Galway GAA discussion thread

brooke 2

NIMAN wrote: »

Surely this cloak and dagger stuff re: the subject of suicide is not really helping the issue?

I heard the news of his death on the radio that morning, and assumed it was sudden death symdrome. Read a bit more about him, heard more media reports, and read some internet threads and yet I have only just found out, several days later, that he died by suicide. Its like its a dirty word. Surely we are not dishonouring his fine young man by saying he died by suicide? Yet it was not mentioned in anything I had read.

If we brush it under the carpet, afraid to mention it, then we aren't confronting it head on. And we need to in this country. There has definitely been increased media discussion about this problem in recent times, with a lot of well-known people publicly admitting they do or have suffered from depression. This helps, as it makes others now more inclined to speak out and ask for help.

Such a sad case this, a young man with the world at his feet, such a great sportsman and idol to many. But such a shame that he felt he could not seek help for his problems.

May he rest in peace.

Excellent post.

Diabhal Beag

Neeson wrote: »

How did he die? Hanging? Tablets?

Not sure, absolutely none of my business but can only imagine how his father felt.

brooke 2 wrote: »

Why can't you say that it was suicide?

Because it was only just emerging at the time 2 days ago maybe?

brooke 2

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Saw the funeral coverage on the news and it's heartbreaking stuff, especially the Galway panel's guard of honour. God bless his family, friends and team-mates. I hope anybody who can possibly go to Pearse Stadium tomorrow does so as a sign of support, regardless of your interest levels in hurling. I know a lot of people feel it should be postponed longer but I believe both teams wanted to go ahead (unaware of the minor teams stance but they're playing) and credit to them.

I know there's a big discussion needed to be had on men's mental health in general at the moment and I completely understand those who feel that not mentioning the circumstances of his death is not helping remove the stigma. But there's another side to this. I can't speak for anybody else but in my life I've been touched by suicide previously and those initial days are numbing. It's an absolute compounding of emotions and feeling that you should have seen signs, which can be undetectable. We all know how he died and I believe the way the media and big names have gone about this has been the most respectful way of reporting/honouring him. Most times somebody has spoken in public about it they've alluded to circumstances but have also made sure to give details for relevant help. Gary Speed comes to mind also and his death has had a big impact on the greater public's perception of depression. This won't be forgotten soon, especially when you read the beautiful tributes painted of Niall. There's a hard slog of Winter training which is really going to be hard for the lads and from all accounts they've lost a great guy.

Saw Niall's funeral on the news this evening. Thought his cousin,
Neil, gave a wonderful homily. Among other things, he referred to
Niall's honesty.

deisedude

What time is minor game starting? Likely to be a close game?

Gerry91

deisedude wrote: »

What time is minor game starting? Likely to be a close game?

Minor is always hard to predict on big days but Turlough won it last year with relatively same team so I'd be amazed if they didn't win it again

EDIT- sorry no clue of time btw!

Mountainlad

Minor game starts at 1pm, Senior game is 2.45pm.

robman60

Does anyone know if there's any live stream or continuous update on the minor game?

windy shepard henderson

robman60 wrote: »

Does anyone know if there's any live stream or continuous update on the minor game?

https://twitter.com/turloughmorehc there doing score by score updates dont know about any streams though

Gerry91

Massive upset on the cards here in the minor. Mellows were 7/2 or something! As they say goals win matches

Sounded incredibly scrappy judging by radio commentary but that's understandable given the conditions

Fair play to them if they hold on. It's true minor can be extremely unpredictable

Gerry91

Gee sounded some finish

Have to feel for Mellows, ref seemed to play for the draw what's new! Time up after they got goal to bring it back to one

May aswell present trophy to Turlough now you'd imagine but you'd never know I guess

robman60

Refs playing for draws, nothing new there. Going on the commentary the referee seemed average at best.

Any live stream of the senior final? I still can't believe TG4 aren't showing it live. Tá díoma orm, TG4.

twirlagig

Any live stream anyone?

Stroke Politics

Galway Bay FM are streaming it, sounds like a decent match so far. Port 2:4, L'rea 0:05. Goals from Canning and Andy Smyth....

Stroke Politics

Port 3:12 L'rea 0:14 final score. I'm keeping St Patrick's Day 2014 in my dairy free....

Gerry91

Stroke Politics wrote: »

Port 3:12 L'rea 0:14 final score. I'm keeping St Patrick's Day 2014 in my dairy free....

Is it Munster winner in semi?

Tough to see anyone stopping Port from here alright

Diabhal Beag

Andy Smith scored two superb points from tough angles. Good game but Portumna had far too much in the tank for Loughrea to beat them with their long balls into O'Loughlin and Maher.

Goal of the season in the minor too at the end.

Borders no.2

Fair play to Portumna. Takes a fair team to come back when their best days are past them. However, I'll be surprised if they go on to claim All-Ireland honours. I have watched them a good bit this year and I think that the strong teams can get goals against them. I think Loughrea played right into their hands today, driving the ball in on top of an over the hill Johnny Maher who was getting no joy or had no-one around him to break ball to. I think there are a lot of old legs on the Portumna side which will be found out if teams exploit the space.

Having said that experience counts for a lot and there aren't too many teams who will have Portumna quaking in their boots.

MfMan

Fairish county final. First half quite even with Loughrea, playing with the wind, having to work a bit to answer Port's 2 goals. In fairness, all their 6 forwards scored from play in this half. Second half, the winners much better and strangled out the game by taking their chances against a side that faded a lot and didn't seem tactically aware of what was needed to be done. Andy Smith MOTM with good help by his defence and Ollie Canning who must have the deftest pair of hands on a Galway hurler since Joe Cooney. At least the match was played in a fairly good spirit and free from the rancour that overshadowed some earlier finals.

deisedude

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Andy Smith scored two superb points from tough angles. Good game but Portumna had far too much in the tank for Loughrea to beat them with their long balls into O'Loughlin and Maher.

Goal of the season in the minor too at the end.

Andy Smith was best player on the pitch. Portumna are a pale shadow of what they were, that said it seems wide open for the AI this year and wouldn't be surprised to see them win it out. I don't know what Portumna were doing playing Joe Canning midfield, he looked completely at sea there

Absolute cracker of a goal in the minor

Diabhal Beag

It really was as clean a final as you could have alright. Even Maher was fairly well behaved bar a wild pull. The minute's silence was about a respectful as you could get with the exception of a few fools.

Toplink

Decent game.

It was good as over very early in second half though as a few wides from Loughrea ended any chance they had of catching Portumna.

Andy Smith was scored 2 lovely points. Canning had a decent game, nothing outstanding but did his fair share.

Decided to head out today, for what was my 1st county final. Bit surprising really as they're always in Salthill and I'm only in Claddagh.

Absolutely massive crowd there, surely there isn't always that many?. I expected about the same as the Mitchells/Breaffy match the day before, about a 1/3 to 1/2 of the stand full and nobody around the pitch.
The stand was near enough full and there was a fair few on the opposite terrace.

I see RTE are saying it was 8,800, the capacity is listed as 26,000... stadium seemed a lot closer to 12,000 full to me.

Wonder how many the lack of TV coverage brought in?.

Obviously the goals killed Loughrea coupled with the 3 missed free at the start of the second half,
Canning should never have been given the option to shoot that early one, if you can put 15 behind the ball as Clare did recently, then why would you leave it at 5 against a lad who has a reputation for burying them coupled with a tendency to chance it(regardless of score).... put everyone there and make him want to tap it over.

The second goal was some what fortunate and I'm not even sure if he was going for it such was the angle and the fact he had team mates pointing for him to put it over. Was probably a low shot for a point(knowing if its too low the goalie would have to help it over anyway).

Canning was fairly poor on the frees again, started with a difficult one from 25 out near the side line which he slotted over. But then missed two free's from somewhat central positions further out. He's not the machine he once was from placed balls, a miss from any angle was a rarity a few years back.
Cunningham needs to be prepared to pull him off them next year if needs be, I think if it happened early against Clare we may not have exited.

Portumna backs played well, but their goalie does not give any confidence at all. Extremely weak under a high ball, it's definitely something that will be exposed if he's there number 1(Ivan Canning retired/injured?) as in the few times he had to become involved he didn't look confident(was blocked down in the 1st, and in the second in basically the first time the ball came in that far he came out to bat it.... would remind you of a lad in minor who's more an outfield player)

The penalty summed the day up for Loughrea, blasted over the bar without any help from the Portumna lads.
Don't think forward play is Coen's strong point... he had a fairly poor miss in the first half aswell after a nice run to find some space and steady himself.

Gerry91

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Don't think forward play is Coen's strong point... he had a fairly poor miss in the first half aswell after a nice run to find some space and steady himself.

In fairness, he was always a forward up until minor 2009 with county

Didn't watch today-listened on GBFM- but he had a great champ at CF in fairness, granted I'd prefer him in the backs for county but for club he can be dangerous nearer the opposition goal, similar to Ollie Canning and Damien Joyce over the years.

Himself, Hoban and Keary have been a revelation all champ in the HF line

Then again, they didn't play all that much no disrespect to Beagh who didn't turn up in the semi and Pearses, Craughwell (with a few injuries) et al.

I actually think that could have cost them in a way, Portumna had a much tougher path, St Thomas x3, a sticky Ardrahan and the Bridge

Gerry91

Gerry91 wrote: »

In fairness, he was always a forward up until minor 2009 with county

Didn't watch today-listened on GBFM- but he had a great champ at CF in fairness, granted I'd prefer him in the backs for county but for club he can be dangerous nearer the opposition goal, similar to Ollie Canning and Damien Joyce over the years.

Himself, Hoban and Keary have been a revelation all champ in the HF line

Then again, they didn't play all that much no disrespect to Beagh who didn't turn up in the semi and Pearses, Craughwell (with a few injuries) et al.

I actually think that could have cost them in a way, Portumna had a much tougher path, St Thomas x3, a sticky Ardrahan and the Bridge

It's something he could work on, it's a hell of a lot easier to improve the accuracy then trying to improve the nack of getting the ball to begin with.
Accuracy can be improved, the ability to find the ball and win it can't.

I understand aswell, they're not exactly inundated with county material players, especially in the forwards so it's worth playing him there.

Ollie had a great game, he's like the Padraig Joyce of Galway hurling. Extremely composed in possession and rarely does anything silly.
Not sure did he manage to score today but he's always looking for the lad in space and plays the game like no other... such a shame that he retired so long ago, reckon he could have done a Anthony Rainbow on it and played county for another while.
We probably would have got over the line last year aswell.

jaysusREF

Gerry91 wrote: »

Is it Munster winner in semi?

Tough to see anyone stopping Port from here alright

Any side facing Portumna will know that they have a game on their hands. But having said that, the teams still in Munster include Na Piarsaigh of Limerick and Sars or Midleton from Cork while the other side of the draw has Clara, Kilcormac-Killoughey, Oulart, in Leinster as well as Loughgiel from Antrim. All of those teams will have AI as well as provincial ambitions and would be written off at your peril. Kilcormac-Killoughey were beaten finalists last year while Loughgiel were AI champions the previous year.

loveBBhate

I apologise if this post comes across as anyway inappropriate, unnecessary or upsets anyone as I understand the situation in question is a very sensitive one but; given the sad news recently regarding Niall Donoghue, does anyone think the situation might resolve the unnecessary rivalry between players in the county dressing room? At the end of last season, this was the main topic of conversation, players showing immaturity, Portumna lads not getting on with the Thomas' lads, etc... Will all that has happened, might they realise what's important in life and get over these silly spats and put their club differences aside to hurl for the county as a team? What effect will it have on the dressing room in that? I don't know if I've worded this right but hopefully ye get the idea...

Red Pepper

loveBBhate wrote: »

I apologise if this post comes across as anyway inappropriate, unnecessary or upsets anyone as I understand the situation in question is a very sensitive one but; given the sad news recently regarding Niall Donoghue, does anyone think the situation might resolve the unnecessary rivalry between players in the county dressing room? At the end of last season, this was the main topic of conversation, players showing immaturity, Portumna lads not getting on with the Thomas' lads, etc... Will all that has happened, might they realise what's important in life and get over these silly spats and put their club differences aside to hurl for the county as a team? What effect will it have on the dressing room in that? I don't know if I've worded this right but hopefully ye get the idea...

I think a lot of people are thinking that. Hard to know. Wounds run deep in the clubs of Galway.

windy shepard henderson

Red Pepper wrote: »

I think a lot of people are thinking that. Hard to know. Wounds run deep in the clubs of Galway.

loveBBhate wrote: »

I apologise if this post comes across as anyway inappropriate, unnecessary or upsets anyone as I understand the situation in question is a very sensitive one but; given the sad news recently regarding Niall Donoghue, does anyone think the situation might resolve the unnecessary rivalry between players in the county dressing room? At the end of last season, this was the main topic of conversation, players showing immaturity, Portumna lads not getting on with the Thomas' lads, etc... Will all that has happened, might they realise what's important in life and get over these silly spats and put their club differences aside to hurl for the county as a team? What effect will it have on the dressing room in that? I don't know if I've worded this right but hopefully ye get the idea...

it should'nt take the death of a young man to sort out club rivalries ,

here in clare our football scene has gone to pot in the last 10 years all because of 3 or 4 clubs that dislike each other
it got so bad at inter county level that some players refused to pass the ball to team mates from other clubs, yet at the same time our club sceane was flourishing with different teams getting to munster club finals and one team geting to an all ireland club final, and yet we could'nt finish any higher then mid table in division 4

the amalgamation of some rival clubs at underage level has thankfully helped out but common sense is all thats needed and not these stupid old fashioned crap handed down from father to son to hate the other team

common sense is all that's needed in galway, for niall's family they have to cope with his loss for the rest of there lives athenrey v gort or portumna v loughrea may be big games but its not life or death and should'nt take a death to solve it

loveBBhate

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

it should'nt take the death of a young man to sort out club rivalries ,

here in clare our football scene has gone to pot in the last 10 years all because of 3 or 4 clubs that dislike each other
it got so bad at inter county level that some players refused to pass the ball to team mates from other clubs, yet at the same time our club sceane was flourishing with different teams getting to munster club finals and one team geting to an all ireland club final, and yet we could'nt finish any higher then mid table in division 4

the amalgamation of some rival clubs at underage level has thankfully helped out but common sense is all thats needed and not these stupid old fashioned crap handed down from father to son to hate the other team

common sense is all that's needed in galway, for niall's family they have to cope with his loss for the rest of there lives athenrey v gort or portumna v loughrea may be big games but its not life or death and should'nt take a death to solve it

You're right there, it SHOULDN'T, but it might. Of course it shouldn't take the death of a young man to make them change their ways, but immaturely, they haven't up until now which is why I asked the question. A viable question surely?

windy shepard henderson

loveBBhate wrote: »

You're right there, it SHOULDN'T, but it might. Of course it shouldn't take the death of a young man to make them change their ways, but immaturely, they haven't up until now which is why I asked the question. A viable question surely?

you were right to ask the qustion!! for sure!! but i am sure there are people that think differently from what your saying because there too stubborn or whatever,and willing to post it, just trying to shoot the down before they get the chance