Galway GAA discussion thread

MfMan

galwaylad14 wrote: »

I really can't agree with a lot of what you're saying! In terms of number 6 I've been saying for a long while now that Tan is the man for this role, anyone who has seen his for Ardrahan will know what he can do in that position and as someone else said earlier in this thread, when he won his all star 2 years it was while playing virtually as a centre back.

Ya Aidan Harte at wing back I wouldn't be 100% sure on either, he's good on the ball but I'd worry about his defending and aerial ability against a real top wing forward.
Can't agree with you on Collins and Moore. Collins is 29 and Moore is 31. Look at other sports like soccer and rugby, loads of guys play well into their 30's without any speed issues, with these guys levels of fitness there's no reason they can't do that too. And I can't recall any occasion over the last couple of years where either of these guys has been caught for pace and I don't see that changing now.

I've a feeling we may see Joe at number 11 this year. Or at least I think he'll spend more time here than he has in other years. But Jonny Glynn is a good lad here too, great ball winner and battler.
The Portumna 3 are in no way "just 1". Damien Hayes has been our second best forward over the last 5 years and still has loads to give this team. Smyth is a bundle of energy and always a guy I like to see out on the pitch. All 3 will play a huge role this year.

As always in February, hope springs eternal and I think we'll get a good result over what's a strong Dublin side.

Hope I'm wrong in all I've said, but I don't think Tan as the defensive discipline for no. 6, too attack-minded. Harte and Andy Smith are very alike, better when not starting, and have had plenty of chances over the past number of years now. Glynn may be a good battler but his hurling ability is seriously limited and is one-sided when striking.

Hayes, Moore and Collins have been among our best players for a few years now but none had a great year in 2013; Clare may be the new paradigm for hurling for the next few seasons with their fast and open play. It's hard to see these three having the pace for this type of game.

Where JC plays is practically irrelevant if proper support isn't put around him.

Anyway, at nearly evens for tomorrow, Galway mightn't be too bad a bet to get the league off to a winning start.

galwaylad14

MfMan wrote: »

Hope I'm wrong in all I've said, but I don't think Tan as the defensive discipline for no. 6, too attack-minded. Harte and Andy Smith are very alike, better when not starting, and have had plenty of chances over the past number of years now. Glynn may be a good battler but his hurling ability is seriously limited and is one-sided when striking.

Hayes, Moore and Collins have been among our best players for a few years now but none had a great year in 2013; Clare may be the new paradigm for hurling for the next few seasons with their fast and open play. It's hard to see these three having the pace for this type of game.

Where JC plays is practically irrelevant if proper support isn't put around him.

Anyway, at nearly evens for tomorrow, Galway mightn't be too bad a bet to get the league off to a winning start.

Actually Hayes was very good last year. Scored consistently every time he got a chance. He was treated very badly by the management. Both Moore and Collins were ok last year and neither were among our worst performers in fairness to both.

I actually hadn't thought of Grealish, I presume he's injured? He'll definitley be on the team this year, either at midfield or wing back.

I'm not going to say anymore on Tan, just that I think he'll be our man at centre back and we'll see how it plays out.
Someone mentioned Shane Moloney there above, he's still young (still under 21) but I really don't see it happening for him with the county. Good hurler but I just can't see him ever making it, hard to put a finger on why exactly but he just lacks a bit of pace and he's not a big lad either, I think he'd really struggle to win ball if he was on the team

Diabhal Beag

Not too much to say. Dublin didn't really seem to care too much today. They almost had a goal in the opening minute and were killed off by points.

Ronan Burke and Brehony were very impressive for me. Burke made a great block to deny a goal with his leg. Cooney had a great game and was lethal from the placed ball. Also offered a lot physically in midfield.

Tan was very good at HB and cleaned up a lot. Mannion and Flynn had good games and Johnny Glynn hit two crackers. Healy was excellent too.

Only poor showings for me at times were Glennon and David Burke. Burke isn't suited to intercounty midfield. Glennon doesn't field the ball at all since the League last year and I can't see him being dropped so that's a big issue.

That said a very good start and hopefully we've found a new free-taker instead of Joe, who can be liable to miss from long range.

The game was over a long way before half time. Dublin looked off the pace for whatever reason, they have been a bit boom/bust in the last few years. It'll be interesting to see is this a blip or are they going to struggle this year. Galway will never have things as easy again but its a confidence boost for the panel as a whole. Still plenty to work on despite the win but Waterford next up will give us a better indication.

Good win for Connacht in the Railway Cup also, on the radio saying there were about 100 people at it. Pity as it sounded like a cracker.

Utopia Parkway

Good win today. R Burke, Brehony, Mannion and Flynn all played very well. Niall Healy scored 0-5 from play. Tan good at 6. Dublin were awful though. Maybe in the middle of heavy training but Galway can only beat who's in front of them.

T0001

Where were these 28 points least year when we scoring goals?

Far too much focus last year on getting goals. Too many chances wasted hitting in around the house. Great to see lads taking their score and keeping the scoreboard tocking over.

Very poor Dublin performance. Confidence will rise on the Galway panel after today. I hope when the Portumna lads are available again the management don't dump all the debutants onto the bench. Cathal Mannion had a great day as did J. Flynn and P. Brehony.

Davy Glennon is not a finisher. He has had great chances last year for goals but when it comes to it he lacks the power to finish it.

Syferus

Thought Dogtanian (as the oul fella calls him) was stellar today. Seems likely whenever Tanian gets going Galway gets going. Very important player for ye.

Red Pepper

who was full back for Galway today? He did well.

Utopia Parkway

Red Pepper wrote: »

who was full back for Galway today? He did well.

Turloughmore's Ronan Burke.

His spot to lose now. Cunningham's original plan this year was to play Niall O'Donoghue (god rest his soul) at full-back.

windy shepard henderson

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Turloughmore's Ronan Burke.

His spot to lose now. Cunningham's original plan this year was to play Niall O'Donoghue (god rest his soul) at full-back.

a fitting result infairness to remember niall on galway's first competive game back without him it would be great to see ye win the league (i am sure ye'd like to win somthing bigger but thats for another day ........ ) in his honnor

davey fitz has used galway as the bench mark so far this year after ye gave clare a bit of a cliping in a chalange 2 weeks ago

i always said that other then cork last year the only team to really trouble clare was galway and i expect to see a backlash from all the criticism through the league

the result speeks for its self i would put ye down as early NHL favourites at the moment

wonder88

Great start and result. But it is hard to know the attitude of Dublin today. I saw them getting hammered by Tipp in the league semi-final last year and yet they nearly reached the All-Ireland final after a great championship. So I will wait to next sunday before getting too excited about the hurlers prospect for this year.

Utopia Parkway

wonder88 wrote: »

Great start and result. But it is hard to know the attitude of Dublin today. I saw them getting hammered by Tipp in the league semi-final last year and yet they nearly reached the All-Ireland final after a great championship. So I will wait to next sunday before getting too excited about the hurlers prospect for this year.

Next weekend will be completely different. Waterford are very hard bet on their home patch and they will fight for the entire 70 minutes. Think Dublin lost interest quickly today after falling behind. Or it seemed that way at least.

Fireball07

I wrote Galway off, even put money on them to be relegated but they looked a lot better today. Obviously Dublin were very poor, looked slow and lethargic from 1-15 but Galway, without the Portumna contingent, looked good.


Mannion, in particular, looks a classy hurler. Burke and Tannian as the spine of the defence looked strong and Glynn looked good. Not sure if he's good enough but he impressed today. Healy is another one, can't understand why he wasn't used more last year.

Players like Cooney, Glynn, Smyth, Tannian, Niall Burke, Donnellan, Glennon, even Collins... these are all players who I would consider having big question marks over them. Capable of big performances but not consistent enough imo. Even in 2012, which was a great year, not having lots of scoring forwards was a killer. And last year, ye were just awful.


But ye did well today, and while pretty much everyone else will be better than Dublin were today, it gives you a big chance of making the knockouts.

galwaylad14

Tannian was just superb at centre back I thought, I was delighted for him and I hope he can keep that up now. Ronan Burke at full back was very good too. Up front Healy, Glynn and Mannian were all top class.

Was a really good performance and the quality of shooting was excellent throughout but Dublin were pathetic. It's almost hard to even explain just how bad they were and if they don't improve exponentially then they're certainties for relegation.

But our lads can only beat what's put in front of them and they did that throughout. About the only slight pity was the lack of goal chances we created, apart from the one Flynn scored that was called back for the foul on Healy we didn't really create any good chance. Individually I suppose Davey Glennon wasn't great but I wouldn't worry too much, he'll do it when we need him, he's that type of player.

cson

Saw Tannian playing Centre Back for Ardrahan in the County 1/4s against Portumna and though he was superb that day. Could be the position for him for the County team this year.

wonder88

Is it likely the same team starting on sunday?

Utopia Parkway

wonder88 wrote: »

Is it likely the same team starting on sunday?

Looks like it.

T0001

wonder88 wrote: »

Is it likely the same team starting on sunday?

It is ya. But I don't think they'll be as fluid as they were last week. 1-20 I think is the score they'll need to beat Waterford who on a good day can hit 20-22 scores.

Tough game tomorrow, Waterford away is always a difficult place to win, another win would be handy with 3 daunting fixtures to come yet. Tomorrow should give us a better indication of where we are at.

Anyone thinking of going to the Railway Cup final in Tuam?

Shame the game isn't on TG4 tomorrow.

Tipp and KK was always going to be the live game, and you wouldnt argue about that. But they've decided to travel to Parnell Pk instead for the deferred coverage game.
If Clare didn't win the AI last year, and seeing Dublin last week, that game wouldn't be on.

Considering there's only 3 games for viewing(doubtful they'd show any 1B game bar the already played Cork/Limerick) it's unfortunate to be left out of a 2/3.

Even if we lost tomorrow, I'm still more optimistic about this year following the Dublin game.

We played the same hurling from the Cork semi, into both AI's and through last years league and AI.
That being, we were continuously hitting balls into areas where there wasn't a forward in sight.
Mainly due to pulling too many back (without a clearly worked transitional tactic on a turnover) more than inaccuracy.

What we saw against Dublin, was at least a return to more shape and numbers in the forward unit.
We had challenges at the end of every ball forward and with that we had a vast number of forwards on the score sheet.

In late 2012 and 2013, we were seeing 1/2 forwards scoring with low returns far too often.
We were very dangerous for goals and conceding few, but this eventually died away and both of those stats reversed for the worse.

To put up 28 points without a goal is a massive change for us, we haven't put up 28 minus a goal in a few years I'd reckon.

Coming into this league, I expected that kind of jump from the footballers. A game unlike last season and a marker set down early of a possible revival.
The footballers are possibly even worse, and the hurlers minus our two main play scorers from those low returns in 2012/13 manage to hit 28.

wonder88

Not going too well, but level now despite being against the wind after goal. Have improved a lot since half-time.

aidan24326

Waterford are a bit of a bogey team at this stage, have beaten us a lot in recent years.

deisedude

cson wrote: »

Saw Tannian playing Centre Back for Ardrahan in the County 1/4s against Portumna and though he was superb that day. Could be the position for him for the County team this year.

Got destroyed today. Should have been yellowed numerous times and gave away a tonne of frees judging from the radio commentary

Was listening on the radio, sounds like we were beaten up physically again! Padraic Mahony looked like he had a field day. Each team in the league now has 2 points but I'd fear for Galway away to Kilkenny who while ropey defensively still have enough quality to put up a big score.

Well done to Connacht on the Railway Cup success. Mainly Mayo players but its good to break the duck of something like 45 years in this competition.

T0001

T0001 wrote: »

It is ya. But I don't think they'll be as fluid as they were last week. 1-20 I think is the score they'll need to beat Waterford who on a good day can hit 20-22 scores.

I wasn't too far off. 1-20 would have beaten Waterford and Waterford did hit 22 points.

Not a good day. But, we are missing some powerful forwards. Alot of people are remarking the forwards lack of physical power. Canning, Hayes e.t.c. would have been more physical.

Cathal Mannion 0-3 from play, a few years down the line he'll be like Colin Fennelly!! Likewise with Jason Flynn. Great goal.

I must repeat my opinion of Davy Glennon, not a finisher. And he didn't get on much ball so he wasn't a great distributer today.

But as always we'll pick ourselves up and move on. Kilkenny away next weekend. We won't win. Hopefully we won't concede 5 goals.

KevIRL

Was surprised but happy to see Mannion come off for ye today, he and Conor Cooney were easily Galway's biggest scoring threats.

Diabhal Beag

How was Cooney on frees?

h2005

Which Galway players played in the Railway final today?

h2005

h2005 wrote: »

Which Galway players played in the Railway final today?

Going by the team picture, Conroy, Armstrong and Bradshaw played.

In the semi final I believe Joss Moore was also involved(I don't know his face so can't comment on the team photo) and Cummins.

Think that was the lot.

h2005

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Going by the team picture, Conroy, Armstrong and Bradshaw played.

In the semi final I believe Joss Moore was also involved(I don't know his face so can't comment on the team photo) and Cummins.

Think that was the lot.

Thanks. I seen the pic but the whole squad seems stripped and I couldn't make out jersey numbers.