Galway GAA discussion thread

Poor_old_gill wrote: »

I'm not sure of what the peronal agendas are on here but trying to absolve the keeper from blame for the short kick outs and putting it all on Walsh is a bit ridiculous.

Walsh's main mistake was picking a keeper who is easily the most sub-standard I have seen at intercounty level- I've seen better Junior B keepers.

The keeper doesn't pick himself. We're not Mayo!

vid36 wrote: »

I am not sure there are the options in the panel, but we need a better balance against Donegal. The three midfielders strategy didn't work and the attack seem to function better when Gary Sice came on. Michael Daly has great talent and potential but I am not sure he has the experience for a pivotal position like centre half forward.There is also an argument for more pace in the inside line.
I don't think much can be done about the defensive problems at this stage but changes are needed here too.I am sure there will also be a goalkeeping change.

The goalie will be changed. He's carrying too much baggage now into the next round. He needs to be taken out of the fire for now. I wouldn't lose hope with him yet though.

I thought Kerin played well yesterday so that's 1 positive. We have so few options in defence. We had David Wynne and David walsh on the bench yesterday. Neither will improve on the 6 backs who started yesterday.

I'd definitely be putting Armstrong back in beside Comer if he's available.

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Well they can try Power in goals again but if anyone has seen our bench lately there are actually very few defensive options available. Most of our subs are forward orientated players.

Rearranging the chairs on the Titanic comes to mind.

They had the mike Farragher experiment at number 6 towards end of league. He was doing ok there until league final when he was roasted by Niall Kelly. It could be worth looking at again though. Or maybe bringing him into the forwards. It would just be something a little different.

gilberto_eire wrote: »

People must have a short memory if they think Power is going to.make much difference.

The kick outs will be the same, as theres no purposeful movement and a plan in place.

But added to that he never even has a fresh ball ready, I remember last year he'd take about 45 seconds each time to get a ball and tee.

Coupled to that the goals Tipp scored were horrendous and he let in a shocker in the Club semi when a weak point effort fell in over his head.

The two shots yesterday were in the corners and until we have a kick out strategy like 3/4s of the country ill reserve criticism of the keeper.

This will hopefully be Walshs last game if we lose and we can judge the players more individually when basic modern standards are developed and applied.

I agree that Power is not the answer long term. He doesn't move his feet nearly well enough. That said I don't think they can realistically leave Lavelle in goal. His confidence looks in bits. Not all his fault obviously but he's become the comedy figure of the football championship so far. Donegal will be all over him if he starts and the pressure would be unbearable.

jr86 wrote: »

Cooke looked the real deal in all Ireland semi under 21 but well beaten in the final. Id go with Conroy and Flynn myself

On another note just how far off a cliff has micheal Lundy fallen?.he was one of the best forwards in Ireland in 2014. At the moment id doubt hes certain to start for corofin

Dont know if you can even leave Flynn on the team never mind ask him to shore up a failing midfield. He was strolling around the park yesterday making very little effort to cover back or get forward in support.
Cooke gone to US according to some here. How they could allow that in a pivotal year where they wanted to push on is ridiculous. You need to keep players like that involved.Also cant figure out how they managed to never isolate one of the 3 huge fielders we have even once in the match. Every long kickout was heavily contested and either too long or too short.

gilberto_eire wrote: »

The way I see it is Dublin are the benchmark, and they don't pick big cumbersome midfielders.

You don't need traditional midfielders if you're kick outs are high percentage as its all about getting to the space.

Then you have the advantage of two extra players who can make a difference from play.

It's such an advantage when you've two extra players breaking forward who can move the ball with pace, kick scores and play make around the 45.

You need a goalie who can actually kick the ball out accurately for that to work.

threeball wrote: »

Dont know if you can even leave Flynn on the team never mind ask him to shore up a failing midfield. He was strolling around the park yesterday making very little effort to cover back or get forward in support.
Cooke gone to US according to some here. How they could allow that in a pivotal year where they wanted to push on is ridiculous. You need to keep players like that involved.Also cant figure out how they managed to never isolate one of the 3 huge fielders we have even once in the match. Every long kickout was heavily contested and either too long or too short.

How could they stop it? A young lad in college with only a few years to do a J1. I am sure they would have like him to be involved. But I don't blame him for going for the experience. Every team has to deal with players who dont make themselves available. Look at McCaffrey with Dublin, McHugh with Donegal etc.

I dont think we can afford two attacking midfielders. We need one guy whose main job is to drop back in front of centre back. One sweeper and we can survive with five forwards. Personally i think we'd be fine with 4 and have walsh dropping into midfield to carry the ball forward when the long ball isnt on. Alternate him in and out to keep their backs honest.

threeball wrote: »

Im not saying they could stop it or should stop him but i think alot of lads will head away when they think they have no chance of being involved in a meaningful way.
Thats where man management comes in. He may have chosen to go anyway and thats fine

Honestly, I think its a completely bizarre thing to criticise the Galway management for. I think Cooke would know he wouldn't be far off that team if he stuck around - he probably wouldn't have been a starter. But he was 1 injury or 1 poor performance from coming into the team. Enda Tierney came on yesterday. Cooke would be ahead of him. Probably, Cooke would have been brought on earlier if he was on the bench.

I think in previous years, the best players in the county were not playing for Galway. I dont think that is the case this year. For the most part, the panel that has been picked are the best players in Galway.

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

To question why a young lad would go on the trip of a lifetime on a J1 instead of staying home to play an amateur game and receive little thanks for it is very indicative to what's wrong with modern GAA. There is a reason 18-23 year olds are quitting and that crazy criticism of Cooke for going on a J1 is part of it. He'd want his head checked if he didn't go IMO. GAA has become all consuming for the players and if we're gonna be giving stick to lads going on a J1 we are going down a dangerous road.

I dont think anybody is criticising Cooke for going.

No way can we go back to the dark ages of Breatnach. Everyone was atrocious the day of the hammering by Mayo, but he was the single worst player on the field. Cost us another game vs Mayo with the ridiculous cowardly kick for the OG. That's not mentioning at least 3 poor qualifier performances and countless poor league games. Thomas Dolan is probably the best performer ive seen from Galway as yet, but doubt he's available.

I'd stick with Lavelle. You could see that against the wind, the kickoff strategy was to go short (as it always should be against the wind if possible). The first short one he landed on Bradshaws chest, Bradshaw then coughed it up for the easy Murtagh score. Second one he hit Heaney, and Heaney overcarried.

Of course then, the Galway crowd start their usual crap of "kick the f'in ball out properly " or "get back in the f'in goal" when the defenders use him as an option to relieve pressure. Maybe if our fans went to games more often they might understand the modern game a bit more. The lad clearly lost confidence then, having obviously been hearing from just about everyone since the Mayo game that he was a liability, even though it was his defenders deciding to use him as an option each time and him only making one mistake, and each of his kick outs being successful that day.

In fairness, he kept sprinting out trying to play the short one straight away, as every good keeper these days does, but the backs lost their balls and stopped showing completely. So the ball gets rained down on midfield which gets cleaned and the problem gets worse. Second half his longer kickouts went to pot admittedly.

I'd still persist with him though. Imagine Kyne getting the ball near the end line the next day, under pressure from McBrearty, and his only option to get the ball out of danger is Bernard Power, who's probably leaning up against the goal post fixing his cap