Galway on red alert for stiff Hyde Park opener

Date Published: 17-May-2012

FRANK FARRAGHER

TWO league campaigns, both equally speckled with hope and disappointment, have now been cast into the memory bank and for the footballers of Galway and Roscommon, next Sunday’s Connacht championship quarter-final in Hyde Park (4.0), will provide the real acid test for what progress has been made through the spring season.

Based on league displays, there is a kind of pecking order in place for 2012, with Division One finalists, Mayo, on top of the pile, followed by Galway – close to the top of the second tier – with Roscommon and Sligo just out of the promotion frame in Division 3.

The league status of those four counties does count for something in terms of the quality of teams they squared up to in the first chunk of the season but the Connacht championship, through thick and thin, has always been a great leveller, with often the motivational advantage lying with the side considered to have slipped into the lower orders.

Rival managers, Alan Mulholland and Des Newton, are making no secret, in either word or deed, that the future for both counties lies in youth. Earlier this week, Newton called in eight of the under-21 panel that came very close to toppling the Dubs in this year’s All-Ireland final at Tullamore.

Mulholland is also singing off the same hymn sheet. After guiding Galway to under-21 glory in 2011, he has been solidly consistent in placing his faith in a backbone of young players through the league campaign, and he has stuck with them through the odd hiccup or two.

Here and there, he could have been tempted to go back to the more

experienced tried and trusted hands of yester year, but he has laid the foundation stones in youth. He deserves credit for giving the younger players time to bed in, against strong opposition.

There were few if any surprises in Mulholland’s starting fifteen for the Roscommon tie, although a few positions did probably take a few minutes longer to sort out when he sat down with Alan Flynn and Donal Ó Fatharta over the weekend to finalise the team.

The biggest call in defence was probably the centre back posting with Milltown’s Diarmuid Blake, after a couple of very impressive league displays, pushing hard for the No. 6 jersey, which could have resulted in the redeployment of Jonathan Duane to the full back line.

However, apart from the break necessitated by the commitment to the under-21 match against Mayo, the Galway management have been committed to Duane in the centre back position, and the St. James’s clubman hasn’t been found wanting in terms of attitude and commitment.

Through the latter stages of the league, Joe Bergin and Greg Higgins, have presented themselves as Galway’s most consistent midfield pairing while the positioning of Thomas Flynn at left half forward, will be seen as a move to give Galway three big men contesting kick-outs.

That should give more scope to Mark Hehir to have a freer wing forward role, with Paul Conroy and Sean Armstrong left inside, to do the scoring damage, if they can be ‘hit’ with quick early ball.

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