Galway GAA Discussion Thread #2

Yes he came on against Derry im pretty sure

Thanks. Sorry didn't notice him in last 2 games.

Damn lucky. Only for Tyrone transgressed the '3 up' rule right at the death, Walsh (player of the league without doubt) wouldn't have been able to goal from the 20-yard free instead. Some exhibition of kicking from him again today. (Oh, if only…) Tyrone the better team in both halves with their inside forwards of Daragh Canavan and Mark Bradley causing havoc throughout. Galway badly need this type of cut in their own full forward line; Rob Finnerty still has to get up to speed this season.

Until we have comer back can't see us kicking much into inside line. Finnerty been disappointing from open play in the few matches he's played in so far. Our shooting in first half today for 2 pointers was very poor only converting 4 of 12 attempts but Tyrone did put a lot of pressure on kickers today. Serious competition for places and I wonder if Joyce knows what his best 15 is with about 6 spots on starting 15 up for grabs at the moment.

i am surprised the galway crowed are not looking for a 3 point rule from 50 plus yards especially above in the windy city for the home games 😂

ah come on the donegal game was completely dominated ye were 17 points up at half time , anyway it was a joke i wouldn't worry too much about it

The hurlers were pathetic last night. No pressure on the short puckout so you'd assume they were dropping someone to cover the half back line. But anytime Limerick went long to the wing forwards, they were free too.

The space left in front of Gillane and O'Brien was criminal. Even on sidelines where the defending team should have a spare man, Limerick always had one if not two men free.

Gavin Lee did well but apart from him I can't think of anyone else who had a decent game. I've seen enough of Kevin Cooney at this stage to believe he's not up to it at this level. He reminds me of Jason Flynn.

Physically we're two years off matching Limerick too. Even lads that have been with Galway for years are nowhere near the same shape as the Limerick lads. We're behind most munster teams in that regard.

If we can get out of Leinster and get a decent performance in either a quarter or a semi that's the ceiling on what we could expect this year.

Terrible display from the hurlers again tonight and most of the blame lies on the line. No structure, the same gameplan that got us carved open vs Limerick saw us carved open again tonight. Our defenders are getting hung out to dry.

Our fowards are limited. Once you pin down Whelo we have not much else. The wides we ran up were criminal in 90% of cases. Cathal Mannion whilst named at corner forward doesn't really play as one. He's the one top level hurler we have at the moment.

we are limited full stop . The people I hear calling them useless etc need to have a word with themselves . We will be in a titanic battle to get outta Leinster and that’s not maybe . Quite simply we don’t have the hurlers at this moment in time. very little has come through last few years . It’s not like there’s loads of lads that’ aren’t getting a run . Go to county semi and finals every year and it’s still your daithi Burke David Burke Conor Cooney s that’s stand out

Exactly. And this is the bigger, wider problem with the hurlers atm. It's still all the old stagers, mainly, that stand out at club level.

In saying that, I don't know why Burns wasn't persisted with after the Limerick game. Same with Fleming. They may never win a senior all-Ireland with Galway (hope I'm wrong, in that regards), but they're going to have to be relied on for the next few years, imo.

Our complete "no show" at U-21/U-20 for the last number of years is coming back to haunt us now. Look at the depth of talent Cork have, currently. Same wrt Limerick. Possibly (but I'm still not 100% convinced) Tipp as well are all backboned by strong u 20/21 teams of the last few years. I'd nearly go as far as to say that this year, our most important grade is U-20 in hurling. The seniors won't do much, imo. If, by some fluke, they won Leinster, it would be classed as a very successful year, given the sh1t show of 2024.

The slump was always coming eventually with the limited amount of players coming up to replace the likes of Conor Cooney. Even if we had the current crop firing on all cylinders we're a ways off Clare, Cork and especially Limerick.

I'd love to think we're holding back a few bits like a proper puckout strategy but my worry is that we don't have the ball winners to follow Donoghue's tactics from 2016-2018. The supply of ball into Whelo, Beano and Mannion when he was up in corner-forward was really poor.

Regardless of how 2025 goes Donoghue needs a long spell to bring in new faces. It won't be long till we're looking for new blood to replace David Burke, Daithi, the Mannions etc. This year probably isn't even the rockbottom of his rebuild.

Cunningham improved galway no end but he couldn’t get us over the line . Donoghue got us there . To say it was Cunningham’s team is totally unfair . You want to knock Donoghue for not getting us outta Leinster in one season but give him no credit for winning an all ireland in another . Ya can’t have it both ways .

I’m talking about in grneral . Anybody can have a bad half or a bad game .. Conor Cooney has prob been the best club hurler in Galway for last 10 years . Daithi Burke is a 5 time all star full back and you want to get rid ! Of course we have to start fresh but it willl take time . Mcinerney is gone so is Joe Cooney and prob 1 or 2 more that escape me . Plenty of lads have got a go in league to be fair if there good enough they will nail down a spot I think .