Galway GAA discussion thread

Diabhal Beag · 05-09-2018 07:55PM

Right so after a good 2018 we have the League fixtures.

Sunday 27/1/2019
Footballers home v Cavan
Hurlers home v Laois

Saturday 2/2/2019
Footballers away to Dublin
Sunday 3/2/2019
Hurlers away to Carlow

Saturday 9/2/2019
Footballers away to Monaghan

Sunday 17/2/2019
Hurlers home v Dublin

Sunday 24/2/2019
Footballers home v Kerry
Hurlers away to Offaly

Saturday 2/3/2019
Footballers away to Mayo
Sunday 3/3/2019
Hurlers away to Waterford

Saturday 16/3/2019
Footballers home v Roscommon *Listed as 2pm*

Sunday 24/3/2019
Footballers away to Tyrone

Utopia Parkway · 05-09-2018 11:47PM

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Right so after a good 2018 we have the League fixtures.

Sunday 27/1/2019
Footballers home v Cavan
Hurlers home v Laois

Saturday 2/2/2019
Footballers away to Dublin
Sunday 3/2/2019
Hurlers away to Carlow

Saturday 9/2/2019
Footballers away to Monaghan

Sunday 17/2/2019
Hurlers home v Dublin

Sunday 24/2/2019
Footballers home v Kerry
Hurlers away to Offaly

Saturday 2/3/2019
Footballers away to Mayo
Sunday 3/3/2019
Hurlers away to Waterford

Saturday 16/3/2019
Footballers home v Roscommon *Listed as 2pm*

Sunday 24/3/2019
Footballers away to Tyrone

Tougher fixture list than this year with 4 tough away games. Dublin, Tyrone and Monaghan all away and Mayo as well who will be desperate for any kind of win over Galway at this stage.

You would hope they would beat the two promoted sides at home anyway but they'll be doing well to reach another league final next year.

jr86 · 06-09-2018 08:37AM

grbear wrote: »

I'm not a fan of the current structure in the SFC. You've four groups in senior and four in intermediate. Should just be 4 up and 4 down. Don't think the drawn out relegation playoffs benefit anyone, just stretches out the misery of the struggling sides.

4 teams up from intermediate? That would never work and rightfully so

They tried 2 up from intermediate championship in hurling in the 00s and it got a poor reception, never mind 4. It took a lot of the gloss away from the final, with both teams going up anyway

The whole point of this new championship structure is to get rid of these "struggling sides". 6 teams will be relegated in the next 2 years

It's a perfect format imo.

jr86 · 06-09-2018 08:43AM

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Tougher fixture list than this year with 4 tough away games. Dublin, Tyrone and Monaghan all away and Mayo as well who will be desperate for any kind of win over Galway at this stage.

You would hope they would beat the two promoted sides at home anyway but they'll be doing well to reach another league final next year.

That's a very tough run of fixtures for Galway in the league

Dublin can take a few games to find their feet but Saturday night under lights in Croker they'll be very hard to beat, and then Monaghan away in another tricky fixture. Having to get a result in Omagh in the last game wouldn't be ideal either..

I can't see them making the final again, but I can't see them relegated either. I think Mayo will really struggle in the league and surely at least one of Roscommon and Cavan is going down, although I have a feeling Rossies will have a good go of the league next year

fearruanua · 06-09-2018 09:29AM

the hurling league fixtures wouldn't do much to whet one's appetite!!

I says · 06-09-2018 11:39AM

fearruanua wrote: »

the hurling league fixtures wouldn't do much to whet one's appetite!!

Promotion definitely for 19

djPSB · 06-09-2018 12:47PM

I says wrote: »

Promotion definitely for 19

No advantage to promotion with current formats of league and championship.

MfMan · 06-09-2018 01:12PM

jr86 wrote: »

4 teams up from intermediate? That would never work and rightfully so

They tried 2 up from intermediate championship in hurling in the 00s and it got a poor reception, never mind 4. It took a lot of the gloss away from the final, with both teams going up anyway

The whole point of this new championship structure is to get rid of these "struggling sides". 6 teams will be relegated in the next 2 years

It's a perfect format imo.

Would prefer 2 up/2 down myself, eventually. Keep Senior teams on their toes, keep the top level from going a bit stale, and I think the Intermediate final would actually be more competitive and entertaining in stead of being cagey, given that the strain of promotion wasn't at stake.

jr86 · 06-09-2018 01:15PM

They had 2 up and down in the football too in the 90s/00s iirc but one up through championship, and one through league (both relegations were through league)

It caused controversy when county finallists in 2005 Carna were relegated through the league that season and played intermediate in 2006

MfMan · 06-09-2018 01:18PM

jr86 wrote: »

That's a very tough run of fixtures for Galway in the league

Dublin can take a few games to find their feet but Saturday night under lights in Croker they'll be very hard to beat, and then Monaghan away in another tricky fixture. Having to get a result in Omagh in the last game wouldn't be ideal either..

I can't see them making the final again, but I can't see them relegated either. I think Mayo will really struggle in the league and surely at least one of Roscommon and Cavan is going down, although I have a feeling Rossies will have a good go of the league next year

Can see Galway doing a 'Waterford' on it next year unless the necessary 3 new defenders are brought in and 2 better forwards. Team needs a good bit of freshening up.

I says · 06-09-2018 02:04PM

djPSB wrote: »

No advantage to promotion with current formats of league and championship.

Laois Carlow and Offaly ain’t exactly going to test any sort of team for championship experience

grbear · 06-09-2018 03:29PM

jr86 wrote: »

grbear wrote: »

I'm not a fan of the current structure in the SFC. You've four groups in senior and four in intermediate. Should just be 4 up and 4 down. Don't think the drawn out relegation playoffs benefit anyone, just stretches out the misery of the struggling sides.

4 teams up from intermediate? That would never work and rightfully so

They tried 2 up from intermediate championship in hurling in the 00s and it got a poor reception, never mind 4. It took a lot of the gloss away from the final, with both teams going up anyway

The whole point of this new championship structure is to get rid of these "struggling sides". 6 teams will be relegated in the next 2 years

It's a perfect format imo.

Are they get ridding rid of senior teams just to ease fixture headaches for the board or will it lead to improving standards across senior and intermediate? Unfortunately I'm inclined to believe it's more of the former.

A more straightforward promotion/relegation setup has to be better than the drawn out relegation play offs of the last few years. Theres no doubt in my mind that being involved in those loser leaves town matches hurt the likes of Killererin, Menlough etc. more than eventually retaining senior status helped them. I'm interested to see how the new structure will affect things and am willing to give it a chance though.

djPSB · 06-09-2018 03:36PM

I says wrote: »

Laois Carlow and Offaly ain’t exactly going to test any sort of team for championship experience

Ideal games to introduce new players. Who also get to play Waterford and Dublin in group stages.

Qualify for a league quarter final and that's potentially 3 games against Division 1 teams.

Plus 5 group games in Leinster Championship.

Hulk Hands · 06-09-2018 04:15PM

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Right so after a good 2018 we have the League fixtures.

Sunday 27/1/2019
Footballers home v Cavan
Hurlers home v Laois

Saturday 2/2/2019
Footballers away to Dublin
Sunday 3/2/2019
Hurlers away to Carlow

Saturday 9/2/2019
Footballers away to Monaghan

Sunday 17/2/2019
Hurlers home v Dublin

Sunday 24/2/2019
Footballers home v Kerry
Hurlers away to Offaly

Saturday 2/3/2019
Footballers away to Mayo
Sunday 3/3/2019
Hurlers away to Waterford

Saturday 16/3/2019
Footballers home v Roscommon *Listed as 2pm*

Sunday 24/3/2019
Footballers away to Tyrone

Strange of them to have the double header at the start after the opening weekend fiasco last year. Pity they couldn't squeeze another double header in there with say Dub hurlers and Kerry footballers and have a good crowd and atmosphere. Choice has to be made between the biggest football game (Mayo) and hurling (Waterford) also. Can see both those being on TV and no fans travelling atal

Edit: I see the Mayo game is the Sat night. Could be decent that!

jr86 · 06-09-2018 04:26PM

grbear wrote: »

Are they get ridding rid of senior teams just to ease fixture headaches for the board or will it lead to improving standards across senior and intermediate? Unfortunately I'm inclined to believe it's more of the former.

A more straightforward promotion/relegation setup has to be better than the drawn out relegation play offs of the last few years. Theres no doubt in my mind that being involved in those loser leaves town matches hurt the likes of Killererin, Menlough etc. more than eventually retaining senior status helped them. I'm interested to see how the new structure will affect things and am willing to give it a chance though.

Well that will change with the new format... Relegation semi and a final aren't too much to ask. Killererin are struggling because of dwindling numbers and very few players coming through from underage, nothing to do with the amount of matches

I'm not sure how this could have anything to do with "fixture headaches" there will still be the same number of fixtures overall between all the divisions on a given championship weekend..

djPSB · 08-09-2018 07:34PM

Massive result today for Killererin v Kilconly.

Shock win for Milltown v Moycullen too.

grbear · 08-09-2018 08:03PM

jr86 wrote: »

grbear wrote: »

Are they get ridding rid of senior teams just to ease fixture headaches for the board or will it lead to improving standards across senior and intermediate? Unfortunately I'm inclined to believe it's more of the former.

A more straightforward promotion/relegation setup has to be better than the drawn out relegation play offs of the last few years. Theres no doubt in my mind that being involved in those loser leaves town matches hurt the likes of Killererin, Menlough etc. more than eventually retaining senior status helped them. I'm interested to see how the new structure will affect things and am willing to give it a chance though.

Well that will change with the new format... Relegation semi and a final aren't too much to ask. Killererin are struggling because of dwindling numbers and very few players coming through from underage, nothing to do with the amount of matches

I'm not sure how this could have anything to do with "fixture headaches" there will still be the same number of fixtures overall between all the divisions on a given championship weekend..

A five team group needs five rounds of matches, a four team group needs three so they'll need less weekends to run off the championship. Less fixture headaches.

EDIT: Deleted a bit of daftness on my part as I had gotten it into my head the groups were all finishing this week. I'd like to blame beer but I'm sober as judge.

jr86 · 09-09-2018 10:57AM

Is an established traditional senior team team like Milltown beating a young Moycullen side really a shock though? Most neutrals I spoke to in Athenry pre-match fancied a Milltown win

Moycullen couldn't live with Mannion, number 14 (name escapes me) and Martin up front. Kavanagh was arguably MOTM in his roving role. They completely outclassed them

jr86 · 09-09-2018 11:05AM

grbear wrote: »

A five team group needs five rounds of matches, a four team group needs three so they'll need less weekends to run off the championship. Less fixture headaches.

They'd just make it straight knockout with 16 teams, and no groups, if that was the case

Most people involved and playing with teams in Galway I have spoken to completely welcome the change. No way there are 20 senior standard teams in Galway.

djPSB · 09-09-2018 11:26AM

jr86 wrote: »

Is an established traditional senior team team like Milltown beating a young Moycullen side really a shock though? Most neutrals I spoke to in Athenry pre-match fancied a Milltown win

Moycullen couldn't live with Mannion, number 14 (name escapes me) and Martin up front. Kavanagh was arguably MOTM in his roving role. They completely outclassed them

I don't know but Moycullen were being mentioned as contenders after a good start to championship.

Milltown are a very poor team.

spurshero · 09-09-2018 11:29AM

djPSB wrote: »

jr86 wrote: »

Is an established traditional senior team team like Milltown beating a young Moycullen side really a shock though? Most neutrals I spoke to in Athenry pre-match fancied a Milltown win

Moycullen couldn't live with Mannion, number 14 (name escapes me) and Martin up front. Kavanagh was arguably MOTM in his roving role. They completely outclassed them

I don't know but Moycullen were being mentioned as contenders after a good start to championship.

Milltown are a very poor team.

Very poor compared to who ??? Take corofin out of it and they give anybody else a Game

jr86 · 09-09-2018 11:30AM

djPSB wrote: »

Milltown are a very poor team.

Based on what? they were tremendous yesterday

djPSB · 09-09-2018 11:52AM

spurshero wrote: »

Very poor compared to who ??? Take corofin out of it and they give anybody else a Game

That's just a reflection of how poor the club standard is in the county outside of Corofin.

They wouldn't survive a year in a competitive championship like the Mayo, Dublin, Kerry senior club championships.

Very few, if any of that Milltown team, would make the Corofin team.

spurshero · 09-09-2018 11:59AM

djPSB wrote: »

spurshero wrote: »

Very poor compared to who ??? Take corofin out of it and they give anybody else a Game

That's just a reflection of how poor the club standard is in the county outside of Corofin.

They wouldn't survive a year in a competitive championship like the Mayo, Dublin, Kerry senior club championships.

Very few, if any of that Milltown team, would make the Corofin team.

Very few of most club teams would make that corofin team . Club teams countrywide . I would agree that current club football standard is average but milltown are a long way from the worst of them. Just to be clear I’m not a north galway man so no biase

jr86 · 09-09-2018 12:26PM

djPSB wrote: »

They wouldn't survive a year in a competitive championship like the Mayo, Dublin, Kerry senior club championships.

Where on earth are you getting that from? There is extremely little depth in the Mayo championship. Milltown would be a certain top 8 team in it, and would make a fair few semis over the years

They would beat teams like Hollymount/Carramore, Moy Davitts, Aghamore, Ballina with a fair bit to spare and completely annihilate Davitts, Kiltane, and Crossmolina

There are hidings galore in the Dublin Championship early rounds too. Again, extremely little depth outside of Vincents, Crokes, Ballyboden, Plunketts, Ballymun, Brigids, Judes, Castleknock (last year or two), and maybe Na Fianna though they're very up and down

Cuala and St Sylvesters who made the quarters last year would definitely not beat Milltown

grbear · 09-09-2018 12:51PM

jr86 wrote: »

grbear wrote: »

A five team group needs five rounds of matches, a four team group needs three so they'll need less weekends to run off the championship. Less fixture headaches.

They'd just make it straight knockout with 16 teams, and no groups, if that was the case

Most people involved and playing with teams in Galway I have spoken to completely welcome the change. No way there are 20 senior standard teams in Galway.

Ah stop, sure everyone knows they have to give club players at least two championship games. There'd be war if they tried to go back to straight knockout.

Moving to a group based system is fine and if it turns out that reducing the senior championship leads to improving standards across a sizeable majority of clubs then I've no problem admitting my worries were misguided. I'm a naturally cynical person though. Not a good thing.

djPSB · 09-09-2018 01:30PM

jr86 wrote: »

Where on earth are you getting that from? There is extremely little depth in the Mayo championship. Milltown would be a certain top 8 team in it, and would make a fair few semis over the years

They would beat teams like Hollymount/Carramore, Moy Davitts, Aghamore, Ballina with a fair bit to spare and completely annihilate Davitts, Kiltane, and Crossmolina

There are hidings galore in the Dublin Championship early rounds too. Again, extremely little depth outside of Vincents, Crokes, Ballyboden, Plunketts, Ballymun, Brigids, Judes, Castleknock (last year or two), and maybe Na Fianna though they're very up and down

Cuala and St Sylvesters who made the quarters last year would definitely not beat Milltown

https://www.google.ie/amp/www.the42.ie/galway-sfc-corofin-milltown-1695271-Sep2014/%3famp=1

That's what happened the last time Milltown got to a semi final.

Pretty much the same players plus Kavanagh.

jr86 · 09-09-2018 02:17PM

I think it pretty much confirms you haven't seen them anytime recently, when Mannion and Costello up front (along with Kavanagh) are their two most important players this season who were too young in 2014

4 years ago, they took a hiding off Corofin like everyone else did in Ireland that season? Big woop

As the poster above has rightly pointed out comparing them with Corofin is laughable, who are a complete outlier in Galway. I'm not sure what your issue with them is but bizarre comments like they wouldn't even make the Mayo senior Championship (seriously?!) are light years off the mark. Believe me when I say the Mayo championship has very poor depth.

And I say all this as a Mayo-born complete neutral, with zero ties to Milltown. But they're a good proud parish, who don't have the resources or pick of a lot of club teams, who are struggling to field underage, but are more than giving a great account of themselves at senior

They won't win the championship this year (Corofin will), they probably won't beat annaghdown if they played (although they beat them in the league this year), but they could give the likes of Mountbellew, last year's finalists, a serious rattle like they did when they should have beat them 2 years ago in the quarters. They're well in the conversation to be a top 4 club on form, who could well sneak into the final

MfMan · 09-09-2018 02:36PM

Milltown's win would be viewed as a shock because they haven't made much of a mark at Senior level in the past number of years, have struggled to field underage sides at times and haven't always produced football to a level the quality of players available to them would suggest they should. Moycullen on the other hand can call on county players such as Bradshaw, Sean Kelly, Declan Wynne, David Walsh, Dessie Conneelly etc. They have been to the fore at underage level in the West board and won a county minor in recent years IIRC. They gave a right trouncing to Caltra last day out also. However Milltown served notice of improved form in their previous game v Monivea when everything they kicked in the first half went over the bar. Hehir, Ml. Martyn and Kavanagh have looked in good shape too. Maybe a lesson to Galway mgmt to cast their net wider going forward.

jr86 · 09-09-2018 02:43PM

Am not sure Conneely was on the Championship panel and Dave Walsh is Killannin. Moycullen's issue is their team is fairly lopsided. FB line and FF line aren't really up to it (aside from Conneely who was well held yesterday). Milltown would be more balanced and that bit more savvy. They kept kickouts well away from Cooke and no-one bothered to pick up Kavanagh who just kept hoovering ball up in his own defence. Moycullen are probably still a top 8 side but write off the traditional North teams at your peril! Even Killerein are hanging in there mighty

Caltra lost to Oranmore - an intermediate team - by 30plus in the league recently, they'll be in intermediate next year for sure, so probably a misleading enough result in that one for Moycullen

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