Galway get job done

Dara Bradley

 GALWAY senior football manager Alan Mulholland believes the disastrous defeat to Mayo six weeks ago in the Connacht championship will stand to this group of players on the qualifiers’ route and in future campaigns.

Speaking candidly after Galway’s less than convincing four-point victory over Tipperary on Saturday before 3,600 souls at Pearse Stadium, Mulholland said that when the chips were down after exiting the provincial title race, new leaders emerged.

“To be honest the last six weeks have really thought us a lot about ourselves. When you get shell-shocked like that, you see who is in it and who is not in it. Definitely, it might sound weird but, I really think that it is possibly a positive thing for this group of players. We were all in a car crash together and it’s bringing them tighter and different guys are speaking in the dressing room and showing a bit of leadership,” said Mulholland.

“Every championship game you play it brings you on a bit. We dealt poorly with it against Mayo and that was the big difference between the two sides. They were used to big days, Croke Park and our lads weren’t used to that. We’d two championship games last year, two championship games the year before. We’ve had a series of years where a couple of games and that’s it. It’s hard to get good at something if you don’t practice it. Championship days are something you need to practice and I’m, hoping that this day, today, is something that will bring us on again.

“Even though we lost by 17 points against Mayo, it brought us on. It was a fairly gut-wrenching experience but it will improve the lads for that experience. So today, against Tipperary, even though it wasn’t a fantastic experience, we wouldn’t be delighted with it, it’s a championship day and it’s a win and they’re hard to come by.

#”We held an open and honest meeting (after the Mayo game) but it wasn’t as detailed and in-depth and as soul searching as maybe some other counties have done. When you get beaten like we were beaten you have to acknowledge it, you have to look at it but there’s only so much you can talk about it. We had to look forward. We talked about it but the following training session we said ‘look, let’s look to the future rather than dwelling on that too much’.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.