Collapse in Castlebar

Date Published: {J}

CIARAN TIERNEY

FROM the trauma of Tullamore to the collapse in Castlebar, this summer certainly has been rough on Galway GAA fans who could see both of the county’s flagship teams go out of the championship within a fortnight after yet another tale of woe from MacHale Park on Sunday.

The gloom which seems to have engulfed Galway sports teams during this washout of a summer showed no signs of abating as the footballers bowed out of the Connacht Championship with a whimper, before being handed a tough draw away to Meath in the All-Ireland qualifiers.

As if the hurlers’ collapse against Dublin in the Leinster semi-final was not demoralising enough, if anything the footballers outdid their small ball counterparts with one of the worst championship displays by a team in maroon and white in a provincial semi-final in years.

They managed one solitary point in the whole of the second half, as the appalling conditions set the mood for the few Galway followers who were very much in the minority in a crowd of 19,375.

With so many players out of position, and failing to come anywhere near the level of performance required, there were few positives to be taken from a fixture in which the Tribesmen managed to score only seven times.

On the basis of this performance, they will face Meath in Navan on Saturday week with trepidation. Michael Meehan might have made his long-awaited return after 14 months on the sideline, but this Galway side will not fancy taking on a Meath side who scored 5-8 (including four Cian Ward goals) against Louth on Saturday.

Meath away was always going to be one of the toughest possible draws from the qualifiers, a much stiffer task than the home game against Wexford which ended in a disappointing defeat and the end of Joe Kernan’s reign 12 months ago.

The game on Saturday week will be a repeat of the 2001 All-Ireland final between the counties, but for Galway followers the fear is that it will only serve to highlight how much the Tribesmen have fallen since the dizzy heights of that September afternoon almost ten years ago.

The slight improvement in form at the end of the League had given Galway followers false hope, as the reality is that Armagh have slipped away from the top tier in Ulster and Dublin were only going through the motions after qualifying for the final before the last game.

On Sunday, Galway looked like a Division Two side, bereft of ideas, and should have lost by more than the six point margin at the finish (1-12 to 1-6).

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.