Galway provide hope for future but not there yet

Inside Track with John McIntyre

GALWAY got what they needed at McHale Park last Sunday – a performance, and some tangible hope for the future. Ending Mayo’s stranglehold on the provincial championship would have been another aspiration for the Tribesmen heading to Castlebar, but deep down they probably knew that challenge was always going to prove beyond them unless the champions had fallen into significant decline.

Certainly, Mayo’s league campaign had raised some concerns about possible deterioration among their followers, especially their failure to close out a couple of games they appeared to be in control of. The champions were no great shakes either in the Connacht semi-final against an under-rated Roscommon, but James Horan’s men remain a focused and talented squad who were always keeping their arch rivals at bay in Sunday’s showdown.

The fact that Galway put it up to their hosts, notably after half-time, and, more importantly, never died or threw in the towel after the concession of any of Mayo’s three goals shows that progress is being made. The team fought to the finish and though the result was inevitable for large tracts of the match, Galway managed to keep the title holders honest and have clearly improved compared to last year’s mauling at Pearse Stadium.

Of course, there is still a major bridge to be closed. Mayo won their fourth consecutive Connacht final apparently playing in their comfort zone; they were physically dominant and their far greater experience was evident too. Aidan O’Shea, who lined out on the forty, handled more ball than any other player on the field and such is his power that Galway found it difficult to curb him.

There had been high hopes that the youthful midfield pairing of Fiontán Ó Curraoin and Thomas Flynn, who were so impressive against Sligo, would really ask Mayo questions under the dropping ball, but Sunday represented a steep rise in class and they struggled to exert a major influence, although Flynn proved a useful link man at times. Furthermore, at this level, Galway needed to take the vast majority of their chances to have any hopes of causing an upset.

Facing the wind in the opening-half, they were first on the mark with a Shane Walsh free and though having no shortage of possession, Galway’s shooting left something to be desired with the hard-working Danny Cummins and Eddie Hoare’s radars completely on the blink as they contributed six wides between them. Mindful of the way Mayo had run through them last year, Galway set up defensively, with team captain Paul Conroy and Hoare, both selected in the full forward line, more often than not to be found around the middle of the field.

Undoubtedly, the tactic clogged up Mayo’s attacking avenues and after ten minutes the hosts had only two points on the board. Galway were hitting on the counter-attack but the required accuracy wasn’t there, with raiding wing back Gareth Bradshaw thumping a close range effort off the post near the interval when there was a possible goal scoring opportunity on. Alan Mulholland’s team came much closer, however, to rattling the Mayo net on several occasions in the second-half, not least when Walsh smashed the ball off the crossbar after a searing run in its opening seconds.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.