Galway’s mixed bag

WHERE do you start analysing that? If you were told beforehand that Galway would concede four goals and 12 points, and still beat Tipperary by five in the qualifiers at Tullamore, you’d have sent for the men in white coats.

But it was that sort of game on Saturday evening: An exciting goal-fest with some thrilling passages of attacking play . . . and a fair amount of sloppy, naive defending on both sides, too.

In a nutshell: A nervy Galway looked in trouble early on, banged in four goals in seven minutes either side of half-time to kill the game, and then conceded four goals in the last half hour of football to leave plenty to ponder.

Alan Mulholland’s men were quite devastating in front of goal, and punished lapses in concentration in the Tipperary defence. They turned three turnovers into three three-pointers – you can’t argue with that. But defensively, again, Galway were just not cohesive enough.

True, Galway was tighter in the first half, containing Tipperary to just seven points, although that had as much to do with poor shooting from the Premier County as it did with dogged defending.

Tipperary, overcome by the occasion, didn’t do themselves justice, kicking eight first-half wides, 11 in all. Many of their ‘heavy hitters’ were substituted – Michael Quinlivan, Barry Grogan, and Philip Austin all failing to live up to expectations. And yet Tipp had enough oomph to put the frighteners on Galway in that second half when they ran at them and threw caution to the wind.

Having not raised a green flag in the previous two Connacht Championship matches against Sligo and Mayo, Galway ‘went to town’ in front of a crowd of 7,837 at O’Connor Park.

A goal-drought that lasted over 140 minutes was ended abruptly as ruthless Galway bagged four in seven minutes. The first two goals came from unlikely sources – the two midfielders, Fiontán Ó Curraoin and the hard-working Thomas Flynn – approaching half-time to leave it 2-7 to 0-7 at the break.

Galway then turned the screw big-time with lively corner forward Danny Cummins and the energetic Michael Lundy netting a goal apiece immediately after the restart to quell any slim hopes of a Tipperary comeback.

It’s difficult to know what to make of the action from there to the finish, as the game was over as a contest, but the Galway management will be extremely disappointed at how their defensive frailties resurfaced again.

Galway’s defence creaked after the break. Arguably, it didn’t matter – Galway held a 14 points lead, (4-10 to 0-8), with a half hour to go, the game was up. But Kerry, their opponents in the All-Ireland quarter-final this Sunday at Croke Park (2pm), will pore over the video tapes of those Tipperary goals and will take huge encouragement.

All of the problems that were evident against Mayo in the Connacht final were there again in O’Connor Park, though just not as bad. Galway struggled in the opening exchanges to win kick-outs, a major downfall in McHale Park.

In the first 20 minutes, wing-back Colin O’Riordan won more breaking ball at kick-out time for Tipperary than the entire Galway team. This aspect improved as the game progressed, however, and by the end Galway won the kick-outs battle.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.