Galway GAA Discussion Thread #2

Happyilylost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119217642#Comment_119217642

Can't agree with Concannon being dropped either. While his form is poor he's shown enough long enough and consistently enough to be given a "play yourself back into form" ticket. Glennon adds legs which hopefully can help counter the Cork running game.

I didn't come much after the Kilkenny game but if our backs are as solid as that game we will have given ourself a great platform to be competitive and if somehow are forwards do click we might have a punchers chance.

Probably to many ifs and buts.

Horgan always plays well against Daithí.

I'm talking myself out of this.

washman3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119214169#Comment_119214169

When Peter Casey got the all-clear to play in last year's final it was the consensus of many posters that it was J.P.'s money that got it sorted. Can we now say that in Fahy's case it's Pat McDonagh loosening the purse-strings. And when Fahy was cleared there was simply no other option but to do likewise for the Banner duo.!! 😂😂

I know we're winning but this is brutal stuff.

Had one score after 15mins leaving the goal, Whelan's 1-1 and JCooneys point were worldies we can't work any easy scores.

Awful ball into the Cork half often hit to nobody.

Getting cleaned out on puck outs again, I think we won one long puck out and I wouldn't consider Cork a good ball winning team.

Cork have left at least 12 behind and that's allowing for some wides. Thank God they left Horgan out.

Conor Cooney again with another steller half from play and frees, missed a Junior C free, gets booked, risked another booking and has done nothing... Think he'd pull him as quick as he did Fahy.

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119214207#Comment_119214207

If so, I was a silly decision to use it to free up this player on this occasion. Firstly he was completely wrong in what he did and secondly he's not even contributing to the team.

ShamNNspace

One of them must have knocked over the microphone over on Gbfm

spurshero

Rode our luck today but plenty of times it’s gone against us . A shot at limerick now with nothing to lose . Surely leave whelan as close to goal as possible didn’t seem to make much sense bringing him out today . Like other posters I think there’s a case for trying somebody else on frees but that wilL hardly change at this stage . I thought Niland should have took the last one today that Cooney missed otherwise why bring him on .Hopefully todays game brings us on a lot. It will need to for us to have a chance .

Happyilylost

Strange game. Wouldn't normally say this when Galway win but I didn't think they deserved to win. Great grit. But technically poor.

Grealish, Morrissey excellent. Daithí had a couple of scary slips but had some big moments too. Cork reminded me of Galway in the Leinster Final. Cut us open with ease but converted nothing and then the chances dried up (thankfully)

Half back line was ok. Hopefully GMac is OK. Thought David Burke had a great game and good to see Cathal Mannion back to some sort of form. Joseph Cooney scored a monster and was steady when moved back to the half back line.

After that what can you say. Forwards just aren't at the races. The amount of dropped ball when in possession is criminal. Firing different combinations but nothing is working. Poor decision making.

Mention for two:

Conor Whelan is am absolute warrior and is carrying an entire forward line. At times he had three Cork lads around him which shows the disregard they had for out other forwards. If any forward steps up they'll make hay with the amount of attention Whelan gets.

Eanna Murphy. Always felt he was a great keeper. Rarely makes a mistake under the high ball (after the performances of other goalies today this can't be underestimated). He's made his mistakes but he's very young and this is unavoidable. Great saves today and when had the chance to find people for puckouts he was on the money. Hopefully he pushes on from here.

Nobody will give us a chance against Limerick and on form that's not wrong. But.

Limerick suit us better than most. It's fire and brimstone power. Defensively we are going ok. Daithí usually does ok against Gillane. If Cian Lynch plays I expect Morrissey to be standing beside him. Then try and match up the rest. Pick for Hegarty probably the most important.

If forwards don't improve its a mute point. On current form they'll eat us alive. But there is hurling in them.

Seemed to be very few Galway fans in Thurles. Apathy is normally reserved for the footballers. Hopefully they come back for the semi final.

Cluedo Monopoly

The best team lost but that's hurling for you. Cork could have had a sizeable lead in the first half if they hadn't let in the soft goal and took their scores/frees. Leaving Horgan on the bench was a crazy decision. I cant understand why they took Whelan away from full forward line but we did enough to steady the ship whenever Cork got momentum. Just about.

The underdog tag will suit us for the semi but I see a Limerick v Clare final.

MfMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119221719#Comment_119221719

If a couple of other forwards played up to scratch we would have beaten Cork in Thurles in '08. If Cloonan was available for '05 final, we might have won it. 'If' is a huge word.

Cork never led and, for all the talk of their dominance, they made bad calls on the sideline and too many of their players didn't play up to form. How many times are people going to say of them "they were the better team but.." ? Horgan was dropped for a good reason. Removing him against Waterford changed things around in that game.

Our forwards were mainly drek today, but they were in good form all through the round-robin series - who's to say they can't recapture that vein of form?

FintanMcluskey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119221944#Comment_119221944

Horgan was dropped for a good reason.

100%

Horgan was dropped for a reason. Likely related to the fact he's a lot of mileage on the clock.

I think Galway still have a physical presence that only Limerick better.

Galways back line and midfield can match Limerick, unfortunately the forwards can't

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119221975#Comment_119221975

I'm not sure if this superior physicality thing is true. Certainly was in 16, 17 and even 18 but I can't remember us dominating any team physically this year and certainly didn't dominate Cork who are on the lighter end of the spectrum. Apart from the Daithi shoulder we were bullied off the ball all day.

Limerick will devour us if we bring that level of intensity to our challenges and even our running. Too often we were caught jogging out to broken ball only to be overtaken by a Cork player.

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119222159#Comment_119222159

Threeball u need to start following a new sport your gone as bad now that your even criticising there running. I prefer galway to be in a semi final then sitting at home

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119222270#Comment_119222270

Well if you want to ignore the blatantly obvious thats up to yourself. I'll call it as it is. Just because we squeezed by a poor Cork team who missed a games worth of scores there's no point putting the blinkers on and pretending all is well.

PeggyShippen

Joyce centre back for Cork is some yoke. He came out with ball after ball. They ran through Galway like water in that first half but in fairness to Galway they sorted that issue out abit. Totally different match v Limerick. Galway will have to be alot better. Hegarty and Gillane would have burst a hole in the back of the net if they got those goal chances Cork got in the first 20mins.

In saying all that Limerick might be rusty after the 4 week break and Galway will come on again but by God they ll to improve the help for Whelan because casey and finn won't be letting him turn and run in the semi. Grealish was very good and Galway know the ins and outs of Croker but yesterday was a game to just get over and they did.

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119222286#Comment_119222286

I support the team and all there misgivings, whereas your looking for reasons to criticise them. They are not the finished article and are short a couple of forwards but I'm not going to waste any time criticism them because they are trying there best. In 01,05,15 we went into semi finals against superior opposition and came out on top and who's to say it can't happen again

Happyilylost

Fantastic game of hurling in this minor game.

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119223198#Comment_119223198

Good game. Conceding the short puck out is hurting us. It's not even the full back free alot of the time, it's the centre back.

Happyilylost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119223266#Comment_119223266

Niland and Burke some prospects but ya giving Tipp some soft ball. This half time is going on forever!

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119223300#Comment_119223300

It's a long wait when nothings happening.

Burke actually more impressive than Niland today. Bringing him back to take on frees on our own 45 isn't helping.

Shouldn't really be losing a game where you take the lead deep into injury time(maybe being brought to ET is as bad as you'd hope from that position), but they made too many mistakes so that was the consequence.

Number 7 gave an awful pass into the CB area for Tipps second goal that was poorly executed, and never on, as the receiving player had a Tipp forward closing him down and he turned him over (as was the obvious risk) and it ended up costing a goal.

Number 3 rushed a bad clearance that was blocked to a Tipp player and pointed and then in injury time the number 5 ran himself into three Tipp players and was turned over when you could see the run was never on.

They just had too many of those sort of incidents in the second half.

However it's not important how you win or lose at this level, it's the manner of the individual performances.

We saw recently how little all those minor titles amounted for with next to no return off any of the teams.

I was looking back over some of the minor titles recently and looked at the 2013 Limerick Hawk Eye controversy game(where the Limerick point was given as a wide as it was set up for the football).

C Ryan; S Finn, R English, M Casey; A La Touche Cosgrave, R Lynch (0-03, 2f, 1 '65), S Flanagan; D O'Donovan (0-03), D Kennedy (0-01); C Lynch (0-02), B Nash (0-06, 5f), D Dempsey (0-03); D Coleman (0-01), T Morrissey, P Ryan.

Galway beat them yet Limerick got about 9 from that team, Galway only really got Whelan.

It looks like we'll get at least one or two from this team anyway.

Niland needs to be fastracked into the seniors, we're far too short of options to be holding him back.

cosatron

Niland is some prospect for 15 years old. Burke aswell. On the above team, I thought ronan lynch was going to be serious hurler but never developed for whatever reason

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119223419#Comment_119223419

Nilands only 15. No point dogging him like Canning was. You only need 2 or 3 per year to make a really good senior panel with a real blend of youth and experience. There was 3 or 4 in that team today who look very good. Burke and Niland look exceptional.

Tipp were much better than us in the 2nd half. Blessed to come back from 5 down but Tipp upped it again and had some serious players of their own.

Pitiful Galway crowd at Thurles yesterday.

Avon8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119224226#Comment_119224226

Been really poor this year after being very healthy for a long period. The Canning effect. Star power really knows no bounds, on the floating fan at least. You can see it with Kerry since Clifford came on the scene. Clare support is way up post covid also since Kelly started playing like the greatest ever

SqueakyKneecap

Even some of the most active posters in various Galway forums and threads seem to never attend matches.

laymansterms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119225246#Comment_119225246

We were well outnumbered on Saturday but at least the support that was there was fully behind the team. The Cork support that was beside me were really on the backs of lehane, Connolly, Kingston, Coleman. At one stage, lehane was taking his time to line up a 65, especially after missing a few earlier and the Cork fans were shouting at him to get on with it! And the they are the most ungracious bunch I ever came across. Telling us we will get destroyed by Limerick - Maybe so, but at least we will be the team playing them.

Avon8

I was happy we were on the 1.45 slot on Saturday and not the later one. Being in opposition to the younger Cork fan with a days worth of beer inside can be an experience alright.

Id be expecting a huge Armagh crowd on Sunday in full party mode, so the early throw in helps there also. I think they'll outnumber everyone (plus the orange stands out so much it seems like there's more of them). Should be a great occasion anyway

macslash

I was in a flood of cork fans. Was great shutting them up at the end. They nearly all scattered at full time too.

Cody was sitting behind us too. I'd say Clare will give them a good rattle and should beat them.

Finally managed to track down the stats to see the puck outs.

Galway 39, won 50%.

Cork 33, won 66%.

We haven't a hope of beating Limerick if we go a third game with those numbers. Leinster final was similar.

Surely if you have to go long, you can work on some sort of signal for your players to flood an area.. it's not exactly rocket science.

When you're losing them time after time maybe you need to invest a small bit of time on the training field outside of the goalie just picking a side and lamping it down and hoping ye win it back.

My estimation was we lost about 70-80% of our long ones and while we can't get a breakdown of what was won or lost, we won basically all of our short ones, so a 50% total (taking them out) pushes you well below 40% for the longer ones.

MfMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119227326#Comment_119227326

It was shocking for most of the first half where ball after ball was returned by the Cork HB line. If Conor Cooney could bloody learn how to field a ball them stats would be much more favourable for us.