Footballers slide closer to the drop

Date Published: {J}

Kerry 2-16

Galway 1-9

Dara Bradley

Brace yourselves Galway football supporters – things could get a lot worse before they get better. Galway were every ounce the inferior outfit as the score line suggests and probably more so.

Kerry dished out the sort of hammering at Pearse Stadium on Sunday that Cork had threatened to give, and probably should have given, the previous week at Páirc Uí Rinn and the reigning All-Ireland and League title holders have consigned the Tribesmen to a National Football League Division One relegation dogfight.

Galway, rooted to the foot of the table behind Tyrone, Monaghan and Derry on scoring difference, are now teetering on the brink of relegation to Division Two, and judging by this performance that might be the appropriate place for them.

In the wake of this embarrassing loss – it was even worse than the humiliating 2-15 to 1-11 defeat at the hands of the Kingdom in the last round of the league in Tralee last season – Galway manager Joe Kernan said his team looked like boys playing against men in the second half.

The Armagh man wasn’t far off the mark but you get the feeling his comments did a disservice to boys – at least underage teams would have shown a bit of interest, heart and hunger and a modicum of pride.

That was the galling aspect of this lethargic performance. Galway, unlike the spirit they exhibited in their comeback against Cork the previous week, showed no appetite for a fight back against Kerry. They simply rolled over and allowed Kerry tickle their bellies.

Kernan has talked about trying to get consistency into his charges’ performances but the only consistent thing about Galway so far this year is they have been consistently inconsistent. Of course it is early days still and Galway can turn things around in the weeks and months ahead, but it’s not looking good.

If the 35 minutes barren spell after Michael Meehan hobbled off with a knee ligament injury was anything to go by, then the scoring return from the remaining three league matches will be paltry.

Things went seriously downhill after the Caltra man was forced-off and Galway’s over-reliance on Meehan and Nicky Joyce, who was unusually subdued and never recovered from a blood injury early on, was exposed.

Galway didn’t score between the 20th minute of the first half and the 18th minute of the second and it wasn’t that they hit a few wides or were unlucky.

Quite the contrary, the maroon and white never even threatened to raise a flag in that period and ended the wait when Kerry midfielder Micheál Quirke cocked-up a free kick out of defence that bounced off one of his teammates falling kindly into Joyce’s path and the Killererin man set up Paul Conroy for his first of three points.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel