Galway brush past feeble Mayo

GALWAY 3-15

MAYO   0-11

LESS than 24 hours after the Galway football bubble suffered a severe dose of deflation with the U-21 All-Ireland final loss to Dublin, the county’s minor team charged in with a power pump of confidence on Sunday in McHale Park to wipe out a feeble Mayo challenge in a one-sided Connacht quarter-final.

Few observers of the under-age code could have predicted the scale of the Mayo demise, given that county’s dominance of colleges’ football in the province this season, but by half-time – when Galway led by 3-7 to 0-7 – after playing into the wind, this contest was well and truly sorted.

It was slightly hard to fathom how Galway could have been so dominant in almost every aspect of the play from basic ball handling skills to physical power in the 50-50 contests for possession – in most phases of the game, Mayo just weren’t competitive.

Winning manager Stephen Joyce will of course be delighted with the level of commitment and overall focus on his side but he will also factor in the fact that – for whatever the reason – this was one of Mayo’s most inept displays at under-age level for many’s the long day.

Galway though could only play what was put in front of them, but even at this very early stage of the Summer, they have the look of a side who could once again make a serious stab for All-Ireland honours.

The Galway win gave them a three-in-a-row of successes against Mayo but rather surprisingly it wasn’t their biggest ever margin of success over their old rivals – two years ago, at the same venue, Stephen Joyce’s team pulled off a 3-14 to 1-3 success – so for the moment the balance of power at this level seems to have swung pretty much the way of the maroon camp.

Tactically, Galway managed to undermine pretty seriously any Mayo defensive plan through the opening 20 minutes, with a simple but very effective strategy.

Evan Murphy moved out to midfield as the high-fielding Daniel Kenny loitered around the Mayo square with intent – what followed caused absolute chaos in the home defence.

Murphy delivered a series of inch-perfect long balls into the Mayo square and with corner back Jack Coyne isolated in a series of one-to-one confrontations with Kenny, Galway had the scent of goals in their nostrils from an early stage.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.