thing about it where the game your watching is different from the one they broadcasting.

Well they weren't even covering the game in full, so it's not as if I'm talking about a description after the fact.
They were covering the football and making quick changes for updates on the hurling and they were pretty blunt in their description of the miss.
It's not often you'll hear commentators describe a player missing a sitter in hurling as unlike football it's a bit easier to knock things over from close range so it must have been bad to the two lads for them to highlight it.

Anyway all I thought of initially was of his miss against Dublin, what I will say though is it's important the angle you have such is the size of the ball.
At the LF, I had a view over his back(the TV camera is the other side of the pitch) as he missed to the left side into the Davin end coming at the goal from the Cusask side.
I rewatched it on RTE after and it didn't seem as bad, but it was a woeful effort with the players POV from the Cusask.

MfMan · 20-01-2014 4:25pm

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Donnellan seems to play a lot at CB for club, so should probably be given a shot there. Same for Tannion.
If it's going to continue to be a problem area then try the two lads there who are playing it most.
They both have the physique while lacking in the accuracy stakes for the forwards.

Could possibly play Glynn at FF if they wanted to try Canning at MF. In fairness to Glynn he tries and has been given limited minutes, C.Cooney has nearly started every game since joining the panel and has done nothing of note(Managers club might have something to do with it).

There's certainly nothing to get excited about coming through from U21 anyway unlike the footballers, in fact the last few teams have been short of an embarrassment.
Any additions will have to come from the 23+ bracket.

We have shades of quality around the pitch, what AC needs to do now is compliment it with lads who are willing to battle for breaking balls like their lives depended on it.
Amazing how physical the club championship is, yet we never see a team that reflects that for county.

Tannian or Donnellan at CHB? Maybe, but Tan isn't defensively-minded enough for it while Donnellan can be too easily closed down or hooked as his striking is ungainly.

In fairness, from the U-21 ranks, Paul Killeen shows promise, though not quick, while the Mannions from Ahascragh are good hurlers; Sean Sweeney is worth a look, though ...ahem...the Loughrea influence on his hurling is not to his benefit. Hopefully Ronan Burke could coax his brother into joining the panel at some point.

I've said it here before, maybe it's time to shake things up a bit at Minor level too. Mattie Murphy's record without doubt is second to none but is he getting too old-fashioned?

thinkstoomuch1 · 23-01-2014 12:28am

Yere u21footballers playing Cork in LIT saturday at 2 in a challenge Any idea of yere team?any of ye going?

I would love to but there is a lot of other games on and may not make it.

26-01-2014 4:59pm

Kilkenny 1-24 0-15 Galway

Scored 3 points in the second half against the wind.

Seems the team lacked any sort of imagination in beating the old foe(the wind) to the Irish sports man.
From listening to the GBFM reports in the first half, most of the scores were wind assisted long range efforts.
Doesn't bode well to see a gameplan based completely off using the wind, then having no imagination to bypass it when playing against it.

Only Walsh cup, but I'm seeing another 2013 coming down the line here. Should never be taking a 4 point lead in and losing by 12 hitting a paltry 3 points in 35mins.

Thank god for being a duel county....

Utopia Parkway · 26-01-2014 5:05pm

Looks like they didn't build up a big enough lead in the first half with a big wind behind them. Only led by 4 at the break. Still big wind or not that was a 16 point turnaround in the 2nd half. That's not good. This was the team that started.

Callanan
Moore
R Burke
Coen
McInerney
D Burke
Sylvie Og
Harte
N Burke
C Cooney
Glynn
Mannion
Landers
Healy
Glennon

Darragh Burke red carded at the very end for a wild pull.

I must admit I don't hold out much hope for the hurlers this year. I think people (especially people from outside Galway) are expecting a bit of a bounce back year from Galway but I don't see it. I think there's every chance it will be a similar type of year to last year rather than 2012.

galwaylad14 · 26-01-2014 11:51pm

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Looks like they didn't build up a big enough lead in the first half with a big wind behind them. Only led by 4 at the break. Still big wind or not that was a 16 point turnaround in the 2nd half. That's not good. This was the team that started.

Callanan
Moore
R Burke
Coen
McInerney
D Burke
Sylvie Og
Harte
N Burke
C Cooney
Glynn
Mannion
Landers
Healy
Glennon

Darragh Burke red carded at the very end for a wild pull.

I must admit I don't hold out much hope for the hurlers this year. I think people (especially people from outside Galway) are expecting a bit of a bounce back year from Galway but I don't see it. I think there's every chance it will be a similar type of year to last year rather than 2012.

It was a poor result alright but at the same time let's be realistic, at the most there will be about 5 of that team today playing come Championship time so there's no need to lose hope just yet

cityman 18 · 26-01-2014 11:56pm

Ya only the Walsh cup so lets not lose the run of ourselves just yet. To only score 3 points in the second half is really poor though. Anyone at the game today in Freshford? Interestingly i see there is a new galway hurling forum. Hopefully the loons that finished the old forum can be kept in check this time around. http://galwayhurlingforum.proboards.com

30-01-2014 2:55pm

Footballers seem to be missing quite a few this weekend including Meehan, but I still think the bookies have Meath overpriced at 1/2.

Galway 2/1 looks fairly tempting as I don't think any of the other lads missing are up to much anyway regardless of their participation last year.
They're more in the bracket of players that needed replacing with younger talent if we wanted to progress.

Conor Doherty, Gary O'Donnell, John O'Brien, Michael Meehan and Keith Kelly all definitely out of Sunday's trip to Navan, while doubts surround Dave O'Connell (finger), Greg Higgins (hip) and Mike Farragher (hamstring).

O'Connell sounded promising in the FBD so disappointing that he's out, and Farragher hasn't really had a chance but we know the limits of the rest and they're nothing we should be hoping to start if we want to get back to where we were in the glory days.

Word on the Hurling forum is that Daithi Burke is involved but injured, would be a great addition as he was arguably Galways best minor since JC.
Might at least sort one of the two central defensive positions if he can carry his minor form forward.

MfMan · 30-01-2014 3:02pm

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Footballers seem to be missing quite a few this weekend including Meehan, but I still think the bookies have Meath overpriced at 1/2.

Galway 2/1 looks fairly tempting as I don't think any of the other lads missing are up to much anyway regardless of their participation last year.
They're more in the bracket of players that needed replacing with younger talent if we wanted to progress.

O'Connell sounded promising in the FBD so disappointing that he's out, and Farragher hasn't really had a chance but we know the limits of the rest and they're nothing we should be hoping to start if we want to get back to where we were in the glory days.

Word on the Hurling forum is that Daithi Burke is involved but injured, would be a great addition as he was arguably Galways best minor since JC.
Might at least sort one of the two central defensive positions if he can carry his minor form forward.

McIntyre in this week's Tribune is very pessimistic about our chances this year (and allowing for the antipathy of many towards him) he has every right to be. Current squad is suddenly looking very, very bankrupt of quality indeed.

Hulk Hands · 30-01-2014 7:07pm

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Footballers seem to be missing quite a few this weekend including Meehan, but I still think the bookies have Meath overpriced at 1/2.

Galway 2/1 looks fairly tempting as I don't think any of the other lads missing are up to much anyway regardless of their participation last year.
They're more in the bracket of players that needed replacing with younger talent if we wanted to progress.

Bradshaw is also out which is a big loss. Still, I agree that 2's is slightly too big as i'd have the teams around even (Meath have injuries also). Meaths record in Navan is quite good but thats not enough to account for the discrepancy. Kavanagh should certainly be up for it. Heading along now Sunday, looking forward to it. Supporters bus heading from Galway for those interested

fearruanua · 31-01-2014 10:20am

Team for sunday
1. Breathnach
2. O Neill
3. Hanley
4. Duane
5. Varley
6. Moore
7. Denvir
8. Higgins
9. O Curraoin
10. Sice
11. Armstrong
12. Conroy
13. Walsh
14. Martin
15. Kavanagh.

Galway GAA discussion thread

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