whats wrong with galway hurling

Layla1981

beats me!!!

Kojak

I'm guessing that your not from Galway. I say that because if you were you would have some sort of opinion of what is going wrong. i.e. The county board, wrong mamagement, picking wrong players, not picking players etc.

From my point of view, I believe that because of our minor and U-21 success there has huge expectation for our Seniors to deliver. We are as strong an under-age county as is in it (in recent times, of course) but we cannot seem to develop these lads beyond that.

Also this idea of putting lads who are straight out of minor onto the senior team is ludricous. It has been done many times and everytime it has ruined players. Ger Farragher, Kenneth Burke to name but 2.

There may be an underlying perception that "these lads done it at minor, they will do it at Senior". NOT true - look at Richie Murray. He was supposed to be the "next Joe Cooney" when he was playing minor, but now he is lucky to make the starting 15 - this is where Galway is falling down badly, we cannot seem to develop our great under-age teams into Senior teams, unlike Kilkenny.

kevmy

From a semi-neutral standpoint (from Mayo but i like to see the Galway hurlers do well) i think that its not the players or even managements fault. IMO Galway at the moment have one of the top four most talented teams (Cork, Kilkenny & Waterford the others). The fact that the county board change managers more often than their underwear is not good, theres also a lot of politics in the hurling in Galway. But at the root is the refusal of the county board not to go into Leinster.
Galway at the moment are only worse than Kilkenny in Leinster so they've nothing to be afraid of. They would get more games and of a higher quality. And Galway always perform best with a bit of momentum behind them so a few early wins in the championship could be just the ticket.

thirdmantackle

Galway at the moment are only worse than Kilkenny in Leinster so they've nothing to be afraid of.

I thought galway are in Connacht?

It really is a lack of games that is hurting Galway at senior level. The clubs don't want to lose the status of the county championship (which is probably the most competitive in the country)

more games in Leinster will seriously affect the clubs in Galway

DUB

I don't really understand the question. There is nothing much wrong with Galway hurling if you ask me. An All Ireland final last year and great underage results. Are you saying why don't they win the Senior all Ireland more? There are various theories. Not picking your best 15 is a bad idea also, especially when you're playing Kilkenny.

Flukey

Kevmy, going into Leinster will not help. What happened this year? They met Kilkenny and got soundly beaten. What will happen if they go into Leinster? They'll meet Kilkenny and get soundly beaten. As things stand they go into the qualifiers. If they go into Leinster they could be beaten by one of the teams there and will go into the qualifiers. So there would be no real difference. The play in Leinster thing is a red herring.

Over the years we've got the argument that it was bad for Galway going straight into a semi-final without a game, because they had no match practice. At the same time others were saying that it was an advantage to Galway going into a semi-final having not played a game because they were fresher than others. It is not where they play, when they play, but how they play that matters.

If they are to play in a provincial championship then it should be Connacht. On that basis, it is not Galway that has the problem, but your county, Mayo and your other neighbours Roscommon, Sligo and Leitrim. Galway hurling is fine. It is other counties around the country that we have to focus on. In the meantime Galway can work internally on their problems and when they have them sorted, then they will take on the likes of Kilkenny and Cork. As we saw last year, they are not far off it.

Layla1981

my god the U21's were poor

Kojak

DUB wrote:

Not picking your best 15 is a bad idea also, especially when you're playing Kilkenny.

That is a big issue, it also starting to happen at our underage teams as well. If anyone was watching the KK-Galway U-21 match this evening on TG4 you will see what I said earlier about developing our minors into Good U-21's and Seniors.

This evenings corresponding match at minor level three years ago was a 1 point win for KK in the All-Ireland final (A point by Richie Power in the last seconds of the game) yet some of the same lads were 8 points worse than KK this evening. If Joe Canning hadn't been playing it would have been an embarassement (If he is protected, he could be one of Galway's best players - alot to put on his young shoulders, so we should give him time) and ended up with a 20 point beating.

Of that team of 3 years ago, 8 didn't start this evening for various reasons. I'm not trying to degrade any of these players (They'd be a hell of a lot better than me) but they were there to use their physical strength to work the ball into the dangerous full-forward line. We seemd to loose that this evening - all Galway in the forwards were the lads that trived off the breaking ball, but who couldn't win it for themselves.

These are 2 of the major things wrong with Galway hurling - they believe that minor success invariably leads to Senios All-Ireland succes and also a lack of the players of Martin Comerford, John Power etc. who would sacrifice their own scoring ambitions in order to help other forwards put scores on the board.

thirdmantackle

it is not Galway that has the problem, but your county, Mayo and your other neighbours Roscommon, Sligo and Leitrim. Galway hurling is fine. It is other counties around the country that we have to focus on.

well, the Galway County board and Clubs want nothing to do with the neighbouring connacht counties in terms of hurling. it is impossible for roscommon clubs (adult and juvenile) to get challenges off Galway clubs - same for Mayo.

we have to go up to Mayo or down to Offaly with teams to get games

Flukey

Four Roads had a good team, not that long ago. They won the Connacht Club Championship. There is a lot of strong Hurling in Roscommon. It's a county I am familiar with. I've had many a pint in its most famous GAA pub, Jimmy Murray's in Knockcroghery. If Galway won't give you games well then go to Offaly and Mayo, and Waterford, New York or Katmandu if you have to. Let Galway worry about themselves. Get the standard up in Roscommon and then they'll take you on again.