Footballers must circle wagons after a nightmare day in Tralee

Inside Track with John McIntyre

ON a late February day at Tuam Stadium in 2020, Padraic Joyce would have been forgiven for thinking that inter-county team management is not such a tough environment after all as he watched Galway footballers tear Tyrone apart (2-24 to 0-12) in a National League tie at Tuam Stadium.

That vibrant Galway display was the highlight of a really positive start to the league which also saw them unluckily lose by a point to Kerry in Tralee. The Tribesmen were building up serious momentum until, unfortunately, Covid-19 struck these shores in March of last year and it has been all downhill for the men in maroon since.

Returning to league action the following October, Galway suffered an unexpected 15-point drubbing from Mayo in Tuam and though the Tribesmen came close to turning the tables in the subsequent Connacht final at Pearse Stadium, their season had disappointingly petered out after such a promising beginning.

With the pandemic resulting in a belated start to GAA action in 2021, it was difficult to know how the long lay-off would impact on teams but even ahead of Galway’s return visit to Austin Park last Saturday, it remained a lingering worry how they had lost their way in similar circumstances last year . . . yet, no one could have been prepared for such a horror show against Kerry.

In losing their fourth consecutive game, Galway cut a sorry sight in falling to the county’s heaviest ever National League defeat. A 22-point walloping is unacceptable and embarrassing for a county of Galway’s tradition. They were in trouble from the off and only for goalkeeper Bernard Power’s interventions, it would have been even worse.

As you can imagine, the reaction in the county’s football heartlands has ranged between bewilderment and shame. The criticism has piled on the team management over their inexperience at this level, the failure to resort to a sweeper as Kerry went to town, and the overall conditioning of the Galway players which has drawn unfavourable comparisons with the county’s hurlers.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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