Sports
Salthill soul-searching pays off after early title race blow
EVERY successful team encounters a turning point in the season. The sh*t-or-bust moment arrived quite early for Salthill/Knocknacarra.
In keeping with their tradition of slow starts to championship campaigns, the city club faced a fork in the road in May when they lost 1-8 to 2-7 to Milltown.
Captain Conor Halloran, from Knocknacarra, remembers the frank team meeting that followed the defeat.
The prospect of losing the next match, against Leitir Mór, and being plunged into relegation, sharpened the minds.
“You have to leave your feelings at the door when these team meetings are going on. It’s completely all honesty,” he says.
“We all had to sit down and reassess where we were and what we really wanted from this year. We all had to sit down and said ‘look lads, there’s no point wasting all of our time here’. So we really had to decide, write down our goals for the year and say ‘look, what do we have to do to get there?’
“Everyone has to take a real hard look at themselves and say, ‘well we’ve been training a lot, and very hard for that first-round game but didn’t turn up – what are we willing to do now to push on?”
The soul searching worked. Salthill duly defeated Leitir Mór and haven’t looked back since, toppling Caltra, Caherlistrane and Cortoon on the way to their third final in five years.
“Ever since that first loss to Milltown, we’ve been rising steadily. With each game we’ve improved significantly, and we’re hoping that we’re going to peak at the right time now.”
They’ll certainly need to be at their best to topple the champions, Corofin, who haven’t been beaten in championship football in Galway in four seasons.
Halloran, an accounts manager with city-based Blue Tree Systems, knows only too well that the North Galway kingpins have the ability to rout opponents who are not operating at full tilt.
He was a member of the successful 2012 Salthill team who won the club’s third ever Frank Fox cup with victory over Tuam Stars. But he’s suffered bad days, too.
Mention 2013 – the last occasion Salthill and Corofin met in a senior final – and Halloran smiles wryly. “I don’t have such great memories of that one!”
Salthill were hammered by 12 points in Tuam Stadium, in an encounter that was all but over after 18 minutes.
“Unfortunately for us, we didn’t turn up on the day. They had a good margin of victory over us. They really blitzed us from the word go. We were left a bit shell-shocked. It wasn’t a great start to any county final and we were chasing the game,” he recalls. Not that he lays awake worrying about it. Halloran and Salthill has moved on.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GALWAY United need to guard against any kind of complacency when they make the short hop down the M18 this Friday to take on Treaty United at the Markets Field (7.45pm).
The game is a meeting of the two form teams in the division, and as in previous meetings between the sides, will have an additional edge given the number of former United players in the home side’s ranks, and the pair of Limerick lads playing for United.
There might have been just the eight meetings between the sides since Treaty became the latest iteration to represent Limerick in the League of Ireland in 2021, and while United have yet to lose to the men in the candy-cane strips, there has never been more than a goal in four of their eight wins.
The most recent of those was back in February, when Rob Slevin scored the only goal of the game in Eamonn Deacy Park after a tough battle against a side who made a slow start to the season, before finally finding their groove in the past month.
Having taken just three points from their first six games before finally getting a win against Longford Town, they reverted to type with just one point from their next three games, but are now on a run of four wins on the spin, scoring 12 goals and conceding just one.
Their most recent win was a 3-0 victory away to Longford Town last Saturday, and they could have won by double that against the only side to have beaten United this season. That in itself is a warning.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Soccer Wrap with Mike Rafferty
While the Salthill Devon men’s team might have lost their grip on the Connacht Junior Cup that they held for two seasons, the club’s women’s side have picked up the mantle and on Sunday last in Headford were crowned provincial champions with a 4-3 win over Manulla.
Following midweek wins for Maree/Oranmore and Knocknacarra, the stage is now almost set for the semi-finals of the Michael Byrne Cup with Salthill Devon meeting St Bernard’s on Sunday in an outstanding quarter-final, with the winners advancing to a semi-final against Maree/Oranmore, while Colga will face Knocknacarra in the other last four contest.
Just one league issue remains to be decided, with the Championship runners-up position up for grabs, as Dynamo Blues have to win their two remaining games in order to overtake Colemanstown United who have finished their programme.
WOMEN’S CONNACHT CUP FINAL
Salthill Devon 4
Manulla 3
Ellerose O’Flaherty scored twice as Salthill Devon were crowned provincial champions with a win over a Mayo side who were losing in the final for the second year in succession.
Backboned by a number of players who previously had League of Ireland experience with Galway WFC, Devon suffered an early set back when Jess Nolan put Manulla ahead, before O’Flaherty levelled matters with a cracking finish on 20 minutes, which was quickly followed by a long-range free-kick from Aoife Walsh.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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