Galway GAA discussion thread

windy shepard henderson

PressRun wrote: »

Agreed. Have always liked Joe and have always rooted for the Galway hurlers, but I'd so love to see them, and especially him, get an All-Ireland this year. Loughnane's comments after the Kilkenny match were way over the top too, so I'm glad they shut his bull**** down.

loughnane has been a disgrace since clare won back in 2013 , he has constantly rubed it in to tipperary since for no reason , and as you all well know in recent times picked on galway ....from my point of view to get them back for his time in charge ?? ...which is nobodys fault but his own

galway have made 2 of the last 4 all irelands and back in another semi final yet not a word about his native county who have barely made it past the qualifiers of late , i didnt see what he had to say about clare today but no doubt it was not on the same scale as the ****e he said about galway 3 weeks ago

aidan24326

donnem33 wrote: »

very gutsy performance today and real character building! all the criticism appears to have galvanized them and they will be quietly confident of beating tipp. the form of some of the forwards is a worry but still have plenty of time to sort that out!

For me the form of some of the forwards is a real worry. We were all calling for Jason Flynn's inclusion but he was completely off the pace today and looks a shadow of the player he was last year.

Cathal Mannion worked hard but has a tendency to overplay the ball and he isn't hitting the heights of last year either. Conor Whelan works hard but we need a bit more end product from him and Conor Cooney was disappointing again. The two forwards who impressed today were Joe Canning and Joseph Cooney. But the forwards in general aren't firing at the moment.

On the plus side the backs were immense. Daithi Burke deservedly motm, Aidan Harte got on a lot of ball and Johnny Coen was really good out around the middle. Padraig Mannion was good too. But to beat Tipp we'll need a much bigger game from the likes of Cathal Mannion and Flynn. They scored 1 point between them today, that will surely need to be at least 5 or 6 if we're to have any chance of beating Tipp.

MfMan

aidan24326 wrote: »

For me the form of some of the forwards is a real worry. We were all calling for Jason Flynn's inclusion but he was completely off the pace today and looks a shadow of the player he was last year.

Cathal Mannion worked hard but has a tendency to overplay the ball and he isn't hitting the heights of last year either. Conor Whelan works hard but we need a bit more end product from him and Conor Cooney was disappointing again. The two forwards who impressed today were Joe Canning and Joseph Cooney. But the forwards in general aren't firing at the moment.

On the plus side the backs were immense. Daithi Burke deservedly motm, Aidan Harte got on a lot of ball and Johnny Coen was really good out around the middle. Padraig Mannion was good too. But to beat Tipp we'll need a much bigger game from the likes of Cathal Mannion and Flynn. They scored 1 point between them today, that will surely need to be at least 5 or 6 if we're to have any chance of beating Tipp.

Yes to all of this. I think Flynn suffered a bit from lack of match sharpness, was hoping he'd convert a few more of his chances to give him a confidence shot. Would still start him the next day though. Cathal Mannion does indeed need to be a bit more decisive in possession, maybe being from an Intermediate club hinders his development a little. However his display v KK shows what he can do. Wouldn't worry about Whelan as much, he's ballsy enough. Conor Cooney, very good skill but, again, the year out may have robbed him of match sharpness and pace (he was never overly fast anyway.) As a critic of his, thought Joe Cooney was good yesterday but can up it a bit more again, as they all can. Need to move quicker and with more slickness the next day. However, if it's anything like typical Galway/Tipp encounters, I think our forwards will get more room to express themselves. Niall Burke must have dropped down the pecking order not to have made an appearance. I take the credit for Coen's move to midfield, as I advised here in the past! It suits him better and strengthens this area. Why was he subbed? And why replace him with an older man? What was wrong with Paul Killeen?
Wonder will mgmt persist with playing Harte as a spare man again? Certainly had maybe his best day in maroon, but needs to make sure that his deliveries find their target. Daithi emerging now as a real colossus and bulwark. I guess the semi' on August 14 will be a Senior/Minor double?

As for the football, I though Derry were a bit unlucky in that they lost an important player (Heavron) to injury late on - he might have made the difference to the result had he remained. Tipp are handy though and their Munster final appearance (and Clonmel successes) can't be discounted. Just think Galway, if they maintain their current trajectory, will be defensively better than Derry and their forwards a bit more threatening and craftier too.

If I was given one now though, I'd take the hurling, still like another crack at KK.

aidan24326

MfMan wrote: »

Yes to all of this. I think Flynn suffered a bit from lack of match sharpness, was hoping he'd convert a few more of his chances to give him a confidence shot. Would still start him the next day though. Cathal Mannion does indeed need to be a bit more decisive in possession, maybe being from an Intermediate club hinders his development a little. However his display v KK shows what he can do. Wouldn't worry about Whelan as much, he's ballsy enough. Conor Cooney, very good skill but, again, the year out may have robbed him of match sharpness and pace (he was never overly fast anyway.) As a critic of his, thought Joe Cooney was good yesterday but can up it a bit more again, as they all can. Need to move quicker and with more slickness the next day. However, if it's anything like typical Galway/Tipp encounters, I think our forwards will get more room to express themselves. Niall Burke must have dropped down the pecking order not to have made an appearance. I take the credit for Coen's move to midfield, as I advised here in the past! It suits him better and strengthens this area. Why was he subbed? And why replace him with an older man? What was wrong with Paul Killeen?
Wonder will mgmt persist with playing Harte as a spare man again? Certainly had maybe his best day in maroon, but needs to make sure that his deliveries find their target. Daithi emerging now as a real colossus and bulwark. I guess the semi' on August 14 will be a Senior/Minor double?

As for the football, I though Derry were a bit unlucky in that they lost an important player (Heavron) to injury late on - he might have made the difference to the result had he remained. Tipp are handy though and their Munster final appearance (and Clonmel successes) can't be discounted. Just think Galway, if they maintain their current trajectory, will be defensively better than Derry and their forwards a bit more threatening and craftier too.

If I was given one now though, I'd take the hurling, still like another crack at KK.

This is the only bit I'd slightly go against. I'm getting a little more excited about the footballers at the moment. For all that the hurlers had a good win on Sunday and might even beat Tipp again, I wouldn't give us much hope in another final against Kilkenny. They absolutely have Galway's measure and it's really difficult to see how we can turn that around.

Not saying it's impossible but I think KK know they have Galway in their back pocket at this stage and they seem to be able to just go up a gear when they need to. It would be a sweeter one to win than the football for sure but at the moment I'm struggling to see how we'll stop that juggernaut.

The footballers will hardly win the All-Ireland but a win next Sunday sets up a semi final against probably Mayo or Tyrone and that will be very interesting. Without getting carried away there has been an awful lot to like about what we've seen in the last couple of games especially defensively, an area where we'd struggled for years. I won't be taking the result for granted on Sunday as Tipp are no mugs but I'll confidently predict that they won't score 1-21 against this Galway defence. They got some very soft scores against Derry.

Even when Conor Sweeney kicked the winner at the end there wasn't a Derry player within 10 yards of him which was baffling.

basillarkin

coen while great going forward was caught out a number of times in defense. this is why he got the line imo

Mr Velo

Where's a good place to park on Sunday? I normally go to the QPark in Marlborough Street, but the Luas works are going to cause chaos in Dublin this weekend.

http://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/dublin-traffic-chaos-expected-over-11667668

Paddico

I think Galway footballers are only two or three years from an All Ireland win. If ye beat us Sunday the I'll be shouting for ye but think the Dubs and Kerry are far too strong at the moment.

As regards Sunday, Galway have come on in leaps and bounds. We had a very poor league but we really have come on in the championship. I think it will be very close with yourselves to shade it. We have some great firepower but we're still quite weak on the full back line.

Angry bird

A bit of a dilemma, albeit a nice one. I can go to either the football quarter final or the hurling semi final but not both? What do ye think? I get enjoyment out of both codes.

Angry bird

Couldn't form much of an opinion of the hurling till midweek as we were stuck on one of the terraces at a low level last week..... Not sure I've ever been there for a hurling match before. Maybe once. So couldn't say much about the shape of form of individual players as good as my usual view.

Watched it back again midweek to get a better view point.

Lots to please.

I had wrote Tuohy off after the Cork play off.
He was atrocious that day, was directly responsible for something like 4/5 of Corks first 8 scores... not following runners etc
He seemed a very placid person that day but was a different proposition against Clare, has that tenacious streak needed.

Thought his point attempt should have went to Hawkeye, it's implementation is a joke tbh. Clare had a suspect point too yet they only called it for the most central shot yet(since its introduction).

If that 6th forward doesn't put up his hand in the semi final and we win, I'd reinstate someone like Andy Smyth for the middle quarter as both Flynn and Burke has given us back to back stinkers.

While Clares set up dictated we sat with a spare man, I think it would be foolish to approach the KK game the same as the last few and go straight up man to man, there's too much of a trend of familiarity to how our games go and those who don't learn from the past are destined to make the same mistakes in the future.

The forwards working hard is one part of it, but leaving too much space in your backline is asking for trouble regardless of the forwards work rate.

Maybe Canning coming back to HB like the last day is the change that persists to avoid any potential repeats against KK should we make it there.

Angry bird wrote: »

A bit of a dilemma, albeit a nice one. I can go to either the football quarter final or the hurling semi final but not both? What do ye think? I get enjoyment out of both codes.

I'm personally looking forward to the football more tbh.

A great shot at an AI final where I believe we'd have less chance(against Dub) but still the freshness in it, we haven't had high hopes in a quarter final since 2005(a sad day against Cork)

paintitwhite

http://www.gaa.ie/football/news/shane-walsh-this-team-means-the-world/

Good interview from Shane Walsh

Diabhal Beag

Angry bird wrote: »

A bit of a dilemma, albeit a nice one. I can go to either the football quarter final or the hurling semi final but not both? What do ye think? I get enjoyment out of both codes.

Personally I feel a lot more optimistic about the footballers than the hurlers. To go from narrowly beating Waterford at home in a qualifier to a potential All-Ireland semi-finalist is some progress. Very nervy about Tipp tomorrow though.
Plus it's a bank holiday the next day!

Utopia Parkway

Minor footballers into semi-finals vs Donegal

Galway 3-10 Laois 0-12

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Busy motorway

Hopefully Kevin Walsh just resigns.

While the second half was a shambles all over, it all materialised from the same **** I'm beating on about all year and last year.
Kicking the ball out long and having no strategy for high percentage retainments'.

And then to make it worse we let teams kick simple passes to their corner backs.

If you've no kick out strategy you're not beating anyone of note.

Utopia Parkway

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Hopefully Kevin Walsh just resigns.

While the second half was a shambles all over, it all materialised from the same **** I'm beating on about all year and last year.
Kicking the ball out long and having no strategy for high percentage retainments'.

And then to make it worse we let teams kick simple passes to their corner backs.

If you've no kick out strategy you're not beating anyone of note.

In fairness Tipp pushed up on the Galway backs so there wasn't really any short kickouts available. Tipp just backed themselves to win enough ball in midfield and they did. They crowded out Flynn and Conroy and won more breaking ball.

On the other hand you're right about Tipp's kickouts. Galway just let them have it short if they wanted.

Either way all good work for the year down the drain. Even a first Connacht title in 8 years means feck all now after a performance like that.

Utopia Parkway

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

In fairness Tipp pushed up on the Galway backs so there wasn't really any short kickouts available. Tipp just backed themselves to win enough ball in midfield and they did. They crowded out Flynn and Conroy and won more breaking ball.

On the other hand you're right about Tipp's kickouts. Galway just let them have it short if they wanted.

I get they pushed up but the plan B should never be to kick it to midfield.

When the Dubs of this world have to go long, they open space on the wings at HB and drop it in front of a player with 5 yards on his man.

That's the definition of a long kick out in the modern game, a 60:40 to your player in a 1v1.

At the end of the day, if you brought all your players back into your half the opposition wont bring their defenders up so you can kick it to a place with extra players.

At any rate KW has put no stock into copying the blue print of the modern teams.

We lost more than half of our kick outs in the first half and that's just not acceptable when you're controlling where it goes and when.

Same against Mayo, Roscommon and everyone else we play since he took over while we make it easy for opposition with corner backs left free.

from_atozinc

It's bad enough for Tipp to beat us in hurling. But to Beat the crap out of us in Football, I dunno.

First of all full credit to Tipp. They played superb football and the scoreline doesn't do justice to their superiority. The wins in Connacht blinded us to the failings of this team. Roscommon allowed us look good with their slow build up approach and the mayo result was as much down to them taking their eye off the ball as anything. Tipp played an excellent kucking and running game and physically dominated us. Where do we begin building a team from after that I don't know. Another few years of misery to go through before we might rise again. Serious look needed at football in the county. Good as tipp were today in the overall scheme of things they couldnt get out of div 3 and 2 years ago we comfortably dispensed with them in tullamore. Since then they've lost some key players too. Galway were always seen as a croke park team but we were poor against donegal last year and today has to go down as one of galway footballs worst days in croke park. Its time we looked at proper underage setups. Putting the likes of Gerry Fahy in charge of the u21s was an insult to the lads who put in the time and effort. Likewise much of a legend as Kevin Walsh was as a player, the lack of any change in dynamic or personnel until the game was over was further evidence of the lack of any real tactical nous on the sidelines. Even their manner when contrasted with the fired up tipp management told a story. Back to square 1 but tipp deserve huge credit for their display. Hopefully the hurlers turn the tables in 2 weeks.

threeball

Most disappointed I've ever been leaving Croke Park and that's saying something. The team looked like one that believed that showing up was enough to win.
How we could leave the defence so isolated while simultaneously conspiring to loose mid field I'll never know. Why didn't they take brannigan off and stick finian Hanley in as a 3Rd full back who could also push out to win kickouts when we had possession
It was unbelievably bad on the pitch and on the line.
The only light at the end of a dark dark tunnel is Damien Comer. The man deserves huge plaudits for both his skill and determination to pull a failing team over the line
Well done to Tipp. Hope they can give the semi a good rattle but it'll be a big step up from what we offered

Diabhal Beag

This utter tripe about "being a team suited to Croke Park" was so nauseating considering how little we've done since 2001. That does rub off on players too and you could see how gutless they were in that second half. Hunger was non-existent.

The only guys I would defend are Kyne, Power, Cummins and Comer. I know the first two made blunders but they were at least trying and giving what limited talent they have. You can't really ask for more and Kyne was a scapegoat for awful defensive strategy marking one of the best aerial targets in the game. Power was letdown by no kickout plans. Cummins missing that goal chance was bad but he was given no ball and still scored 3 from play. Comer is a workhorse and never gave up. Had some harsh decisions go against him.

The kickouts are something we've complained about for years and all the points have been made. Not marking defenders for quick kickouts cost us dearly today and it was only after we had 2 goals conceded that Walsh and co moved to tighten things up. That's inexcusable. We were cleaned out all day in midfield and won no breaking ball.

A Connacht win is all well and good but we still have that QF bottler mentality since 2001 and it's not going away any time soon. Same story different decade sadly.

Robson99

Kyne wwas very poor for 2 of the goals. Was marking no one and just stood like a dummy. Comer and Cummins aside the rest were just bottlers.

threeball

Robson99 wrote: »

Kyne wwas very poor for 2 of the goals. Was marking no one and just stood like a dummy. Comer and Cummins aside the rest were just bottlers.

He was too exposed. Couldn't decide whether to attack the man carrying or peel off to the support. Either way he was on a loser. How the defensive system, which was working well, fell apart so spectacularly today is a mystery. The only explanation is that it requires work ethic and we had none today.

Robson99

threeball wrote: »

Robson99 wrote: »

Kyne wwas very poor for 2 of the goals. Was marking no one and just stood like a dummy. Comer and Cummins aside the rest were just bottlers.

He was too exposed. Couldn't decide whether to attack the man carrying or peel off to the support. Either way he was on a loser. How the defensive system, which was working well, fell apart so spectacularly today is a mystery. The only explanation is that it requires work ethic and we had none today.

Its called reading the game and today he was shown up badly along with the rest of the defenders I might add. Today really just shows how pies poor Connacht teams are

RobbieRuns

Disappointed. !

Really wanted Conroy to shine and he came to a sad end with the black card. Needed to stop their runners. Cummins and Comer were looking good but neither saw anywhere close to enough ball. Disappointed !

Rob Thomas

Robson99 wrote: »

Its called reading the game and today he was shown up badly along with the rest of the defenders I might add. Today really just shows how pies poor Connacht teams are

It's in a poor state alright really.

Galway were always going to be run out once they met a top team with a proper platform and organised tactics, because Galway under Walsh have neither. It's just no one expected Tipperary to be that team. But full credit to them for really rising to the big stage.

Galway were completely headless once the game started to go away from them and that's because Walsh really hasn't improved them at all. The players are disjointed and erratic in their form and application. They have no leadership from the line and they can't react to changing circumstances during a game.

Kyne needed to be protected from 5 minutes in and WALSH left him in the biggest game of his life to get roasted. In the end he was just desperately chasing around everywhere trying to have an impact because he is ultimately a committed brave guy. But what he needed was to be protected with players in front of him. A fool could see that

spurshero

can somebody tell me if their was any change at all positional or sub wise until tipp scored their 3rd goal to go 10 points up?

Rob Thomas

spurshero wrote: »

can somebody tell me if their was any change at all positional or sub wise until tipp scored their 3rd goal to go 10 points up?

Nothing of any consequence as far as I could see.

To be fair, the bench is limited but you would imagine that pulling Gary Sice back in front of the full back line would have helped. Even bringing on Finian Hanley would have been something. But the biggest problem was that the entire half back line kept going forward as a unit leaving huge gaps behind them and Conroy and Flynn were always ahead of the ball so Tipp had a clear run through the middle of the pitch once the got possession. Gary O'Donnell played like a centre forward all day. There was 40 yards for the Tipp inside two to run onto and they made hay all day. You can't be that niave in inter county football. Shane Walsh is an unbelievable footballer and I hope he plays at the highest level for Galway for 10 years but you can't play wing forward anymore if you don't do the defensive shift too.

The kick outs were crazy. Its admirable to strive to kick the ball long and win it out the middle but there is a reason why no one does it. Even Dublin, who have the best players in the country don't kick it straight out the middle.

A Connaught title is a great achievement given the gap to the last one. However, there was enough in the league games and today to add weight to the notion that it wasn't a particularly hard championship to win given the weakness Mayo and Roscommon subsequently showed and that Walsh really hasn't improved this bunch at all.

Audioslaven

threeball wrote: »

Most disappointed I've ever been leaving Croke Park and that's saying something. The team looked like one that believed that showing up was enough to win.

I think this is what happened in the Mayo/Galway game. Mayo felt they just needed to show up and Galway got lucky that day. I don't think it has been such a bad year for Galway. You won Connaught and Galway would have taken that at the beginning of the year.

threeball

Audioslaven wrote: »

I think this is what happened in the Mayo/Galway game. Mayo felt they just needed to show up and Galway got lucky that day. I don't think it has been such a bad year for Galway. You won Connaught and Galway would have taken that at the beginning of the year.

Don't know if I'd agree with that. Mayo have been poor all year and haven't been tested yet either.

gammygils

Disappointed at the lame exit from the Championship. Let it be said - It was a lame exit! Didn't take it for granted our lads would win but I thought it would be a close game with a 2-4 point win for either side.
To me it ruined everything. Hammered by a 3rd Division team after beating two 1st Division teams. After achieving so much against expectations. Sundays display just left me extremely downhearted!

Best of luck to Tipperary