Galway vs Kerry

toiletduck

Thoughts? Galway were certainly put away in the second half. Real starvation for the forwards and a lot of players were all but invisible.

I hope Meehan hasn't suffered too bad of an injury. He was definitely missed.

I was always optimistic, even after 4/5 years of losing after Connacht(since 2001) i really always felt that we were just unlucky and it would come together, until i finally copped on around a year ago, we're so poor now it's not funny, i'd say we're well out of the top 10 in the country now.

The backs are all over the shop, they all seem to find it difficult to stay within even 10 yards of their marker, no one picks up the runners so if a forward gets the ball he can just lay it off to the runner for a free punt, in this and the Cork game we gave up 5+ goal chances that were mostly just tapped over.
When was the last time Damien Burke had a good game?, he was SHOCKING in the Championship last year, and every game this year, gives away so many needless frees, did nobody ever tell the average County footballer that FREE'S ARE EASIER TO SCORE THEN FROM PLAY:mad:, might as well kick it over for him

Midfield needs sorting, no point in having Joe here if he's going to persist with the same group of players who've consistently lost to every decent team we've played over the past number of years, Conroy is doing a good job, but he needs support from a more physically opposing player, i'd try either of the Corofin lads.

Apart from Meehan, Armstrong and Nickey Joyce(on his day) the rest of the forwards would struggle to make ANY county starting team, they couldn't kick 3 scores between them a game, it took Conroy moving up from midfield to get the scoring going again after Meehan went off 30 odd mins before that :rolleyes:

People can say we don't have the players.... good players don't make a good team(Real Madrid anyone?), you'll never find a team full of Coopers or Meehans, but you need to find players that compliment each other, we actually have IMO 5/6 lads capable of winning an All-Star(Meehan, Armstrong, the two Joyces, Hanley, Bradshaw, Conroy)
There are maybe another 2/3/4 who might have an AI in them(O'Donnell, Sice, Blake)

It's time now Joe made a clear out for better or worse, as things stand we know the end result, it's been there for 9 years now.

So it's going to be another short year..... as long as that panel stay together we're going nowhere thick and fast

MementoMori

Don't think Meehan is on too much trouble - was on the bench for the second half with an ice pack.

Total collapse by Galway in the second half - to conceed 2-10 in a half is just shocking stuff, even against Kerry - can't be good for morale.
Meehan scored 1-4 of Galway's 1-9 total in spite of going off after around 30 minutes. Hard to argue that Galway don't look utterly dependent on him.
Very hard to see Galway doing anything significant this year - they might win a Connaught title but I think that would be the limit (and even then Mayo look in decent form this year)

Kerry forwards took their scores well but had oceans of possession and weren't under massive pressure from the Galway backs in the second half.

Don't know what the ref was doing on the yellow card front - I think the total was 10, which was a joke for a game that was no way dirty.

Good performances by fringe players O'Callaghan and O'Connell.
Very strong subs performance by Maher. Would give him a start in midfield soon as he could use the experience/game-time and you're not going to learn much more about what Quirke and Scanlon have to offer.

Dec Sull motm. Great performance. Great finish for the goal but the Galway defence very poor. Donaghy very good again and gave Hanley a ton of bother. Gooch decent kicked some nice frees and did very well for the goal.
Moran - after a good performance the last day looked a bit lackadaisical today. O'Leary did a fair bit of work in the first half and did well to set up Gooch for the goal, but not going to push his way into the starting 15 on the basis of this performance.

Scanlon and Quirke only fair in the first half but better in the second.
Didn't think the Kerry backs did all that great apart from Marc and O'Connell.
Also thought Kealy didn't do great for the goal and would have concerns about him under dropping ball, especially under the new square ball rules.

patmac

Went to this match and as a neutral I have to say I was very unimpressed with the first half Galway looked ok when Meehan was on the field and Kerry didn't seem that bothered. Galway led 1-5 to 0-5 points when Meehan got injured after 19 minutes unfortunately Galway's next score didn't come until the 52nd minute by that time the score was Kerry 2-10 Galway 1-5!
Jack must have had the hairdryer out in the second half because Kerry were very impressive in the second half.
The Gooch was different class but Galway were awful and seem to have major problems, Kernan seems to have taught Galway about the odd late skelp but very little else.
I went with my two young nephews and my brother and we were very impressed by the patience and dignity of the Gooch and Donaghy as they waited for at least 45 minutes after the game signing autographs and posing for photographs for all that asked for them, a side of the GAA that is rarely highlighted by the media.

toiletduck

I must say that despite Kerry's fans reputation as not to travelling to anywhere but Croker that they were there in force.

Starie1975

How bad are we? Kerry looked like there were in second gear in the first half and as soon as they stepped up there just push us aside.

We (Galway) have to put it behind on and hope to win our next match, should be okay, it's only Tyrone. :rolleyes:

The star should have got the line btw.

homerjay2005

toiletduck wrote: »

I must say that despite Kerry's fans reputation as not to travelling to anywhere but Croker that they were there in force.

that myth was firmly put to bed last year in tullamore and many trips before that.


great weekend for kerry, 2 massive wins. we could still, make top 2 in league, if for example dublin beat cork. we can defo win our last 3 games and finish on 10 points.

patmac

homerjay2005 wrote: »

that myth was firmly put to bed last year in tullamore and many trips before that.

It's easy to see why they certainly put on a good show, also there seems to be strong bond between players and supporters, which other counties do not seem to enjoy.

shockframe

homerjay2005 wrote: »

that myth was firmly put to bed last year in tullamore and many trips before that.

yeah the tullamore stadium was packed with green and gold that day all right.

or maybe it was the empty green white and gold seats that gave you the wrong impression.

Pocaide

Gutted with performance really fear for the championship

radharc

Does anyone know how bad Meehan's injury is?

Submara

I completely agree with Gilberto. I was at the game in the 'stadium' and it is shocking to see how bad our footballers are. This is no fault of Joe Kernan as the writing has been on the wall for a few years. Remember last year where Sligo should have beaten us in the Connacht Championship and all the other mediocre teams who knocked us out of the championship since 2002.

Where we are really suffering is in the diamond of centre half back, centre field and centre half forward where we are winning practically zero possesssion. As stated already, our backs are giving away far too many frees and there seems to be a complete lack of discipline amongst the players in general. Some of our more experienced players are also showing zero leadership on the field and are living on past reputations. On the other hand we are badly affected by injuries but in reality we are a Division 3 team at best for the moment. I expect things to get far worse before they get better and relegation to Division 2 will be a good reality check for us. Unfortunately, a lot of Galway football supporters still have their heads in the clouds from the halcyon days a decade ago.

For the 2010 I predict the following.

* Relegation to Div 2.
* Get beaten in the Connacht Championship (we will be lucky to get to the final).
* Get beaten in our first qualifier game.

In 2011, performances should improve if Joe Kernan stays on but there could be a knee jerk reaction to fire him as 2010 will be a disastrous season.

dcr22B

homerjay2005 wrote: »

that myth was firmly put to bed last year in tullamore and many trips before that.

Yet more Dubs were in Killarney than locals

D'Agger

dcr22B wrote: »

Yet more Dubs were in Killarney than locals

Yeah but sure we're focusing so much on being better at travelling to away games that we now don't give a fcuk about the home ones!!

toiletduck

Submara wrote: »

but in reality we are a Division 3 team at best for the moment.

I think you're going a bit too far there!

sam34

radharc wrote: »

Does anyone know how bad Meehan's injury is?

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By Colm Keys


Wednesday March 17 2010

Galway breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when a scan on Michael Meehan's injured knee determined that he hadn't suffered a cruciate ligament tear.

Instead the damage was done to his medial ligament and, with bone bruising, he is expected to be out for between six to eight weeks. If Meehan had been ruled out for the season, Galway were looking at a bleak year ahead.

"It's a big difference being out for six to eight weeks and being out for six to eight months," admitted Joe Kernan. "Thankfully it's only the medial ligament and he'll start his rehab programme straight away."

Kernan didn't want to countenance what the absence of Meehan would have meant.