Galway GAA discussion thread

MfMan

Boom__Boom wrote: »

Another thing is that Galway didn't seem aware of the half-time clock - they got a free in injury time in their own half after 1 minute of injury time had been announced and they moved the ball forward at a fairly leisurely pace and then recycled it back out the field once they hit the Donegal defensive line - in those sort of situations any sort of shot (even if its just a hit and hope drop short under severe pressure effort) is better than no shot but Galway showed zero urgeny in terms of getting the ball up the field and getting the shot away. Obviously a side is not always going to get a shot away in those circumstances but to not even seem to try is disappointing.

A lack of urgency and incision from restarts, (Conroy a lot at fault here also), has been a feature of the team under this management, just too slow in thinking on their feet.

TBH, I'm a bit disappointed with KW's first year. Progress has been marginal at best and the year's two big tests have been failed, getting promotion out of Div. II, which was well acheiveable, and failing to win Connacht (beat Mayo), which was a bit harder. We have a lot of deficiencies in the spine of the team which weren't really addressed, and it's not as if KW had to build a completely new team when he came into the job.

Diabhal Beag

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Won't believe he's out of the game until the final whistle is blown.

And what a game he had. Better side won and was surprised they didn't attack the left channel was was haemorrhaging scores in the first 10 minutes more. 9 points doesn't represent the opportunities Galway had but it most certainly was a fair reflection in the difference in quality finishing.

Agree with pretty much everything written. It was a decent season prior to yesterday but the manner of the defeat was very disappointing. Thought Conroy might have turned a corner in the first half with some fantastic fielding but sadly not. Lundy has looked nothing like the player he was last year and Danny Cummins needs to never take another shot from distance ever again. O'Curraoin and Flynn were absolutely destroyed.

Only real positive for me was Adrian Varley. If he didn't get nervous when he was in on goal it would have been a lot closer. Still played out of his skin.

The panel isn't there. The only sub he could bring on to tighten up ship in defence was Denvir and he left it late enough to let you know how little confidence there was in that decision. Kyne was playing Junior this year against Mayo.

Saw a few posts in the Donegal thread about the booing saying the Galway crowd were disappointing. I heard the boos but I also saw Galway people clapping McFadden and Murphy off at full-time. Donegal fans around me were more than happy to dish out abuse to Gary Sice too and defend some shocking refereeing decisions in their favour but I won't tar them all with the same brush. Wish them well the next day.

threeball

I don't see how anyone can really criticise the defence yesterday. I thought they executed the defensive cover very well which was borne out by the tiny score they had held Donegal to up to just before the 60th minute. The converse of this was that we hadn't scored enough on the other end to capitalise on this mainly because we were very slow to transfer the ball out of defence and that we had no one to aim at.

Cummins is too light to play up front in a system like that and yet we had Comer pulled out to midfield. Varley showed well but offered little after gaining possession. Despite having a much vaunted forward line I thought our here and our unwillingness to forage for breaking ball from the kickouts were our main points of weakness.

Had we even raised the tempo by 10% in the first or early 2nd half we would have had Donegal in trouble. We do seem to be playing a game that is alien to us and you could even see the reaction of the supporters to Donegals keep ball tactics. Unfortunately that is the game we have to play if we wish to compete.

Disappointing performance yesterday. It took us 10 or 15 minutes to get into the game as against Derry and you don't get away with that at this level. Defensively we did quite well as the half wore on but Donegal had got a soft 1-1 or 1-2 at that stage and it wasn't a game we needed to be chasing.

Despite that we finished the half strongly. Varley, Comer and Conroy all missed very scorable chances in our spell of dominance which all really needed to be taken. As someone mentioned above the lack of urgency to get a point at the end of the half was disappointing. Time was well up. It was worth pushing forward to try and get the edge before half time.

The Conroy missed free after the break was a huge turning point. When that free was awarded there was a split second sniff of a goal chance if someone made the run in behind which a top team could have taken but we were happy to put the ball down and try and get the point which was fair enough at the time as a two point advantage would have been very important. That miss on top of Varley missing the goal chance moments earlier were crucial.

Donegal were struggling at that stage, had gone a long time without a score and their shooting was getting increasingly wayward. We then gave away the cheap free which got moved in and after that Donegal took over with Murphy back in where he belongs. We still had a foothold on the scoreboard but were struggling for any possession. The 2nd goal killed it completely and 3rd goal distorted the scoreboard somewhat but we were out of it at that stage anyway.

In terms of the next step for Galway football I'd be worried. We've gone from a laughing stock up to some level of respectability again but I don't see that current squad improving hugely without a fresh influx of talent which isn't really there at the moment. Hanley, O'Donnell, Conroy, Bradshaw etc. are past their best at this stage but there isn't a huge amount to replace some of them lads with. The midfield is inconsistent and lightweight against the big teams.

The workrate from a lot of the players was good but it falls down if everyone is trying to cover for one or two who can't or won't do their share of the defensive work.

In relation to our management, yesterday once again highlighted that they aren't up to it at this level. We have improved in terms of when we do get men behind the ball we can get a few turnovers but we don't do it consistently enough. Kickouts are just belted out and hope for the best and in terms of an attacking plan our scores this year say it all, 11 scores in 70 minutes won't win many games. 10 scores against Mayo. No score for 22 minutes in Armagh, poor scores against Leitrim and Derry even if in poor weather.

Subs were made well after the horse had bolted and the delay in some obvious changes was alarming. The game was crying for Shane Walsh to be introduced at least 10/15 minutes earlier than he was. By the time we made any changes, the tide was well and truly going against us.

Overall at best a stand still year. We are probably back as a Top 10 side again (debatable) but we have failed in all our key objectives this year. As everyone knew would happen no team in division 2 made any impact on the championship yet we were out of contention for promotion with 2 games to go despite having 4 games at home. Promotion is vital for next year but also we need to find new options in key positions. Bringing the two of those things together won't be easy but if we are to make progress it has to happen.

We've probably got as much as we can out of the two winning u21 teams. These lads will just have to try and keep improving and keep us competitive until we bring through some real quality again. Kevin Walsh is an all time legend as a footballer but year 1 of his tenure definitely leaves a lot of question marks hanging over his management team.

Fair play to Donegal, they put the foot to the floor in the 2nd half. They'll have to improve significantly to beat Mayo but I think they have a better chance than most people think.

Hulk Hands

gilberto_eire wrote: »

I think it would be a bit simplistic to put it down to being short defenders or experience.

Not sure how it looked on TV but Galway again turn up to play without a kick out strategy.
We lost about 5/6 of ours in a row in the second half, BOD too slow putting the ball down and all players standing static and Donegal(obviously from playing the likes of Dublin) pushing up with 6/7 men.

You might as well not even show up when you haven't taken time to work on winning your own kick outs.
Its not rocket science or overly complicated... ye have the ball and decision to make.
Even something as simple as pulling all your forwards bar one back into your defence is at least one option(we left 3 up... no team is going to pull their FB line up the pitch to follow those men).
Players switching wings.
Pre determined signals and players flooding an area
etc etc

No... we'll just stand static and if someones left free that's great, if not we'll kick it to a random area for a 50/50.

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

As soon as Conroy missed that free from straight in front and then Donegal immediately won a free in midfield that the ref brought forward into scoring range for Murphy. Then MacNiallais kicked a point quickly from way out on the wing. Galway went from where they should have been 2 points up to 1 down in about 2 minutes. Don't think they ever regained the initiative after that. Donegal got a big lift after looking like they had run out of ideas. Suddenly they started to win all the ball in midfield. To lose by 10 is bad though as it was never a 10 point game or anything like it but Galway let Donegal get a run on them for the last 10 minutes.

Totally agree with these. Especially the kick outs, I was gone insane at stages in the second half, after a few Donegal wides, and no urgency from either BOD or the players to take a quick one (which Donegal were actually making esay for us). No instead rain a kickout down on McGee and he lording midfield.

Seriously disappointed with KW yesterday. Like you can see we're making progress but he seems clueless in actual games. There's few more momentum based sports in the world than GAA. When Murphy made the inspirational catch and score to put Donegal 2 ahead, that's when we needed a pick me up or a spark. I was looking over at the bench thinking ''why the fcuk isnt Shane Walsh being introduced here''. Or when after a bit of a lull, Flynn made a great knock down on the right wing and drove forward to cause the black card. Brilliant, 1 pt game. Get Walsh (+ someone else lively) in now. But no, he decides to wait until the game is basically over to introduce the one lad who could give us a spark to actually win the thing.

His handling of Hanley is ridiculous also. Like we all know Hanleys strengths and limitations at this stage. He struggles against brainy physical players. So either find some way of offering him protection against that, or find someone else to man the square. To be fair to Hanley, he gives his all and he can't help the parts he struggles with. Was in the pub yest and a crowd of fellas in there relentlessly slagging him. When I challenged a single one of them to offer a better solution at full back, noone could offer anything bar "id be better in there meself". He's our only option still really, so find a way of stopping this same thing from happening time and time again.

Ref was a fking disgrace also. Not just in that ridiculous 10 min spell where he didnt award Comer or Conroy blantant scoring frees, bringing up Murphys phantom free etc. But in the first 5 mins we had 3 blantant frees not giving in the scoring zone. Suddenly from where it shouldve been 4 pts to nil, Donegal went up and rattled off 1-2. Also there was a big turning point when McNiollas kicked an amazing score after fielding the ball in front of the Cusack. But he won that by smacking Conroy into the back of the head straight in front of both ref and linesman while the ball was in flight. Sickening stuff at massively crucial stages

Put on Galway Bay FM to see had they the Galway United game and the minor was on.
Forgot about it.

Getting hammered off Tipp.

1-10 to 0-05.

Not good enough what's happening in Galway football.

After all the talk about Cork hurling I think something similar needs to happen in Galway football.

We went from having one of the greatest teams of all time to being also rans in a heartbeat.

If you take the U21 AI titles out we have been so beyond terrible since 2001.
One minor since 2007
No senior since 2008.... And that's Connacht not even AIs.

U21s barely get out of Connacht, can't remember any appearances bar the two winning years in recent times.

Think we should start our own Crusade, bringing the hurleys to the football areas by force if needs be.

We have to be the standout worst performer in football when population is taken into account, Meath and Kildare the only other contenders but they're hubs for Dublin so their population is skewed.

Worthwent14

This game showed that we lack quality scorers, ball winners and a kickout plan. While cummins, comer and Varley are great ball winners, none of them are prolific scorers. Lundy can't score. Conroy might get one maybe 2 points on a good day. Sice the same might only get one or 2 if even. The midfield lack any aggression and aren't good enough at the top level. O curraoin doesn't seem to offer anything apart from fielding and he can't field consistently against above average teams, so what else does he bring? Flynn offers little extra and seems to have taken a massive step backwards. I know they try their best and I'm not saying there's better in the county but they certainly aren't good enough for even above average county football. Half back line improved this year but still think silke is more of a corner back. Duane is too slow for corner, think full or centre suits him better. Sweeney was terrific all year. Donoghue was solid in goals. To be fair to the midfielders, not many teams field cleanly any more and they need help from half backs and forwards. I think the biggest issue for us going forward is to develop a proper kickout plan and movement. Keeper must kick faster but he also needs genuine options and movement to create space for a good kickout plan to work. We can't keep blaming the keeper for kickouts not working when there seems to be no plan from management for kickouts. The speed of the build up play was so slow and players looked wrecked and could only jog instead of sprint. Shane Walsh can score great points but he needs to do it consistently through the league. The panel also lacks depth and we need more competition. Hanley was up against the best FF in the country and did as well as he could. But he is 30 now and has been there a long time, hard to know if he'll come back for another year? Would like if he did, at least it would add more competition to the panel. Not too many fullbacks to speak of in the county. If we develop a kickout strategy over the winter and can manage to get a few more quality players into the panel along with another scorer then we can challenge for promotion. Division 1 is a must, beating teams from division 1 in the league will give team the confidence for later in the year. Another big issue is a lack of quality consistent free taker. Sice was good on the left this year. But conroy is not reliable and consistent, and comer is inconsistent with 45s. Walsh is also inconsistent. Practice brings consistency.

Referee was shocking though and didn't blow for at least 4 scoreable frees which would have made a big difference to the game perhaps.

Hulk Hands

I'd agree to an extent that if O'Currain can't win clean kickouts (of which we shouldnt even be aiming to blast down 50/50 kick outs), then he doesnt offer a whole pile else. I think criticism of Flynn is unfair though, he was quite good yesterday, kicked an excellent score, made a few good kick passes, and his knock down and forward run in the second half which won a free was an inspirational bit of play which we didnt kick on from. He certainly deserves his place, but I dont think he'll ever be in the mould of a big ball winning midfielder. Would love to see Daithi Burke in there

Worthwent14

My biggest criticism of Flynn though is that he doesn't do it enough. Too often he fades out of games, he might play well for 10-20 minutes when really he needs to play well for a whole game. Daithi Burke would be a great boost for the panel but he's a brilliant hurler on a team going places and won't swap that for football.

Utopia Parkway

Worthwent14 wrote: »

This game showed that we lack quality scorers, ball winners and a kickout plan. While cummins, comer and Varley are great ball winners, none of them are prolific scorers. Lundy can't score.

Lundy can most definitely score. He was the best club footballer in Ireland this year. However Corofin play him right up top running across the full-forward line. With Galway he spends most of his time well away from goals often deep tracking back and defending. Nothing wrong with that but if you play him that far away from goals he is not going to score much. He can't kick points from distance. He needs to be closer to goal to be an effective scorer. I think he would be very good playing off Comer.

MfMan

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Put on Galway Bay FM to see had they the Galway United game and the minor was on.
Forgot about it.

Getting hammered off Tipp.

1-10 to 0-05.

Not good enough what's happening in Galway football.

After all the talk about Cork hurling I think something similar needs to happen in Galway football.

We went from having one of the greatest teams of all time to being also rans in a heartbeat.

If you take the U21 AI titles out we have been so beyond terrible since 2001.
One minor since 2007
No senior since 2008.... And that's Connacht not even AIs.

U21s barely get out of Connacht, can't remember any appearances bar the two winning years in recent times.

Think we should start our own Crusade, bringing the hurleys to the football areas by force if needs be.

We have to be the standout worst performer in football when population is taken into account, Meath and Kildare the only other contenders but they're hubs for Dublin so their population is skewed.

All so true. Was in Tullamore earlier, and it made Saturday night's performance look world-class. It was beyond abject. Defence not too bad, midfield outclassed all through, changes made too late, (now where have we heard that before?), forwards played like lads who'd just met outside the gate. Terrible, absolutely terrible. Taking the ball into contact and losing it, very few men able to take on their opponent and get inside them, men constantly slipping when turning and ceding possession, final pass delivered below, above, behind, basically anywhere but in front of or into the arms of the man coming in support. Balls being kicked wide from 21 yards out. What in God's name does it say about Connacht football? Mgmt must take some of the blame for this defeat as the team looked slow and badly coached. How in heavens could they have gone backwards so much from the Mayo game?

Utopia Parkway

MfMan wrote: »

All so true. Was in Tullamore earlier, and it made Saturday night's performance look world-class. It was beyond abject. Defence not too bad, midfield outclassed all through, changes made too late, (now where have we heard that before?), forwards played like lads who'd just met outside the gate. Terrible, absolutely terrible. Taking the ball into contact and losing it, very few men able to take on their opponent and get inside them, men constantly slipping when turning and ceding possession, final pass delivered below, above, behind, basically anywhere but in front of or into the arms of the man coming in support. Balls being kicked wide from 21 yards out. What in God's name does it say about Connacht football? Mgmt must take some of the blame for this defeat as the team looked slow and badly coached. How in heavens could they have gone backwards so much from the Mayo game?

The minors have been up and down all year. Mixed performances during the Connacht minor league. Including a 15 point defeat from Mayo. They then destroyed Mayo by 17 points up in Castlebar. Struggle to a draw with Sligo before hammering Sligo in the replay. And then poor again against Tipp in the quarters. They could probably go out next weekend and beat Tipp handily. In fact they did in a challenge game a while back. Unfortunately no second chances in knockout. Just been the way with them all year.

Surprised to hear they struggled in midfield today because they've dominated midfield in all their recent games. Even the drawn one against Sligo.

MfMan

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Surprised to hear they struggled in midfield today because they've dominated midfield in all their recent games. Even the drawn one against Sligo.

McDaid, one of their better performers this year, was injured and only came on late in the game when it was gone. Brennan, Aran Islands lad, is a bit like Tom Flynn in that he does an odd good thing and fades for awhile, Brady, the Corofin lad, is a good fetcher but was outfielded or knocked it down mostly yesterday and doesn't do a whole lot besides. Marsden and Boyle, two lads who came in with big hope behind them, failed totally to justify the hype. O'Laoi, one of Galway's more consistent performers in the campaign, retired early through injury which was also a blow.

Diabhal Beag

Does anybody know what the story is for the AI Intermediate final. Is it Limerick on Saturday night?

24yearslater

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Does anybody know what the story is for the AI Intermediate final. Is it Limerick on Saturday night?

Yes 7pm. ET if necessary.

Rob Thomas

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

The minors have been up and down all year. Mixed performances during the Connacht minor league. Including a 15 point defeat from Mayo. They then destroyed Mayo by 17 points up in Castlebar. Struggle to a draw with Sligo before hammering Sligo in the replay. And then poor again against Tipp in the quarters. They could probably go out next weekend and beat Tipp handily. In fact they did in a challenge game a while back. Unfortunately no second chances in knockout. Just been the way with them all year.

Surprised to hear they struggled in midfield today because they've dominated midfield in all their recent games. Even the drawn one against Sligo.

The minors were completely legless but that was unsurprising. They were, I'm told, flogged to death at two training sessions prior to the game.

Rob Thomas

MfMan wrote: »

A lack of urgency and incision from restarts, (Conroy a lot at fault here also), has been a feature of the team under this management, just too slow in thinking on their feet.

TBH, I'm a bit disappointed with KW's first year. Progress has been marginal at best and the year's two big tests have been failed, getting promotion out of Div. II, which was well acheiveable, and failing to win Connacht (beat Mayo), which was a bit harder. We have a lot of deficiencies in the spine of the team which weren't really addressed, and it's not as if KW had to build a completely new team when he came into the job.

I would agree with this completely. Notwithstanding the poor standard of club football in Galway, and that the best players may or may not already be in the squad, Walsh has had zero impact really. The same problems as under Mulholland remain.

I think the next season will test Kevin. He has to address major problems at full back, figure out a defensive strategy that works, find a way to get Conroy fit and also manage to get Comer and Walsh central figures up front. And he has to do it all without a centre back or centre forward and with a junior standard midfield!

The alternative is that the co board give the job to Alan Flynn or Tommie Joyce and I can't see that happening (nor do I think it should). There is no-one else and no funds to pay an outside man.

Walsh needs to set his stall to get out of division 2 next season as a minimum.

WallyGUFC

Would do anything to get someone like Kevin McStay in but if finances are in a bad way then I can only dream.

Rob Thomas

WallyGUFC wrote: »

Would do anything to get someone like Kevin McStay in but if finances are in a bad way then I can only dream.

Certainly for McStay anyway... His masterplan would have bankrupted the MAyo county board by all accounts.

But he would be ideal. Galway really need a modern experienced manager. I think Rochford (Corofin manager) would be in the frame if the job came up in the next 12 months.

T0001

I have a thing about tried and tested managers. Walsh was with Sligo before and had a horrifying time there. Personally if someone doesnt do well in one county chances are they're not going to do well anywhere else. Tomás Ó Flahartha is living proof of that atm as if Kevin Walsh. He gave alot to football when he was playing but as a intercounty manager he's just not up to it

Utopia Parkway

T0001 wrote: »

I have a thing about tried and tested managers. Walsh was with Sligo before and had a horrifying time there.

Hang on. They reached a Connacht final but lost it by a point to Roscommon. Beating Mayo and Galway along the way in the same year which Sligo hadn't done since Noah was a child. Only for a saved penalty they would have beaten Kerry down in Tralee. Another year they beat Galway down in Salthill and lost to Mayo by a single point in the Connacht final.

They won the division 4 and division 3 league titles under him.

His big regret I'm sure was losing the 2010 Connacht final to Roscommon. Had they won that game I imagine he might be considered the most successful Sligo manager in their entire history. Granted it ended badly as they lost to London in his final year but it shouldn't completely colour the job he did up there.

T0001

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Hang on. They reached a Connacht final but lost it by a point to Roscommon. Beating Mayo and Galway along the way in the same year which Sligo hadn't done since Noah was a child. Only for a saved penalty they would have beaten Kerry down in Tralee. Another year they beat Galway down in Salthill and lost to Mayo by a single point in the Connacht final.

They won the division 4 and division 3 league titles under him.

His big regret I'm sure was losing the 2010 Connacht final to Roscommon. Had they won that game I imagine he might be considered the most successful Sligo manager in their entire history. Granted it ended badly as they lost to London in his final year but it shouldn't completely colour the job he did up there.

But thats just it, he almost won a Connacht title, almost beat Kerry in Tralee but for x,y and z. Unfortunately almost never got home. Similarly with Galway this year, if x, y and z didnt happen we may in a QF

MfMan

WallyGUFC wrote: »

Would do anything to get someone like Kevin McStay in but if finances are in a bad way then I can only dream.

Wouldn't mind taking Mayo's coach, Donie Buckley. Terrific operator. Overtures were made I think, but he remained with Mayo out of loyalty, which was absolutely understandable.

T0001

Is the Hogan Stand sold out for next weekend?

christy c

T0001 wrote: »

Is the Hogan Stand sold out for next weekend?

There still some on tickets.ie. They're sh1te though, in the very corner. I reckon some good one will come up when they open the upper level closer to the time

Good win for Galway in the intermediate this evening reclaiming the crown for the first time since 2002. 0-23-0-14 in the finish after it was 0-9-0-9 at half time. Small crowd in Limerick on a poor evening but Galway hurled well in patches. Defensively Galway coped well but lost their shape a bit as the half wore on and Cork's sweeper picked up a lot of the loose clearances. However, in the 2nd half we hurled more intelligently, used the space well and used the pace in the team to good effect.

Highlight of the game was a sideline cut from Tadhg Haran near the half way line in the 2nd half which went over the bar and a terrific block from Barry Keane to deny Cork a certain goal when we were 4 or 5 up during the 2nd half.

Some promising players in that Galway team. Colm Flynn impressed me as he always does, Adrian Tuohy looks a decent player who seems to be moved around a lot. Kevin McHugo and Dean Higgins had some excellent spells during the game and contributed 5 points between them. Eamonn Brannigan performed well in the 2nd half in particular. Daniel Nevin came in to replace Conor Whelan and contributed 0-5 from play. Shane Moloney didn't have his best day and didn't really enhance his senior prospects, neither did Brian Molloy.

However, a good win and a useful competition for Galway to prepare the u21s and keep competition for places in the senior panel.

Another interesting thing to note was that Barry Daly was in the Galway panel and made an appearance. Having had injury problems for a number of years it looked like he had packed the game in but he was back this evening. He did nothing of note and will find it very hard to get back to the level he was at back in 2011-12 but good to see him back hurling all the same.

The one asterisk you would put beside this result is that Cork's pick is limited just to intermediate players and below and couldn't pick the same team as last year so given those circumstances it would have been very disappointing if this Galway team didn't win.

Utopia Parkway

Borders no.2 wrote: »

Good win for Galway in the intermediate this evening reclaiming the crown for the first time since 2002. 0-23-0-14 in the finish after it was 0-9-0-9 at half time. Small crowd in Limerick on a poor evening but Galway hurled well in patches. Defensively Galway coped well but lost their shape a bit as the half wore on and Cork's sweeper picked up a lot of the loose clearances. However, in the 2nd half we hurled more intelligently, used the space well and used the pace in the team to good effect.

Highlight of the game was a sideline cut from Tadhg Haran near the half way line in the 2nd half which went over the bar and a terrific block from Barry Keane to deny Cork a certain goal when we were 4 or 5 up during the 2nd half.

Some promising players in that Galway team. Colm Flynn impressed me as he always does, Adrian Tuohy looks a decent player who seems to be moved around a lot. Kevin McHugo and Dean Higgins had some excellent spells during the game and contributed 5 points between them. Eamonn Brannigan performed well in the 2nd half in particular. Daniel Nevin came in to replace Conor Whelan and contributed 0-5 from play. Shane Moloney didn't have his best day and didn't really enhance his senior prospects, neither did Brian Molloy.

However, a good win and a useful competition for Galway to prepare the u21s and keep competition for places in the senior panel.

Another interesting thing to note was that Barry Daly was in the Galway panel and made an appearance. Having had injury problems for a number of years it looked like he had packed the game in but he was back this evening. He did nothing of note and will find it very hard to get back to the level he was at back in 2011-12 but good to see him back hurling all the same.

The one asterisk you would put beside this result is that Cork's pick is limited just to intermediate players and below and couldn't pick the same team as last year so given those circumstances it would have been very disappointing if this Galway team didn't win.

Good win alright as even though Cork lack quality at senior level they are usually very strong at junior and intermediate level due to the sheer amount of clubs in the county.

Minors doing well so far.

Had a flurry to go about 0-7 to 0-3 up but two awful frees given against them helped KK back into it.
Terrible decisions.

He's also let three cards go.
A shoulder to the chest and two pulls that could be reds to other refs... Absolutely ridicules to not even give yellows.

Another red missed on KK.

Grealish hits a shot from midfield and the KK 14 blind sides him from behind a few seconds after hitting him in the ribs for no apparent reason.

Wides starting to build.
At least 4 in the last 6/7 minutes.

Shocking start to the second half.

No score in 12 mins and about 4 wides and 2 balls into the goalies hands with a number being easy chances.

Trail by 2 now and the losing of the game if it happens has been the opening 12 mins.