Galway GAA discussion thread

windy shepard henderson

wonder88 wrote: »

A good game in Ennis yesterday and a fair few hundred Galway supporters there in the 9k plus crowd. Pity the ground is not done up a bit as it could be an excellent 20k capacity stadium, and it is a venue I always like going to. It was disappointing not to win when we had an extra man for over half the game and the wind also died down a bit in the second half after we had the use of it. However good spirit was shown by a lot of the players which is a good sign and many more than matched their direct opponents.
Was down at the corresponding fixture last year, a miserable wet/windy/cold day which Clare won by a point in front of a crowd of no more than 2k, and it was a good indicator of what was to come later in the championship for both teams. That game plus the league semi-final display against Kilkenny were sign that Galway were a long way off whats required to win an All-Ireland. Next sunday could be an interesting game, and one I think they need to win as for me they are a team that needs to build up their confidence.

galway really should have won the game , hit an awful lot of bad wides when ye had the wind , the ref did no favors for ye in the second half although how much he did for us could be debated aswell, crazy finish to the game n the end from line ball/throw in/ free for decent from the sideline,

i dont know why the league is finishing up so early whoever loses sunday will have to wait 2 or 3 months for there next competitive game , so galway will have to probably improve again for the game against limerick, could do with joe back aswell

cusack park infairness needs a massive paint job, there were nowhere for families with young kids to sit after half one yesterday as the massive 1500 capacity stand was full , the rest is all terrice and while there has been calls for about 10 or more years to do it up nothing has happend , the county board are insisting on building a center of excelance just off the moterway near tulla which like all the ulster teams it will cost a fortune to complete

Cosmo Kramer

I was very surprised to read that Meehan never won an All-Star. It's certainly a flaw in the concept - the only thing he did wrong was play at a time when Galway were unsuccessful outside of Connacht, if he had played five years earlier at the same standard he would have won a few. it is a shame that he is very unlikely to ever win one now.

Syferus

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

I was very surprised to read that Meehan never won an All-Star. It's certainly a flaw in the concept - the only thing he did wrong was play at a time when Galway were unsuccessful outside of Connacht, if he had played five years earlier at the same standard he would have won a few. it is a shame that he is very unlikely to ever win one now.

His body of work speaks far louder than an end-of-season popularity contest ever could.

Fireball07

Going to beat us, lads?

WallyGUFC

Should be a decent game anyway. Two very even teams.

aidan24326

Fireball07 wrote: »

Going to beat us, lads?

Always difficult to know what this Galway team are going to do. Should be a good game though, potentially the pick of the 4 quarter finals.

Utopia Parkway

Fireball07 wrote: »

Going to beat us, lads?

Would be pretty confident if the game was in Salthill. In the Gaelic Grounds it's probably a 50/50 game.

You can never tell in the league sometimes how badly teams really want to win.

RobbieRuns

Fireball07 wrote: »

Going to beat us, lads?

not sure............... but going to try very hard to !

Lookitnow

I'm hearing rumours of players leaving the football panel, Gary Sice included.

That doesn't bode well. Looks like AM is fast losing the dressing room.

Diabhal Beag

I dunno how true it is but I've heard Sice wants back in?

Borders no.2

Says more about the mentality of some of these "senior" players. For the last couple of years Meehan and Hanley have been the only ones of the "senior" players fully committed to the cause. IMO we're better off without the likes of Sice, Bradshaw and these lads. We're at rock bottom, as well to try and build with the youngsters as making the same mistakes with the same failed players time and again. They are happy to take the status that goes with being county footballers without shouldering the responsibility. Bradshaw should never have been let back (at the very least not straight away), it set a bad precedent for the year ahead.

Mulholland's time in the job is up, everyone knows that but its going to take a lot more than a new management team to get Galway competitive again.

Borders no.2

Good day for both the footballers and the hurlers. Footballers started like a train but almost let it slip against 14 men. Thankfully they re-gathered themselves to get a vital win. A win over Monaghan will keep them save but more than likely they will be relying on a favour from Donegal away to Armagh. Laois should win at home to a Down side who will have little to play for.

Hurlers won surprisingly easily down in Limerick. By all accounts Limerick were poor but the signs from the league are relatively encouraging. There's been a couple of poor displays but 3 decent performances on the spin is a positive, new players have been blooded in key positions and Galway are putting up decent scores in most of the games. Still lots to work on and lots of questions to be answered (Kilkenny in the league semi-final will provide a more accurate benchmark of Galway's worth) but I'm miles more positive this year at this stage than I was last year when the writing was already on the wall ahead of the summer.

Spring Onion

Were any of the Portumna lads playing against Limerick today?

Lookitnow

Spring Onion wrote: »

Were any of the Portumna lads playing against Limerick today?

Joe Canning came on as a sub when the game was up. Didn't do much but didn't really have time or need to do so either.

Was at the game, thought we were pretty solid against a poor Limerick side. Limerick did well for about 15 minutes or so but Galway slowly got the better of them before finishing them off in the 3rd quarter.

Defence were impressive, with Daithi and Ronan Burke having impressive performances. Tannion started a bit poorly I though but steadied as the game went on. Brehony really stepping it up aswell.

Thought the forwards butchered a lot of potential goal chances with poor distribution close on goal. We can't be doing that against Kilkenny.

In saying that I was happy with the workrate and attitude of the forwards. Conor Cooney really stood out for me in that regard. Also didn't put a foot wrong with the frees/penalty.

I would say that Niall Healy or Johnny Glynn might be the most likely to drop out for JC the next day out.

Stanza2

Fireball07 wrote: »

Going to beat us, lads?

For sure ! Put your house on it.

O.A.P

Limerick were very poor today I thought , combine that with throwing away the game against 14 man Clare last week and we are up against it v Kilkenny and I don't see us getting anything from that game.
Love to be wrong though and I would not bet against us, you never know what Galway will do. If only we had some more silverware its the best team to support. In my eyes anyway.


The footballers managed to beat Armagh and surprised me , can we stay up ? If not we will be lower than I have ever seen Galway football (I have been around a good while ) we need a change now Mulholland has failed IMO.

Fireball07

I've been critical of Galway in the past, but you've got a decent team coming together there. We were poor, no doubt about it, but you move the ball well and the awareness of space from the attackers is on a different level to us... the midfield and half-forwards were breaking onto loose ball at a huge pace.


Defensively, you choked us. Ronan Burke had a fine game, Johnny Coen was good, Daithi Burke was probably the best of the lot, Collins influential too. It was more of a unit thing though, you outnumbered us, were physically stronger and we had no chance to really break through. You weren't going to let in goals after the opening 15 mins really.


In attack, I thought Healy and Glynn were a real handful. Brehony was superb in the middle. David Burke ran through a lot but his final ball let him down. Cooney had a good game, flawless from frees. Ye did miss a lot of goal chances, Quaid had a super game in terms of shot-stopping, but ye'd want to be more clinical in the Championship, some of them were easy enough chances.


But yeah, ye strolled through the match in the 2nd half, we had no answer to your sweeper and ye picked off the scores needed to win.

Hulk Hands

For some strange reason the lads always seem to put in a performance in Tuam. A lot of our good league wins have come there in recent years. While it's certainly not a championship venue anymore, it mightnt be a bad idea to keep league home games there.

Positives were O'Currain and Flynn mainly. Both were excellent. O'Currain had about a 6/7 minute spell where he caught like 5 high balls clean in the air. Excellent stuff. He has a tendency to go missing at times, like he did at a stage in the second half. I'd put that down to youth, and to be fair he came back strong near the end. Flynn showed he has the complete package, catching ball, good kickpassing and a lovely score. He's certainly the athlete to the more traditional 'an fear laider' in O'Currain. Hopefully this boosts their confidence. They've had a run of games together and are improving all the time, so lets see the partnership continue for a while to come.

Conroy and Hanley at either ends are consistently showing why their our best players. Hoare got a nice goal, but I wouldn't be convinced he's quite of this standard. Easiest way to describe Lundy is Matthew Clancy the second. Quick and industrious, but my god will he frustrate the life out of people at times. Martin was ok, always pops up with a score or two. i thought Cummins shouldve got a game quicker though.

Negative would be Hanley getting injured again, and some silly stuff in the forward line. Kavangh got 2 points but isnt firing yet. Bradshaw was in front of me in the second half, and sadly to my eye is very unfit. Ive been unfit on a pitch and trying to hide it enough times to spot someone like that a mile away. It's a pity because you remember the lung bursting runs of a few years ago and the pace coming out with the ball. If it's not injury related, then he's not doing his excellent ability justice.

Utopia Parkway

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Bradshaw was in front of me in the second half, and sadly to my eye is very unfit. Ive been unfit on a pitch and trying to hide it enough times to spot someone like that a mile away. It's a pity because you remember the lung bursting runs of a few years ago and the pace coming out with the ball. If it's not injury related, then he's not doing his excellent ability justice.

Yeah he looks like he's carrying a bit of timber alright. Could nearly do with losing a stone.

WallyGUFC

O.A.P wrote: »

Limerick were very poor today I thought , combine that with throwing away the game against 14 man Clare last week and we are up against it v Kilkenny and I don't see us getting anything from that game.
Love to be wrong though and I would not bet against us, you never know what Galway will do. If only we had some more silverware its the best team to support. In my eyes anyway.


The footballers managed to beat Armagh and surprised me , can we stay up ? If not we will be lower than I have ever seen Galway football (I have been around a good while ) we need a change now Mulholland has failed IMO.

There's no hope for the footballers no matter who is in charge imo, and there's no point changing manager this far into the season. So long as certain players are just happy to be on the panel and not pushing themselves 100%, which has evidently been the case for a number of years, we won't be going anywhere. If we stay in division 2, it's a false representation really, because we are division 3 standard. It'll be a long, long time before Galway compete nationally again unless attitudes change radically.

Hurlers seem to be pulling themselves together a bit this year which is good. Seem to be scoring a good bit without the Portumna lads and haven't had to rely on big Joe. Where will he be played when he's back do ye think? FF or out around the middle? The free-taking responsibilities being taken from him might free him up a bit.

MfMan

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Conroy and Hanley at either ends are consistently showing why their our best players. Hoare got a nice goal, but I wouldn't be convinced he's quite of this standard. Easiest way to describe Lundy is Matthew Clancy the second. Quick and industrious, but my god will he frustrate the life out of people at times. Martin was ok, always pops up with a score or two. i thought Cummins shouldve got a game quicker though.

Jeez, though Hanley was cleaned TBH, though in absolute mitigation, he's had a tough time of late.

One Matt Clancy was quite enough, thank you very much. Lundy hadn't a bad debut at all, and will gain in confidence if he gets more game-time at this level. At least survival is in our own hands now, even if it may be results elsewhere that could keep us up ultimately.

Hulk Hands

MfMan wrote: »

Jeez, though Hanley was cleaned TBH, though in absolute mitigation, he's had a tough time of late.

One Matt Clancy was quite enough, thank you very much. Lundy hadn't a bad debut at all, and will gain in confidence if he gets more game-time at this level. At least survival is in our own hands now, even if it may be results elsewhere that could keep us up ultimately.

He was cleaned when? Today? I certainly didn't see it. Calm and assured on his first game back from injury until the moment he went off. Armagh's threat came from bursting runs from deep. They had little threat inside and that's even with Jamie Clarke in there. Lundy was ok and worked hard but made a complete mess of 2 goal chances in the first half that shouldve had the game done and dusted, in addition to 2 other scoring opportunities.

h2005

MfMan wrote: »

Jeez, though Hanley was cleaned TBH, though in absolute mitigation, he's had a tough time of late.

One Matt Clancy was quite enough, thank you very much. Lundy hadn't a bad debut at all, and will gain in confidence if he gets more game-time at this level. At least survival is in our own hands now, even if it may be results elsewhere that could keep us up ultimately.

Said he got cleaned out on the radio too. Any update on Sice?
Hard to know how good the hurlers are they never had to get out of second gear today.

gammygils

The word on the street is that Gary Sice is back training next week.

He wasn't happy with the team selection last week. And I know

he was annoyed at being substituted in Drogheda while playing well.

spiritcrusher

Any truth that Duane and Concannon left the panel too I wonder?

Decent win yesterday, but lucky to hang on in the end. Armagh's poor shooting cost them during their dominant spell for 15/20 minutes of the second half. Referee had a shocker too. Galway got a few softish frees in the first half but then proceeded to get absolutely nothing for most of the rest of the game. He made two decisions in the first half that probably had a major impact on Armagh being able to get back into it, not giving the full back a black card for pulling down Armstrong after a top notch long ball into the square from Flynn that had him almost clean through on goal and then at the end of the half he gave Armagh are ridiculous free in front of the posts after a sustained period of genuinely solid Galway defending. The red card was fairly bizarre the way he gave it too, showed the black first and then the red. He didn't really seem to understand the rules!

Anyway, in the end the result was good. It'll be some escape if they manage to avoid going down and I think most of the credit will be due to the two lads in the middle who have stepped up big time recently. FOC is excellent for pulling balls down cleanly from the air and Flynn is an excellent all round footballer and athlete, very pacey and very strong. Don't think I saw either make a mistake yesterday actually. Conroy was ok yesterday too, basically was a third midfielder, but hasn't hit the levels he hit last year. Armstrong patchy but alright. Kavanagh looked absolutely gassed during the second half, has yet to really do anything of note as far as I've seen.
In the backs, Hanley started quite poor but grew into it a bit. GOD seems to be our best bet at the moment for CB, quite composed and cut out a lot of the brain farts he's had in recent years. Much better than Bradshaw beside him, although he was grand I suppose.

Hard to know what to make of it, they still seem scattered at times. I'm not convinced there's really a system in place and the management waited waaaay too late to make changes. This was especially apparent as the changes did quite well when they came on, Farragher and Mulryan in particular were steady and calm.

And they definitely should play more games in Tuam. Better support, bit of a better atmosphere and the playing surface is better. The actual stadium itself is a shambles of a thing but for the league I'd play the home games there. Seemingly Mulholland wanted the Armagh game there too,

h2005

I thought if you're booked prior to getting a black card I thought it's the equivalent of 2 yellows thus the black and red card.

h2005

h2005 wrote: »

I thought if you're booked prior to getting a black card I thought it's the equivalent of 2 yellows thus the black and red card.

Yip, a combination of the two equals a red card.

So a player on a yellow receiving a black card gets a red.

I didn't get to hear the full commentary of the match yesterday but I'm going to assume the poster above was in the wrong and not the ref?.

Utopia Parkway

spiritcrusher wrote: »

And they definitely should play more games in Tuam. Better support, bit of a better atmosphere and the playing surface is better. The actual stadium itself is a shambles of a thing but for the league I'd play the home games there. Seemingly Mulholland wanted the Armagh game there too,

I'd say it was brought there because it was a must win game for Galway and opposition teams and supporters don't like going to Tuam, as let's be honest, it's a bit of a kip. I saw over on HS today some Armagh fans giving out about it compared to the relatively plush comfortable surroundings of the dressing rooms or sitting in the stand in Pearse Stadium.

Syferus

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

I'd say it was brought there because it was a must win game for Galway and opposition teams and supporters don't like going to Tuam, as let's be honest, it's a bit of a kip. I saw over on HS today some Armagh fans giving out about it compared to the relatively plush comfortable surroundings of the dressing rooms or sitting in the stand in Pearse Stadium.

We love it. Hardly have ever seen a bad match in Tuam in all my time going. A wreck of a stadium but a glorious wreck.

ki

Syferus wrote: »

We love it. Hardly have ever seen a bad match in Tuam in all my time going. A wreck of a stadium but a glorious wreck.

It would be an idea to up date it but keep it small and compact.
I see it was reduced to 6700 cap recently.

If there was room for 7~10K it would handle any league/underage inter county or bigger club games.

Put the money into a good experience, i.e low advertisements and fans close to the pitch.

Decent food and clean toilets.