Galway GAA Discussion Thread #2

Brutal weekend. I don't think we're throwing a game like that, just ripped apart all day in midfield and all over the backline.

I think these defeats to Dublin & Kerry will bring us back down to earth.

Starting to concede goals too, which will be a worry to PJ.

Still work to be done to be considered serious contenders for SAM.

Will john daly be back for the roscommon game. We really missed him the last couple of games

Would like to see sean kelly back in full back with liam Silke beside him. I think them 2 along with mcgrath are our best man markers

Opportunity to win a league title and Galway basically turned their noses up at it. Considering we haven't won a league title in over 40 Years and the fact this team has lost 2 AI finals and league final in the last few years, this represented a great chance to win a national title, but, instead we baulked at it. That's a bit of a concern and raises a few questions regarding the attitude of the management.

The AI is very open this year, with the top 6 or 7 teams capable of beating each other on any given day, we basically threw away a very winnable AI last year, I'd be a bit concerned about whether this team can get over the line when put under pressure, last year was a golden opportunity spurned and I doubt we'll get a better chance.

People need to take a chill pill on the hurlers. we are where we are after 5 years of O'Neill and Shefflin who had zero interest in what was best longer term for Galway imo.

There's plenty of good from the league, we have our 6 and 11 imo. Lee has been flying it and will improve as he gets more experience. I have to laugh at the person above who said to take him out to throw in Morgan becasue 'It can't hurt' so when Morgan struggles you take him out and throw in someone else? Nobody steps in at no.6 and is Declan Hannon right away, even Declan Hannon didn't.

Killeen is developing away as well and I'm hapy he's been left in place. Always showing for ball and super tidy in possession. Shooting needs to improve. Like always with Galway we need more ball winners. I'd be hopeful Lohan, Fleming and down the line Jason Rabbitte and Brian Callanan will improve that situation. All in all we're better than I expected after the league. I think Jason Flynn and Davey Burke probably played their way out of contention, and Niland and concannon are goign to struggle to get a look in. Burns and Mcloughlin were inconsistent but our top socrers from play by a mile and I'd start 2 out of them + Kevin cooney to keep some pace in the team in a team something like

Fahy

Morrissey

Daithi

Morgan

Mannion

Lee

Ryan

Fahy

Monahan

Fleming

Killeen

Whelan

Mannion

Kevin Cooney

Burns

I see a mention of the old '2017 was Cunningham's team' nonsense above. While I'd be the first to give some credit to Cunningham, here's a list of our key players in 2017 and what they were up to under Cunningham

Daithi Burke- Wing back, moved to 3 by MD

Gearoid- In the forwards (!) move to wing and then center back by MD

Joe- constant switching, in and out of gmaes while we had no center forward- Made permanent no.11 by MD

Padraig Mannion- Corner, full back, everywhere but his best position- Put wing back by MD

Conor Cooney- Not starting in 2015

Cunningham did good work in getting us competitive again and blooding players and yes for sure that is the job that MD now needs to do, but peole trying to give him nearly equal share of the credit for 2017 is absolute codswallop.

why would u want to win a competition nobody else wants to win?

For once pj did the right thing…..

The break will do us good.

Disagree, Galway will kick the ball more than most this year, as long as there's a focal point there like Comer. In the Dublin and Donegal games last year McHugh was constantly trying long balls into Comer, even sometimes when it wasnt on. We went away from it in the final as Armagh always had numbers back .We beat Mayo last year by playing long ball into Comer, especially in the first half. Two goals (Maher's and Finnertys) have come from long balls into Comer in the last two games

Conroy also always plays with the head up, again seen by a goal in the last game from a direct ball into Tierney. The other obvious player of that ilk would be Daly, who may or may not be starting later in the year. We can't place too much stock into league games on windy and bad pitches. It'll be very different in Croker for every team

Agree on the defence looking porous the last 3 games in particular. It actually looked very decent prior to that and has been ok for years so hopefully not a Cian O'Neill shaped hole

It's the absence of Comer I'm referring to mainly. If we resort to slower play when he's injured, we're toast. There just doesn't seem to be a kicking game based on all the other forwards, it's all based on Comer.

Wow, Connacht semi final in 2 days and hasn't been a post here in two weeks!

That and this article from Eamon fitsmaurice more or less sums up the Galway enthusiasm for this year where he talks about the window of opportunity starting to close for Galway:

https://search.app/?link=https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2025/0417/1508226-galway-know-window-is-closing-in-the-quest-for-sam/&utm_source=dsdf,sh/x/discover/m5/4

One thing I'll disagree with him on - the Kerry final 3 years ago was the bigger loss than last year's…

I don't get this "window closing" talk at all. Only Conroy is over the age of 31, and that's at the position most stocked

Yeah Walsh and Comer are 31 but when fit at least neither look like they're losing a step.

The panel is way stronger than it was in 2022. Is that when the window was supposedly wide open? It's Nonsense

I'd strongly disagree. In 2022 there was basically no subs made for the entire year. Eoin Finnerty was thrown in as third sub on his championship debut in the final just because there was simply no options

Now you could add any of Hernon, DOF, Daly, Molloy, Mulkerrin, Heaney to the team named Sunday and not make it noticeably worse. And then obviously Walsh, Comer and Cooke are still to come back in

McGraths one fo the best defenders in the country, every team would covet Maher and Cooke, and McHugh is another level now to 2022. Have only lost Patrick Kelly

Night and day difference imo

How are Walsh and McDaid at fractions of their 2022 peak also? McDaids best performance ever came last June against Dublin. Walsh looked as good as ever in the league. I'd argue the other 3 you named bar Kelly have simply been passed out by other better players

2022 and last year were both finals that could have been won, but, 2022 would have been a bonus as very few expected to beat Kerry in the final, Kerry were strong favourites to win that day and Galway performed above most people's expectations, failing mainly due to lack of experience at that level and a lack of strength in depth, we basically had no one to come on at the end to help us over the line.

Last year was different, no excuses not to win, a very fustrating loss against a bang average team. We didn't really perform, were favourites going into the final, had the experience of 2022, decent strength in depth, but, underperformed badly, an absolutely golden opportunity to win an All Ireland thrown away!

This year we are at the bottom of the hill again and it's all uphill, the likes of Kerry, Dublin & Donegal to overcome, will do well to get to another final never mind win it.

In 22 I thought he'd throw on Gallagher near the end, he was flying at club at the time, a tenacious enough player , looks like Joyce never rated him too highly, this year I see Tomo Culhane hardly got any game time, was he injured or out of favour, he looked to be one for the future

He must be back in favour as he's on the bench for Sunday.