Galway GAA discussion thread

Condenser

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Cillian O'Connor is a little rascal

Rascal doesn't really describe him in fairness.

PCeeeee

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Cillian O'Connor is a little rascal

A right devil. But a master of the wounded facial expression.

Fann Linn

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Good man Cillian. His best performance against Galway in years too.

He's a sly cnut.

PCeeeee

It'll be hot come the summer when these two meet again

PCeeeee

That's 6 points now. We are staying up.

Condenser

rgace wrote: »

He must be the most dislikeable player in the game.

His brother not far behind. Two Nasty, petty characters with not a backbone between them.

JohnnyFlash

Jesus, that was one bad tempered game of big ball. Galway staying in division 1 after 3 games is some going in fairness. Back playing with the big boys.

MfMan

Tom Flynn shouldn't be let near a Galway team.

Utopia Parkway

PCeeeee wrote: »

That's 6 points now. We are staying up.

Should rest Comer especialy for a couple of the league games now. Some amount of work he does and big hits he takes. And delivers.

Doctors room ghost

Hup the tribes 4 from 4

Condenser

If COC spent more time working on not sh1tting his pants when the chips are down and less on conning refs or throwing sly digs he might have an all Ireland.

Diabhal Beag

Happy with that. Our weakness in midfield not being punished so far but think Kerry and Dublin could exploit that.

Comer was excellent. SAOC was good too. Lots of better performers in the second like Conroy and Bradshaw. Fullbacks solid.

Credit to the lads and mgmt. Wouldn't gave expected 3/3 in division 1. Hopefully they can push on when it matters in the summer.

Borders no.2

3 from 3 is better than anyone could have hoped for really. After the way the championship ended last year there was a real fear that Galway could be humiliated in Division 1.

To be honest though until the debacle in the last 10 minutes or so it was a fairly non-descript game. There were a few of the Galway lads who got needlessly involved near the end and it's a pity that will take away a bit from Galway controlling the game comfortably enough.

Cillian O'Connor let himself down at the end and Diarmaid O'Connor to me was a straight red too. On the flip side Conroy brainlessly got himself sent off and while he had a good game today I'd question the temperament of him and some of our other players when the chips are down.

Looking at it from a Mayo viewpoint I don't really see where the next wave of talent is coming from. There was a number of players playing today who aren't good enough or have been tried and failed in the past.

Mayo though will be a different team in the championship and are going to throw everything at the Connacht quarter final. I still fancy them to win that.

jam83

Delighted with the win. The way the fixtures fell allowed Galway to target a few wins and build confidence but the hard part was getting the wins.

Defence today was very good. We look organised back there. It's not nice to see 26 lads in our half when we are defending but we transition brilliantly from defence to attack. It's fast and direct and easy on the eye. Mayo were slow and laboured but maybe they are behind Galway fitness wise.
Our lack of a kickout plan is a joke. It's unbelievable. No corner backs making any runs, I saw only one such run all day. Every kickout to static midfielders. No midfielders making dummy runs or running to the sidelines for a kickout.
How in the name of God is this continuing? Galway won't become a top 3/4 team until that's fixed. It's not the goalies fault at all. It's Kevin Walsh's. Jesus it's just unbelievable.
Credit to the team, how they can win games with lower possession rates than the other team is a credit to the lads.

PCeeeee

The kick out thing is beyond bizarre now. I would like to hear KW asked what the plan is.

And we started conceding Mayos kickouts 10mins into the second half.

Its stopping us from breaking into that top 4.

Least this is likely his last year either way but its so frustrating to see us just thumping all but one kickout to a contest.

Hulk Hands

McHugh has a set of stones on him, going for goal from that position with the handy point on. It's a pity he's not a bit quicker. Still though, he knows where the posts are. Might deserve a run.

Diarmuid O'Connors hit was even filthier than his brother I thought. Trying to finish the job his bro started on Kerin. Fair play to Kerin for getting up from both so quickly. He's become a good tough corner back. Other positives include SA, Conroy's ability to score and looking solid at the back. Kickout continue to frustrate

TCDStudent1

Hulk Hands wrote: »

McHugh has a set of stones on him, going for goal from that position with the handy point on. It's a pity he's not a bit quicker. Still though, he knows where the posts are. Might deserve a run.

Diarmuid O'Connors hit was even filthier than his brother I thought. Trying to finish the job his bro started on Kerin. Fair play to Kerin for getting up from both so quickly. He's become a good tough corner back. Other positives include SA, Conroy's ability to score and looking solid at the back. Kickout continue to frustrate

By summer, Ian Burke will have taken the Varley / McHugh position. Michael Daly will take Patrick Sweeney's place.

Armstrong will be used as an impact sub this year.

Hulk Hands

Agree, Burke and Daly have to be starters. Think McHugh should keep his place over Sweeney in the next couple of league games though

TCDStudent1

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Agree, Burke and Daly have to be starters. Think McHugh should keep his place over Sweeney in the next couple of league games though

Cant see McHugh being dropped after today. He might be one of the players starting in FBD final as well to give him a further chance to cement his place the next day. The only potential change I could see v Kerry is Varley starting ahead of Sweeney but I doubt that will happen. My guess is we se ethe same 15 that started today.

TCDStudent1

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Should rest Comer especialy for a couple of the league games now. Some amount of work he does and big hits he takes. And delivers.

Definitely wouldn't rest him. Not for Kerry or Dublin anyway. Maybe for the Kildare game if it doesn't mean anything. However, Comer must be itching to test himself against the Kerry's & Dublin's of division 1. It just wouldn't be fair to deny him that.

I wouldnt play him v Roscommon in the FBD final this weekend though. I'll let him have this weekend off!

aidan24326

Early days but there seems to be a defensive solidity to the team now that was missing in previous years. A harder edge that wasn't there before.

It might be only February but these wins will build confidence and at least no-one can accuse Galway of being fancy dans now, there's a much harder edge but also a great transition from defence to attack at pace, something Mayo did not do today (though I wouldn't read too much into today's game, we're still nowhere near Mayo's level in terms of competing at the top level come August, whether we can get there with this group of players remains to be seen).

Bonniedog

PCeeeee wrote: »

The kick out thing is beyond bizarre now. I would like to hear KW asked what the plan is.

As a neutral - although not yesterday - I wonder if Walsh is not pursuing a certain strategy that might later pay dividends.

The new rule on kick outs has radically limited the options on the short ball. Dublin/Donegal saw both goalkeepers forced to revert to old fashioned kick down the middle which I reckon broke about 50:50.

From a Galway perspective, it may not be working too well at present, but if they are concentrating on that then the possibles for that position will improve. Galway certainly have the size and aggression to develop that.

Bonniedog

Bonniedog wrote: »

As a neutral - although not yesterday - I wonder if Walsh is not pursuing a certain strategy that might later pay dividends.

The new rule on kick outs has radically limited the options on the short ball. Dublin/Donegal saw both goalkeepers forced to revert to old fashioned kick down the middle which I reckon broke about 50:50.

From a Galway perspective, it may not be working too well at present, but if they are concentrating on that then the possibles for that position will improve. Galway certainly have the size and aggression to develop that.

Dublin never really kicked it into the corners... not as much as Mayo did anyway.

You don't have to compete for a 50/50 ball if you hit a player running into space out the wing.
At the very most Dublin kick it to a 60:40.

Besides that point KW has adopteda policy... which has been exploited time and again on the big days, of conceding kickouts.

We're one of the only teams who just let teams kick to a free man.

Whether you're up by 1 or 10. You need to press every single kickout as most teams will get a shot at goal from every second possession.

We can't let teams win most of our kick outs while we let them win most of theirs.

It didnt work against Tipp, Kerry, Roscommon etc... we've got away with it early in the year but its being the catalyst for us getting a hiding when games matter most.

Bonniedog

Well you could not afford to concede kickouts to Dublin or Kerry as they will press up and are used to facing mass defence. That is true. So Dublin/Galway in a few weeks will be interesting.

However, I still think that the long ball into midfield will become an increasing feature as the year goes on. But yes, the flaw in my argument is that Galway tend not to press up on opposition so are automatically conceding bulk of possession, as they did yesterday, but speed out of defence and some excellent score taking made up for that.

jam83

Bonniedog wrote: »

Well you could not afford to concede kickouts to Dublin or Kerry as they will press up and are used to facing mass defence. That is true. So Dublin/Galway in a few weeks will be interesting.

However, I still think that the long ball into midfield will become an increasing feature as the year goes on. But yes, the flaw in my argument is that Galway tend not to press up on opposition so are automatically conceding bulk of possession, as they did yesterday, but speed out of defence and some excellent score taking made up for that.

But Galway have been losing their own kickouts for years now. And can't win the breaking ball. The new rule would favour them if they'd perfected the art of winning long kickouts. But Galway are one of the worst in the country at winning their own long kickouts. I honestly can't remember the last time Galway dominated midfield in any game against anyone. The new rule means nothing to Galway because they're just static in midfield waiting for the ball to drop out of the sky, and it's invariably lost. Only 1 mark yesterday i think, and that was from Shane Walsh.
The other thing is Galway can't push up on short kickouts because when mayo had a kickout, Johnny heaney was instructed to run back and stand in front of his full back line. That's before the ball is even kicked out up the other end of the pitch. So Galway can't go man to man for short kickouts because there'll always be an overlap against them. It happened countless times yesterday.
So the priority is blanket defence first, worry about possession second .

grbear

I can't remember the last time I was this unsure about a Galway football teams place in the pecking order. Theres plainly a lot to be positive about and the slow creep up Laoismans football ranking table would suggest that they are steadily improving but how far are they off the top teams? On Sunday they were, by a distance, the better side but even then you'd be going half mad looking at them waste kickouts. If that part of the game was up to snuff then they could have beaten Mayo by ten points and it wouldn't have flattered them. Obviously Mayo hadn't as much work done as Galway had so I'm not saying that if they sort the kickouts they'll wallop Mayo in May but Galway did leave plenty after them on Sunday.

What do people think would constitute a successful year for Galway?
A few weeks ago I think most would have said staying in division one and a respectable showing in the Super Eights. Is that still the case or would it be seen as a failure to not make the league final ( I don't think even the most optimistic Galway fan would give them a hope of winning the league) and an All-Ireland semi-final given the start the team has made?
Personally I think finishing best of the rest behind Kerry and Dublin would still be an excellent league. I'm just curious how much hype is building up around the team.

aidan24326

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

Cant see McHugh being dropped after today. He might be one of the players starting in FBD final as well to give him a further chance to cement his place the next day. The only potential change I could see v Kerry is Varley starting ahead of Sweeney but I doubt that will happen. My guess is we se ethe same 15 that started today.

McHugh deserves to keep his place for now but not sure he will nail down a starting place come championship time, with the likes of Daly and Ian Burke to come back and with the likes of Armstrong there and Cummins and Lundy to come back aswell there is serious competition in the forward line.

He's another good option though and it's a bonus that he's a good freetaker aswell. Armstrong is the best freetaker we have but he isn't guaranteed to be starting, and at the moment we don't have that Joyce/Meehan sort of player who will consistently nail every free.

My idea of a starting forward line come May would be this:

10: Michael Daly (obvious potential but needs to step up now and show what he can do)
11: Shane Walsh (so much talent but his decision making can be quite frustrating, needs to be a bit smarter with his use of the ball).
12: Eamonn Brannigan (has developed into one of our better players, excellent on Sunday).

13: Danny Cummins (assuming he is fit, with his pace him and Burke flanking Comer would be dangerous full forward line)
14: Damien Comer (first name on the team sheet at this stage, I'm pretty sure every manager in the country would like to have him)
15: Ian Burke (ridiculous that it took so long for him to be given a proper chance, oozes natural ability and always good for a couple of scores off either foot).

Good sub options aswell with the likes of Armstrong, Lundy, Varley, McHugh etc.

TCDStudent1

aidan24326 wrote: »

McHugh deserves to keep his place for now but not sure he will nail down a starting place come championship time, with the likes of Daly and Ian Burke to come back and with the likes of Armstrong there and Cummins and Lundy to come back aswell there is serious competition in the forward line.

He's another good option though and it's a bonus that he's a good freetaker aswell. Armstrong is the best freetaker we have but he isn't guaranteed to be starting, and at the moment we don't have that Joyce/Meehan sort of player who will consistently nail every free.

My idea of a starting forward line come May would be this:

10: Michael Daly (obvious potential but needs to step up now and show what he can do)
11: Shane Walsh (so much talent but his decision making can be quite frustrating, needs to be a bit smarter with his use of the ball).
12: Eamonn Brannigan (has developed into one of our better players, excellent on Sunday).

13: Danny Cummins (assuming he is fit, with his pace him and Burke flanking Comer would be dangerous full forward line)
14: Damien Comer (first name on the team sheet at this stage, I'm pretty sure every manager in the country would like to have him)
15: Ian Burke (ridiculous that it took so long for him to be given a proper chance, oozes natural ability and always good for a couple of scores off either foot).

Good sub options aswell with the likes of Armstrong, Lundy, Varley, McHugh etc.

I'd agree with most of what you wrote except Cummins. I dont know what his fitness situation is. However, I don't think he will be starting championship this year (and will be well down the pecking order if he doesnt return soon). I think Johnny Heaney will probably be the 6th forward.

This will be Armstrong's last year I think and his role will be an impact sub - and he is a superb guy to have as an impact sub as we saw v Donegal.

A Mayo supporter beside me last Sunday told me they wouldn't take Comer if they could get him. You would have to wonder about how blind some football fans can be.

grbear

Odd. Judging by the posts in the Mayo thread I think that if you offered them their pick of Galway players then O Ceallaigh would probably pip Comer but it'd be a close thing. Anyone worth listening to certainly rates Comer.