Galway GAA discussion thread

CloughCasey1

Hulk Hands wrote: »

A lot? 3 maybe, with 7 incredible players also. Id go as far to say that side underachieved with the talent available but it didnt help that after not being far from an AI in 95, they had to deal with an excellent Mayo side in one off games in 96,97 with no back door and unbelievable injuries in 99. Shouldve won in 00 also but put all doubts to bed as to who was the best side of that era with the tour de force once the full side was back in 01.

Those were the days. Had some night in Tuam in 01 on the Monday night. Good memories.

TCDStudent1

Hulk Hands wrote: »

A lot? 3 maybe, with 7 incredible players also. Id go as far to say that side underachieved with the talent available but it didnt help that after not being far from an AI in 95, they had to deal with an excellent Mayo side in one off games in 96,97 with no back door and unbelievable injuries in 99. Shouldve won in 00 also but put all doubts to bed as to who was the best side of that era with the tour de force once the full side was back in 01.

I'd say T. Meehan, R. Silke, J. Divilly, S. O'Domhnall were fairly average players. You could potentially add Shay Walsh to that list.

Fahey, Mannion, De Paor, Walsh, Fallon, Donnellan, Savage, Joyce, Finnegan were all exceptionally talented players. Paul Clancy and Declan Meehan on the bench were also class players and would go on to prove so in 00 and 01.

In any case, it's not fair to compare the current Galway team with an AI winning team. If you compared them against a Galway team that played during the league in 1998, the current team would fare better (players like robin doyle, Damien Mitchell, fergal Gavin featured in that league campaign, good players but didn't really get going at intercounty).

TCDStudent1

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

Those were the days. Had some night in Tuam in 01 on the Monday night. Good memories.

Always thought 01 was a letdown after the pandemonium in tuam in 98! I doubt a town was ever as unprepared or disorganised for a homecoming as tuam was that night!

CloughCasey1

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

Always thought 01 was a letdown after the pandemonium in tuam in 98! I doubt a town was ever as unprepared or disorganised for a homecoming as tuam was that night!

98 was a bit early for me to enjoy it fully. Made up for it in 01!

MfMan

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

To compare teams there is a fair gap.
1 Mac v Lavelle. No contest. Mac hands down.
2 T Meehan V D Kyne. Meehan was a solid player and even though Declan has been one of Galways better performers since his intro the Caltra man wins for me
3 Fahy V Walsh. Fahy all day
4 Mannion V Sweeney. Mannion. One.of the finest players we have ever had
5 Silke V Silke. The younger version hands down.
6 Divilly V Bradshaw. Divilly was way more of a presence and more of a natural centre back. Bradshaw more of a wing back converted to fill a position that we dont have a player for.
7 Sean Og V O'Donnell. Gary has matured well into the team and is showing good leadership as captain but he is no De Paor!
8 Kev V Fiontan. Easy decision.
9 O'Domhaill V Conroy. Conroy is a top footballer and wins this one.
10 Flynn V Mike D. Easy Decision
11 Daly V Ja. Maybe in a few years he may get close but Ja was a legend.
12 Shay Walsh V Brannigan draw
13 Savage V Shane Walsh. Shane is possibly a more talanted footballer but can spend long spells out of a game. Derek Savage was one of those players who you couldnt take your eye off for 2 seconds. Savage for now but time could prove me wrong.
14 PJ V McHugh. PJ
15 Niall F V Lundy. Lundy has done feck all for county team.

Now the bulk of that team were playing Div3 football in 1997 and the same thing was said about them as about todays team. There is a lot of talk about getting rid of Walsh. Cant see how that can be justified as no manager in county fit to replace him and feck all good managers in the country to be honest. Rome wasnt built in a day!

Draw between Shay Walsh and Brannigan? Struggling to recall any meaningful contribution by Brannigan yet in county colours. Similarly Silke minor might be better in the long term than 'elder' but hasn't done it yet. Bradshaw probably a better footballer than Divilly alright but the latter had the great luxury of being surrounded by thoroughbreds.

MfMan

aidan24326 wrote: »

And in spite of Sunday's defeat the current team are going in the right direction, there's a few problems still to be ironed out but we're in a much better place than we were a few years ago and promotion is still very much a possibility. If we beat Derry the next day (and I think we will) then we'll definitely be thereabouts in terms of going up. It may come down to the last day against Kildare.

Not really sure how much actual progress we're making to be honest. The few 'problems to be ironed out' to my mind include finding at least 4 new defenders, among them a proper no. 6 and HB line that can stop attacks rather than being constantly porous.

We've been in this position so often over the past 15 years; climb a few 'ladders' and everyone is talking above themselves; hit a few 'snakes' and it's all the way back down to square one again. Real progress would be promotion this year, but while I think we should manage Derry in Tuam, a trip to resurgent Down or a home game v in-form Kildare are no gimmes. Would gladly take 5 from 6 points from these three now.

casscass4444

Robson99 wrote: »

In fairness there was a lot of average footballers in that 98 team.

Though the opposite to be honest.galway had a cracking team in 98 & 01.some absolute cracking players around then who all seemed to peak at just the right Time together.savage,fallon,Joyce, the donnellans,de paor,Mac to name a few.
We had some proper work horses too who were content to chase after lost ball all day and badger players into making mistakes where today's players are often found wanting when the pressure comes on.
Talk to a lot of Galway supporters regarding Galways poor performances since and they usually say it takes time to bring players through and to gel with management but there comes a time when enough time has been given and excuses run out.if things don't progress this year and if it was a thing that walsh decided to go would Galway supporters be expected to give the team another couple of years to gather themselves?there comes the stage when you get sick of waiting.

Green Peter

I think the 98 team would never win in the current game, it's now a 20+ man game, outside of 1 or 2 we had no real subs in 98 and if we had to use them in the last 15 min like Dublin do we would have been exposed badly, don't get me wrong they were a great bunch but alot went their way. 2001 though gave them great credibility!

Robson99

casscass4444 wrote: »

Though the opposite to be honest.galway had a cracking team in 98 & 01.some absolute cracking players around then who all seemed to peak at just the right Time together.savage,fallon,Joyce, the donnellans,de paor,Mac to name a few.

No's 2, 5, 6, 9, 12 were average players in fairness

threeball

Robson99 wrote: »

No's 2, 5, 6, 9, 12 were average players in fairness

That means there were 10 well above average players. Show me any team in pretty much any sport who doesn't have 3 or 4 "average players". No team is loaded with superstars. We had at least 5.

threeball

Green Peter wrote: »

I think the 98 team would never win in the current game, it's now a 20+ man game, outside of 1 or 2 we had no real subs in 98 and if we had to use them in the last 15 min like Dublin do we would have been exposed badly, don't get me wrong they were a great bunch but alot went their way. 2001 though gave them great credibility!

Who knows what that team training with today's methods, benefitting from today's nutrition etc would look like. Could be twice the team we saw in 98, could be missing 5 lads who couldn't be bothered with eating weights and kale.
It's pointless to compare a team from nearly 20yrs ago. May as well say that the 3 in a row team wouldn't stand a chance against the 98 team.

Utopia Parkway

Robson99 wrote: »

No's 2, 5, 6, 9, 12 were average players in fairness

You can afford to carry a few average players if the rest are verging from very good to absolutely top class. And that Galway side had plenty of the latter.

Topcat32

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

I'd say T. Meehan, R. Silke, J. Divilly, S. O'Domhnall were fairly average players. You could potentially add Shay Walsh to that list.

Fahey, Mannion, De Paor, Walsh, Fallon, Donnellan, Savage, Joyce, Finnegan were all exceptionally talented players. Paul Clancy and Declan Meehan on the bench were also class players and would go on to prove so in 00 and 01.

In any case, it's not fair to compare the current Galway team with an AI winning team. If you compared them against a Galway team that played during the league in 1998, the current team would fare better (players like robin doyle, Damien Mitchell, fergal Gavin featured in that league campaign, good players but didn't really get going at intercounty).

Thomas Meehan an average player? You dont have anybody of his calibre today

Topcat32

Topcat32 wrote: »

Thomas Meehan an average player? You dont have anybody of his calibre today

Except maybe Michael if he comes back

Utopia Parkway

Green Peter wrote: »

I think the 98 team would never win in the current game, it's now a 20+ man game, outside of 1 or 2 we had no real subs in 98 and if we had to use them in the last 15 min like Dublin do we would have been exposed badly, don't get me wrong they were a great bunch but alot went their way. 2001 though gave them great credibility!

It was a different time though. Subs were mainly only used when there was an injury. There was never the same emphasis, as there is now, on having 5 or 6 lads ready to come on for the last 15/20 minutes of the game. Squads were not really used to their full extent back then. Most of the lads on the panel were there to provide opposition in training. Teams won and lost with their 15 starting players and maybe the one sub who would be used.

casscass4444

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

You can afford to carry a few average players if the rest are verging from very good to absolutely top class. And that Galway side had plenty of the latter.

Totally agree with you.theres no way you could pick 10 cracking and most importantly consistent players from today's panel unfortunately.and with 16 years development in physiotherapy,nutrition, and all other resources available to today's players which weren't available back then you would expect better results from today's panel.

TCDStudent1

Topcat32 wrote: »

Thomas Meehan an average player? You dont have anybody of his calibre today

We dont. But I didnt claim any of today's players were better. Meehan was a very good club footballer. But at county level, he was no more than average.

Green Peter

threeball wrote:

Who knows what that team training with today's methods, benefitting from today's nutrition etc would look like. Could be twice the team we saw in 98, could be missing 5 lads who couldn't be bothered with eating weights and kale. It's pointless to compare a team from nearly 20yrs ago. May as well say that the 3 in a row team wouldn't stand a chance against the 98 team.

You're right!

Robson99

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

We dont. But I didnt claim any of today's players were better. Meehan was a very good club footballer. But at county level, he was no more than average.

Exactly

Utopia Parkway

Seems like Comer will miss the rest of the league. Broken bone in foot. Big blow to promotion hopes.

threeball

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Seems like Comer will miss the rest of the league. Broken bone in foot. Big blow to promotion hopes.

Disaster. Hopefully Meehan can give us 25 to 30 mins a game to take up some of the slack. We need some physique in the ff line.

TCDStudent1

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Seems like Comer will miss the rest of the league. Broken bone in foot. Big blow to promotion hopes.

He's a huge loss. Badly missed v Meath. Huge opportunity for Barry McHugh to step up now though.

CloughCasey1

Can Michael Donnellan work his magic for Mountbellew/Moylough in senior like he did for Moycullen in intermediate?

h2005

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

Can Michael Donnellan work his magic for Mountbellew/Moylough in senior like he did for Moycullen in intermediate?

I'd say he underachieved with that team.

CloughCasey1

h2005 wrote: »

I'd say he underachieved with that team.

This year will tell that with both teams i guess.

CloughCasey1

Whats yer opinions on Senior and Intermediate champions this yr? Are Corofin an upstoppable train?

Pitiful half here.

After creating 5 goal chances in the first 15 mins we had a meagre 1-3 on the board.

Derry start to win our toothless kick outs and its Derry by 3.

Some awful wides and McDaid dropped two into the goalies hands.

Absolutely embarrassing to see our six backs standing static and balls kicked out beyond the 45.

We have good players but we're just so poorly coached... in fact we're not coached.
A D1 side would have been 15 up after 15mins.

McHugh misses a goal chance and the resulting penalty.

Wouldn't beat a high D4 team playing like this.

Another Derry goal.

More likely to get relegated lads.

Flynn goals to add some respectability to the scoreline.

Thats about 7/8 goal chances yet we were trailing by 6.

I think their second goal was illegitimate too. Hand passed across the square and a collision on the line, looked like nobody touched it and it entered the net... ref enquired but the umpire was so quick with the flag he obviously never considered the scenario.

Derry are utter garbage, but like every team we've played so far, they're better organised and more clinical.

Brannigan alone has kicked three awful wides.

Penalty miss was tame as well, low, central and weak.

mickmackey1

^^Game of two halves seemingly :pac: