Inside Track
Footballers in a bad place following latest disaster
Inside Track with John McIntyre
Even making loose judgements about a team’s championship potential in the month of March can leave you a hostage to fortune, but these remain worrying times for the Galway footballers. After two rounds of the National League, the Tribesmen looked like an outfit going somewhere after several seasons in the doldrums . . . only to implode in their subsequent three Division Two ties.
Without a Connacht title since 2008, supporters are again fearful that Galway are going nowhere and it’s hard not to blame them. We can’t remember the last time the men in maroon failed to register a single score in a second half of football or, for that matter, losing three league games in-a-row when apparently in control of each of them at the interval. On the surface, it’s the ultimate in carelessness and also underlines the lack of ruthlessness in their ranks.
New team manager Kevin Walsh, a hero of the county’s All-Ireland triumphs in 1998 and 2001, admitted after Galway’s latest collapse to Laois at Tuam Stadium on Sunday that “confidence levels were down” and that they paid the penalty for playing too much “safe football”. He was naturally disappointed with the outcome and acknowledged they were now in something of a relegation battle.
When Walsh was appointed as Alan Mulholland’s successor last autumn, there was genuine and widespread approval locally. The Killanin man had cut his teeth in inter-county management with Sligo and during a largely progressive tenure, he was unlucky not to win a Connacht title with them. Against that background, he was always top of the pile when Galway went seeking a new boss after the 2014 championship.
Early League wins over Meath and Westmeath, albeit lucky to come away with full points from Mullingar, together with positive reports of a strong commitment to punishing preparation on the training ground, boded well for the 2015 championship. Galway then appeared poised to maintain their winning league run against Down in Newry, but spurned chances and a failure to close the deal allowed the home team to reel them in before the finish.
Galway led by 1-15 to 0-11 after 60 minutes but alarmingly were unable to protect that advantage, eventually losing to an injury-time Paul Devlin free. The nature of that defeat obviously had a major impact on the squad’s brittle confidence levels judging by their subsequent flattering efforts against both Cavan and Laois – two teams who won’t be mapped at the business end of this year’s championships.
Worse again, both those losses have come on home soil and, to compound the sense of gloom, each of those defeats were remarkably similar to what happened in Newry, only that Galway were further adrift at the finish. Falling to Cavan was bad enough at Pearse Stadium, but last Sunday presented Galway with an opportunity to get back on track and without doing anything spectacular, they seemed on course to stop the rot when leading Laois by 0-10 to 1-1 at the interval, especially as the Midlanders’ goal was the product of calamitous defending.
Galway would have to face the strong wind on the resumption, but surely they would have learned from the mistakes from their previous two outings. Instead, it was more of the same panic orientated defensive type football which is alien to the country’s tradition. Laois were no great shakes, but they eventually drew level with a Ross Munnelly effort three minutes from time. The game still wasn’t up for the hosts only for them to fall apart altogether.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
SOMETHING very odd happened to Tyrone in the Ulster championship in early April. On their home turf of Healy Park, they were doing nearly everything expected of them when leading Monaghan by five points at half-time. You couldn’t say for definite that the match was done and dusted, but the 2021 All-Ireland champions were in pole position.
You would have expected them to drive on against an honest if limited Monaghan outfit. Instead, Tyrone didn’t score for the opening 16 minutes of the second-half and in an enthralling finale, were left stunned by defender Ryan’s Toole’s stoppage-time goal snatching the honours for the Farney men on a 2-17 to 1-18 scoreline.
A couple of weeks later, Monaghan themselves had exited the Ulster title race when Derry comfortably got the better of them (1-21 to 2-10), leaving us more puzzled than ever by Tyrone’s dramatic decline since overcoming Mayo to claim Sam barely 20 months previously. Last year, they crashed out of Ulster by 11 points to Derry and subsequently came up six short against Armagh in the All-Ireland qualifiers.
Against that background, their recent loss to Monaghan shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did. Tyrone may have made a shambolic defence of the All-Ireland title, but there is still a lot of quality in their ranks. They have an adventurous ‘keeper in Niall Morgan, while the long-serving Peter Harte, Darragh Canavan, Darren McCurry, Cathal McShane, Conor Meyler, Mattie Donnelly, and Conn Kilpatrick are all top-class performers when in the mood.
There’s hardly been a word about them for the past six weeks. Tyrone are lying low, desperately trying to rediscover the verve and cohesion which took them all the way in 2021. Their pride is on the line. It makes them dangerous opponents for Galway in the opening round of All-Ireland group matches at Pearse Stadium on Saturday.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Inside Track with John McIntyre
GALWAY footballers won’t get much credit for their easy victory over Sligo in Sunday’s Connacht Final in Castlebar, but when a team achieves something that hasn’t been done for 20 years, perhaps we should be a little more appreciative of the Tribesmen retaining the JJ Nestor Cup for the first time in two decades.
To be honest, if Galway were to live up to their standing as serious All-Ireland contenders, they needed to be doing a number on Sligo. In this year’s National League, the counties were three divisions apart and though Tony McEntee’s team achieved promotion and were on a nine-match unbeaten run, a serious rise in class faced them at MacHale Park.
Granted, Sligo made a bright start with three points in the opening five minutes from Pat Spillane, Sean Carrabine and the accurate Darragh Cummins, but they would only manage two more by the break despite having the wind behind them. Though wing back Luke Towey was catching the eye with his runs up-field, Galway rarely looked under pressure.
Sligo were bravely committing numbers to the middle third, which meant they were a little light in numbers around their own posts. They couldn’t afford to lose possession coming out of their own half, but that’s what happened in the build up to Galway’s second goal. Damien Comer overturned Cian Lally and from his counter-attack, Matthew Tierney expertly finished to the net at the near post.
For more, read this week’s Connacht 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.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
IS the Leinster hurling championship something of a sham compared to its Munster counterpart? Everybody knows who will end up in the provincial final in the east, but nobody knows the two teams who will feature in the ultimate battle for supremacy down south.
All-Ireland champions Limerick aren’t guaranteed to even make it out of the province, never mind reach the Munster final, after their narrow loss to Clare in Saturday evening’s epic at the Gaelic Grounds. Everything is still on the line for the five counties involved, although Waterford are again under serious pressure after losing their opening two matches.
In Leinster, there is little of that drama. Galway and Kilkenny are miles ahead of the rest; the only thing at stake is whether Dublin or Wexford – they meet in Croke Park on Saturday – will be the third team to emerge for the All-Ireland series. It’s a game which is hard to call. Wexford are going backwards while Dublin look callow as Micheál Donoghue is trying to build the nucleus of a new team.
Though Antrim are improving – they held the Dubs to a draw and only lost to Wexford by four points – the men from the Glens would be out of their depth in Munster; while Westmeath are proving cannon-fodder for everyone else. Since Galway headed east in 2009, they have clashed with Kilkenny in seven Leinster finals and another showdown is inevitable next month.
In contrast, every match in Munster is virtually do-or die. When Clare rolled into Limerick last Saturday, they knew another defeat after losing to Tipperary in the opening round would leave them on the precipice of exiting the championship. There’s a real dog-eat-dog appeal about all the games. In Leinster, there are two big hounds, and the rest are chihuahuas.
For more, read this week’s Connacht 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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