Sports
Galway footballers bow out to Kerry
KERRY brought the final curtain down on the Galway senior footballers’ involvement in this year’s All-Ireland championship, inflicting a seven points defeat at the quarter-final stage at Croke Park on Sunday.
The Kingdom’s two pronged attacking threat of James O’Donoghue and Paul Geaney proved unstoppable as Kerry ran out 1-20 to 2-10 convincing winners.
Those two classy inside-forwards, O’Donoghue and Geaney, did damage, bagging 1-9 between them.
And overall Kerry’s forwards, who all scored, were ruthlessly clinical and economical, nearly always taking the right option.
Galway’s attack, on the other hand, was firing blanks. The forwards tried hard and their effort and work-rate couldn’t be faulted but they left their scoring boots at home.
Galway kicked 10 first half wides, 15 in all, which is criminal for a team with ambitions to reach the last four.
The first ten minutes of the game was fierce frustrating from a Galway perspective: Of the six scoring chances Galway had during that period, they hit five wides and conceded one turnover.
A bit panicked and lacking composure, Galway players’ shot selection and execution was poor.
In the opening quarter hour, Kerry scored 1-4 with five attacks: Every opportunity grasped.
Full report in this week’s Connacht Sentinel