Galway GAA discussion thread

Diabhal Beag

The Qualifier Curse continues. Nobody can throw away a lead like our footballers.

leonidas83

RealityCheck wrote: »

Bunch of wasters. 1 point defeat.

Bit harsh, Antrim is always a tough place to go to especially in the qualifiers and Galway only lost at the death by one score

Lapin

Sickener, but it sounds like Antrim deserved it.

Best of luck to them.

RealityCheck

leonidas83 wrote: »

Bit harsh, Antrim is always a tough place to go to especially in the qualifiers and Galway only lost at the death by one score

Thats the point they always lose in the Qualifiers by one point. Surely at this stage its no fluke. Fair play to Antrim. Galway are simply poor but they have an unbelievable ability to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory, as per usual.

Diabhal Beag

Fair play to Antrim though. They deserved it more and showed fight to pull away in injury time. Something this Galway team hasn't shown in a long time.

c_man

Fu(ks sake

MfMan

Terrible. Unfit, inadequate, semi-injured players can't keep being selected. Something approaching tactical plans must be implemented (ask A. Cunningham). Club football of an utter dire nature can't continue to be played. Something must change.

Terrible, but not surprising.

Diabhal Beag

It isn't the manager either. It's the psychological bottle mentality of this Galway side. They don't have any hunger whatsoever and peak during the league every year seemingly. Time for a big time clear-out and let's hope to **** the younger players haven't contracted the bottling tendencies.

spiritcrusher

F*ck them anyway. I'm fed up of this pattern. They deserve whatever criticism is levelled at them if only just to give everyone involved a kick in the hole.
No wonder support is gone to pot, following the team year in, year out with no improvement would suck the heart out of anyone.

RealityCheck

Its sickening that despite our record I always though we had hope but looking at it, it was totally predictable.

We're division 3 standard, bottom half of teams.

RealityCheck

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

It isn't the manager either. It's the psychological bottle mentality of this Galway side. They don't have any hunger whatsoever and peak during the league every year seemingly. Time for a big time clear-out and let's hope to **** the younger players haven't contracted the bottling tendencies.

I don't think we've enough younger players to replace them.

RealityCheck

spiritcrusher wrote: »

F*ck them anyway. I'm fed up of this pattern. They deserve whatever criticism is levelled at them if only just to give everyone involved a kick in the hole.
No wonder support is gone to pot, following the team year in, year out with no improvement would suck the heart out of anyone.

It feels like groundhog day. Have we not been doing that for the last 3/4 years? No change.

ShamoBuc

Bit of a shock losing to antrim, although it sounded like they deserved it. You'd wonder given the quality of some of the galway footballers, how they could't get passed antrim. While antrim are far from useless, galway really shouldn't be losing to them.

Samich

Is that one championship win in 2 years?

RealityCheck

ShamoBuc wrote: »

Bit of a shock losing to antrim, although it sounded like they deserved it. You'd wonder given the quality of some of the galway footballers, how they could't get passed antrim. While antrim are far from useless, galway really shouldn't be losing to them.

Can you name them?

The only ones I can think of are Meehan and Joyce, who aren't even fully fit.

Samich

RealityCheck wrote: »

Can you name them?

The only ones I can think of are Meehan and Joyce, who aren't even fully fit.

I think when a team is relying on a fella who has a large grey patch on his head you're not going to do much..

spiritcrusher

RealityCheck wrote: »

It feels like groundhog day. Have we not been doing that for the last 3/4 years? No change.

You're right, and that makes it even worse. Someone just text into Galway Bay saying Galway football is a disgrace, usually I wouldn't be too hasty in saying stuff like that but they're right. It's an absolute disgrace that nothing significant has changed in the last few years.
And its at every level too. The vast, vast majority of club matches are embarrassing to watch, I've consistently seen some of the worst football you could dream of but that seems to get swept under rug and ignored. Until that's sorted I don't see how we can even begin to try and compete at inter-county again.

ShamoBuc

RealityCheck wrote: »

Can you name them?

The only ones I can think of are Meehan and Joyce, who aren't even fully fit.

I mean the general level of player they have. Galway have a few players that stick out, Meehan Joyce in particular, but I think the rest of the team have players that are a step up from the antrim fellas and therefore shouldn't really be losing to them.
Obviously those 2 not being fully fit would have hampered them somewhat, but shouldn't be the reason for the loss.

RealityCheck

ShamoBuc wrote: »

I mean the general level of player they have. Galway have a few players that stick out, Meehan Joyce in particular, but I think the rest of the team have players that are a step up from the antrim fellas and therefore shouldn't really be losing to them.
Obviously those 2 not being fully fit would have hampered them somewhat, but shouldn't be the reason for the loss.

When I say not fully fit, I don't mean on the day I mean in general. Meehan is lucky to be playing at all, while Joyce is getting old and continuously has niggling injuries these days.

The rest of players are mediocre at best. Maybe Bradshaw and Hanley can be better at times. Antrim aren't that bad. The gap isn't that big, if there even is one.

DB10

ShamoBuc wrote: »

Bit of a shock losing to antrim, although it sounded like they deserved it. You'd wonder given the quality of some of the galway footballers, how they could't get passed antrim. While antrim are far from useless, galway really shouldn't be losing to them.

TBH this result is no surprise to me . Antrim are a very dangerous outfit, they never get any headlines or television coverage, so there one of those sides that cant be underestimated.

They are always written off, but they are actually a fairly decent side. Galway dont seem to suit the qualifiers. In saying that yous won an U21 All Ireland last year, the talent is there. Something must change there.

Submara

What can you say about this latest debacle?

Are we really this bad or cursed?

We had a decent Div 2 campaign and came close to promotion back to Div 1. We had a decent win against Roscommon and from the Sligo game onwards we have bombed. Is it the players, management or structures within the county?

There has to be some major reason for all these 1 point defeats in the qualifiers which I've lost count of. Our hurlers have been accused of being spineless, gutless and cowardly but at least they do show odd glimpses of passion and brilliance. Our footballers have produced ten years of consistent crap and the football board have done nothing to cure the ills apart from having a managerial merrygoround.

Mulholland must stay but he needs to do some major surgery to the panel over the winter. I can count at least 15 players who should be culled for good. Something similar to what Cunningham did with the hurling panel.

Overall, these players apart from PJ & MM have shamed the county and defiled the maroon jersey for good.

I do appreciate that the players are amateurs and give their life to training etc. but there is something rotten in Galway football.

2001 All-Ireland Champions
2012 All-Ireland Imposters

ShamoBuc

Do you think a good manager coming in would do the trick, or is the problem with the county board? or a combination of the 2? Or are the players not putting in the effort. The talent is surely there to be getting better results than todays.

O.A.P

Im dissapointed but not very surprized. I really thought we were on the way back up after the Roscommon game but Sligo clared that notion from my head.

We are as far down the pecking order now as I can ever remember and thats no disrespect to Antrim they can only beat whats put in front of them. Well done to them and good luck for the rest of the championship.

I wonder will P Joyce hang the boots up after this he certainly owes Galway football nothing after what 14 or 15 years.

spiralism

O.A.P wrote: »

I wonder will P Joyce hang the boots up after this he certainly owes Galway football nothing after what 14 or 15 years.

It's a long climb back to relevance for ye, he owes ye nothing and certainly shouldnt feel obliged to have his career fade out on very average galway teams.

Diabhal Beag

Joyce is a such a dedicated man that it wouldn't surprise me if he stayed on another season but I would hope he'd hang up his boots. He doesn't deserve to be lumped in with such lowly performers. Bergin is probably going too. I'd like to start fresh next season and just have a bigger emphasis on youth and let them gel together for a season.

I don't think any manager could get rid of this sluggish championship mentality and it's a problem the players have to recover from themselves. Otherwise what's the point in putting in so much time into a team that could lose to anybody in the country? We've seen it in a few managers now and now is not the time to change. It's a poisoned chalice of a task to drag this bunch from atrocious to mid-level side, nevermind back to former glories.

Regardless of who is in charge next term they have the biggest uphill struggle in the country.

ShamoBuc

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Regardless of who is in charge next term they have the biggest uphill struggle in the country.

KK footballers might disagree with you:pac:

RealityCheck

You could begin to make the argument that we're the worst team in Connacht at this stage, Leitrim having just beat Wicklow.

In terms of how things lie. We have three problems.

1. Youth and Development: I know people will point to the Minor All Ireland of 2007 and the U21's of 2005 and 2011 as evidence that we are producing fine players. But if you look at it another way, most of those wins were surrounded by years where our minor teams and U21 teams were atrocious, for example we went 5 years without winning one U21 game. When we do produce All Ireland winning teams, we rarely have 2/3 standout players, just good teams with players with only limited county potential. The board need to leave and introduce new people to the higher echelons of Galway football to change things up a bit. The current board have presided over a shocking slide in Galways fortunes.

2. Management. The biggest failing of management has been their inability to develop systems capable of getting the best out of our players. Mullholland has failed pretty much. His system is far too simple and naive and it doesn't take a tactical mastermind to stifle us. On the other hand what attack do we have, or defence or midfield for that matter. I'm not for one minute calling for his head, I just feel things could have been better organised.

3. Mentality. Galway teams have become renowned as being passionless and flaky. An easy team to roll over once you get a roll at them.

Where to go from here, I've no idea. I'm sure there are plenty of other issues, but those are a few that come to mind.

Syferus

I'm shocked Galway have proved this poor. Antrim are a team we beat at a canter and trying to piece together Roscommon and Galway's five championship games this year feels like trying to put together a jigsaw made of abstract shapes.

Galway have a single championship win in all grades this year, out in one at minor and u21 and 1-2 in senior. For a county that won the u21 title last year and were within two points of the minor final this has to rank high on the list of bad years at the office.

We both have plenty to chew on for next year.

cgpg5

Didn't see game have been away all day but all I can say is that I'm embarrassed by this result. Fair play to Antrim though wish them well. I just have no words for Galway

spiritcrusher

Despite the total failure of a championship this year, arguably our worst year, I'd still leave Mulholland in charge for another year. He clearly failed tactically in the last two matches, I witnessed the team running around like headless chickens against Sligo and it sounded the same today, but I think he's better than that and the managerial revolving door is good for no one.

That being said, the team, managerial team and county board should be spared no criticism this year. I'm really f*cking annoyed at the result. After all the stupid following the team across the country for the last few years hoping for an improvement today feels like serious kick in the balls.