Galway left to count cost of failing to hold onto the ball

By Pádraic Ó Ciadhra

MUCH has been made of the bit of cheer that the return of Gaelic games have given the country in these difficult times. Well, it’s safe to say there hasn’t been much cheering in Galway since their return.

Since things restarted last month, the Galway senior footballers have played three games and lost all three. To make matters worse, two of those losses were at the hands of Mayo, one by 15 points and the other by a single point, and it’s hard to know which was worse.

The 2020 season will leave plenty of counties pondering the ‘what ifs’ but few sets of supporters will be left scratching their heads just as much as those in Galway. The list of questions is a long one.

What if the season hadn’t been called to a halt in March, with Galway top of Division 1 and flying under Pádraic Joyce? What if his team could have had a tune-up against Sligo instead of going into a Connacht final cold? What if John Daly hadn’t been injured and the likes of Damien Comer, Ronan Steede and others were fully fit? What if Galway could just hold onto the football?

You can be sure Joyce and his management team aren’t spending a second focusing on what could have been and the simple matter of fact is that this game was there for the taking and it will be some time before a more open route to an All-Ireland final presents itself.

There’s no doubt that Mayo were not at their best in Pearse Stadium but had Galway been even a little bit more careful with the ball, they would have done enough to win.

Pádraic Joyce’s frustration was clear after the game as he lamented his players’ sloppiness and the figures certainly don’t make for pretty reading from a Galway point of view.

In the first half alone, Galway coughed up easy possession to their opponents 20 times. Mayo’s first three scores, two points from Tommy Conroy and one from Cillian O’Connor, all came from mistakes made by Galway with ball in hand. By half-time, six of Mayo’s eight scores had come from turnovers and Galway were lucky that their opponents had wasted opportunities to punish them further.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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