Galway footballers have nothing to lose

FEW if any Galway supporters leaving Pearse Stadium on May 19 of last year could have imagined that, just over one year on, they would be facing into a Connacht Final clash with Mayo in 2014 with anything less than trepidation.

Followers of the maroon and white had just seen the Tribesmen lose by 4-16 to 0-11 to their biggest rivals on home soil and it was hard to imagine any time in history when there was a bigger gulf between the West of Ireland’s biggest footballing rivals.

But time heals, teams evolve, and at least now there is some hope that Alan Mulholland’s men can do their county some justice, and restore pride in Castlebar, rather than capitulate as they did so drastically 14 months ago.

Galway redeemed themselves in last year’s qualifiers, provided a bit of hope in the second half of this year’s Allianz Football League, and there was a lot to enthuse about in the comfortable victories over London and Sligo in their two championship games so far.

Since the axing of both Johnny Duane and Eoin Concannon from the panel due to “internal reasons” just a week before the Sligo game, there has been a real unity of purpose and togetherness about the panel even if they are rated as 7/2 outsiders for Sunday’s clash with their greatest rivals.

This young Galway team has had to put up with a lot of stick in recent years, but they mean business, and they really have nothing to lose against a team with far higher expectations after reaching back-to-back All-Ireland finals.

A Galway win would be a shock, an honourable defeat would still leave them in decent fettle for the qualifiers, and they are surely unlikely to fall apart as alarmingly as 14 months ago when Mayo’s attackers ran through their defence with such ease that their followers ended up feeling sorry for the home fans in the end.

The 3-17 to 0-7 demolition of London in Ruislip may have been something of an anti-climax, but it showed that Mulholland’s men had the right attitude at a venue where other teams from the province have struggled in recent years.

There was no shouting from the rooftops after the five point win over Sligo, either, but there was an admirable work-rate throughout that five point win which suggested that the days of the men in maroon having a soft underbelly – so ruthlessly exposed by Mayo last year – might just have come to an end.

The new midfield partnership of Fiontan O Curraoin and Thomas Flynn, comrades in arms in two All-Ireland U-21 victories in three years, appeared to be coming of age nicely on that glorious midsummer evening at Markievicz Park.

Their match-up with the Mayo midfielders, two from the O’Shea brothers and Jason Gibbons, promises to be one of the most mouth-watering tussles of Sunday’s provincial final – in a sector where Eddie Hoare should have a key role to play.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.