Galway GAA discussion thread

Hulk Hands wrote: »

It's probably a bit of both. There's more clubs playing football so say a good player like McDaid, will be inclined to stay with Craughwell rather than go to say Corofin or Claregalway. Also there's newish clubs like Athenry that are very strong at underage. Biggest reason for the big spread though would be that smaller clubs are finally getting a look in, rather than the team being wrongly dominated by Jarlaths and the likes of Corofin. Coaching has far bigger reach these days so everyone good is being spotted. Given how strong Corofin are now, and to a lesser extent Salthill and Killererin in the past, i'd probably see it as a positive thing that they only had two starters between them

I doubt many would have thought even a few years ago that a Galway team would hammer any Mayo side at home by 17 points with a midfield made up of a lad from the Aran Islands (a junior club their entire existence until this year) and a lad from Craughwell (a hurling stronghold). I'd definitely be in the it's a good thing rather than a bad thing camp.

I think Fergal Moore is a good choice. Always solid. A good man-marker and doesn't give away silly frees considering the ref is very fond of yellow cards. I am not as worried about Hanberry as others. He holds his line and isn't easily intimidated.

I still think KK will win by a few points but I waver

Today was the end of our season for me. I saw on the Sunday Game this evening Cody laughing after talking to Cunningham after the match. The reason being Cunningham said we'd see them in the All Ireland final. Obviously he has to keep positive but after watching that if he honestly things that the man is a space cadet. To win today we needed everyone at full tilt and knock Kilkenny out of their stride from the off, we needed to use possession intelligently at all times, we needed to be switching the play, we needed movement in the forwards, the full back line to hold up reasonably well and score 4 or 5 goals to have a real chance and as it was bar 3 or 4 players nobody was near good enough and our style of play highlighted everything that has been bad about the 4 years under Cunningham.

Full back line did fine for me under severe pressure. Daithi Burke did his defensive duties well and covered up a lot of cracks but his distribution to the forward varied from poor to awful. Tannian was the direct or indirect cause of at least 4 or 5 points in the first half and a couple of vital ones in the 2nd half. Fergal Moore knocked over a decent point but wasn't at the races. Would need to see the game again but on first viewing up there at least 6 or 7 of Kilkenny's first half scores stemmed from Galway not getting the basics right and were very preventable. Ball should have been cleared but wasn't and that was hugely disappointed. Kilkenny's goal came from what should have been the chance for a Galway score.

Midfield was poor. Andy Smith wasn't at the races, his touch was very poor today. Aidan Harte did ok the last few days but it has been proven he isn't up to it at the next level and he should have been taken off a long time before he was. David Burke was anonymous which was big disappointment. Cyril Donnellan did well in fits and starts. Glynn was a mixed bag. Glennon didn't work out. Flynn (bar the goal) (also indirectly cost us a goal) nor Healy helped matters either. Cathal Mannion after his point early on which showed how Galway should be using the ball was never really in it. None of the subs helped things really.

We broke some decent ball in the first half up front but lads taking 2,3,4 attempts to lift the ball isn't good enough. Really the brilliant goal from Canning papered over the cracks. If Kilkenny were on form they would have been 9 or 10 up at half time.

2nd half again the goal got us back in it for a few minutes but Kilkenny were able to tip over the scores whenever they needed them and never looked in any serious bother. Looking this evening Padraig Mannion probably should have got a red card. Don't think it was malicious but it was dangerous but we got little else off the ref. Much as I'd like to apportion significant blame on the ref its definitely no excuse today. In all honesty we were well off the pace in most lines.

There are weaknesses in the Kilkenny backline which Tipperary for example will exploit but they were comfortably able to hide them today with our game plan from the stone age. Cunningham should have fallen on his sword after the 2013 debacle and nothing from the past two years has shown the management team are learning from past mistakes.

Galway are the only serious team in the country still with no credible system for using possession. We needed an open game today and stretch Kilkenny out the wings, instead we played the game on their terms with hit and hope tactics and the writing was on the wall from early on. Same tactics as were so comfortably dealt with by a succession of teams against us in recent years and most recently Waterford in the league quarters. That tactic worked against Dublin due to their naivety and the fact that we could by pass the half forward line with the wind.

People said a few years ago that we didn't give management teams enough time but we are giving very poor management teams far too much time now. Since Noel Lane was pushed out in 2002 we have had 4 bad management teams one after another. Conor Hayes 4 years, Ger Loughnane 2 years, John McIntyre 3 years, Anthony Cunningham 4 years. Loughnane was the only one of them with a track record. Loughnane maybe 7 or 8 years earlier would have been a good choice but the other 3 never had significant or sustained success with any team before being handed the Galway job.

In all honesty though there isn't anyone I can think of within the county who could do the job. Underage should be about coach development as well as player development. Geoff Lynskey getting the minors this year is positive in that regard. Mattie Murphy did well with the minors but he's had his 2 shots at the senior job and Johnny Kelly and his management team have been shown to be well short of the mark at u21.

This isn't to lay the blame solely at management but how could we expect to win anything with the succession of clueless management teams we've had.

The bigger issue though is going back to underage hurling. The skill breakdown that we saw in the game today goes back to bad habits that are being developed at an early age and never rectified. We are forever soloing with the ball, that's ok if you have bags of pace and there is space in front of you but soloing into traffic and turning over the ball is kamikaze stuff. There were some opportunities in front of the Kilkenny goal in the first half that would be snapped up in a flash at the other end but lads not lifting the ball, getting hooked and so forth quickly turns into a score the other end. We need to iron out these things at a young age if we want to have the hurlers capable of matching the Kilkennys and Tipperarys in the future. This issue continues to be ignored. Each time we look like we've hit rock bottom and there needs to be a fundamental overhaul we magic up a big result and pat ourselves on the back that we aren't that far off. The reality is that we are miles away from bridging the 27 year gap since our last All-Ireland and we can't keep doing the same things and expect that things will start to come together.

Mentally Galway are always questioned, today we hung in there despite being average for most of the game. We were only 3 down with 8 minutes left but small things would drive you crazy. When real teams get a goal they don't pat themselves on the back, they go and get the next score as well. We get the goal to get to within 2 a few minutes from the break. Next score could bring you within 1 at half time and put a few doubts in KK minds but they get the next score. After Flynn's goal, Aidan Harte takes too many steps and Kilkenny are back in their groove again.

What hurts today was that Kilkenny didn't even need to be good to win relatively comfortably. I didn't think we'd win but I'd hoped we'd make them work harder than they had to. They'll know that Tipp would have beaten them on that performance.

We'll see how the draw goes tomorrow. Mentally we need to win in Thurles and at least get to a semi-final to give us something to build on. We have only 1 all-ireland semi-final appearance since 2005. That's an embarrassment for a team who set off each years with designs of being in the shake up. We need to at least try and rectify that statistic. Today wouldn't be good enough to win the quarter final regardless of the opposition. We've had worse days than today but today brings to the fore again how badly there needs to be a shake up at all levels of Galway hurling.

Sorry I know that's a long rant.

christy c wrote: »

Any news on when the Armagh match is on?

3pm Saturday (July 11th) in the Athletic Grounds in Armagh.

MfMan wrote: »

No, Sunday July 12th at 3pm .

My apologies, I don't know where my eyes were!

Borders no.2 wrote: »

When real teams get a goal they don't pat themselves on the back, they go and get the next score as well. We get the goal to get to within 2 a few minutes from the break. Next score could bring you within 1 at half time and put a few doubts in KK minds but they get the next score. After Flynn's goal, Aidan Harte takes too many steps and Kilkenny are back in their groove again.

What hurts today was that Kilkenny didn't even need to be good to win relatively comfortably. I didn't think we'd win but I'd hoped we'd make them work harder than they had to. They'll know that Tipp would have beaten them on that performance.

We'll see how the draw goes tomorrow. Mentally we need to win in Thurles and at least get to a semi-final to give us something to build on. We have only 1 all-ireland semi-final appearance since 2005. That's an embarrassment for a team who set off each years with designs of being in the shake up. We need to at least try and rectify that statistic. Today wouldn't be good enough to win the quarter final regardless of the opposition. We've had worse days than today but today brings to the fore again how badly there needs to be a shake up at all levels of Galway hurling.

Sorry I know that's a long rant.

The two bolded bits; the first one has always been a problem for us - we score goals and sit back relax and think job done. To add to this; teams like KK and Tipp keep the scoreboard ticking over which we never seem to be able to do - I think it comes down to your point about soloing into trouble; you win a ball in the half back line it should be short pass to half forward; pass to a man in space - over the bar.

The second bolded bit; probably a little harsh imo; teams who've beaten us since 2005;

2006 Kilkenny (Winners)
2007 Kilkenny (Winners)
2008 Cork (Worst Galway performance that decade)
2009 Waterford (Bogey team!)
2010 Tipperary (Winners)
2011 Waterford (Bogey team!)
2012 Kilkenny (Winners)
2013 Clare (Winners)
2014 Kilkenny (Winners), Tipperary (Finalists)

So in 6/9 years we've been knocked out by the winners; 2/3 times its been our veritable bogey team when we've actually had a decent run through the qualifiers. ****ing Waterford! :pac:

What I'd take from it is this; overall we've nothing to fear from whoever comes from Limerick, Dublin, Clare or Cork. I'd fancy us to beat whoever we get. Probably rather avoid Clare if possible.

Then we're up against Tipperary/Waterford and you'd be huge underdogs against either so again there's potential to fly under the radar.

Its a very optimistic shout but I could see how we might get a run out in September if we got very lucky and things came together for us.