Galway steady ship with a critical league success over the Rossies

Inside Track with John McIntyre

IT wouldn’t have mattered one iota if it was the worst game of Gaelic football ever played, the only thing that counted for Galway was to win their Connacht derby against Roscommon at Pearse Stadium last Sunday. And not alone did the Tribesmen collect the spoils, they did so with a fair degree of authority.

After the pummelling Galway were on the receiving end of in Tralee the previous weekend, beating Roscommon by six points just eight days later restored significant pride to the maroon jersey. It was a real pressure test for both the team management and players, but they pulled together to show that the Kerry trimming was not a fair reflection of their current worth.

There is no hiding the fact that Galway were awful in Austin Stack Park and it left them understandably running the gauntlet of criticism locally. The prophets of doom were quickly out in force and it’s not to hard imagine how challenging the subsequent days proved for team manager Padraic Joyce and all those involved.

A defeat of such magnitude can destablise everything in a set up and though some tough talking would have been done behind the scenes, it’s clear the Galway camp stayed united. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have mustered that resolute response against Roscommon. Sure, they were taking a big step down in class, but confidence among the players had to have been brittle ahead of the game.

Galway, however, needed to make a stand and they came out fighting. In a way, their season was on the line for the consequences of another defeat – which would have been their fifth on the trot – doesn’t bear thinking about. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that as Joyce had his men primed for a reaction to the Kerry trauma.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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