Archive News
HurlersÕ league campaign ends in a whimper
Date Published: {J}
Waterford 1-17
Galway 1-16
STEPHEN GLENNON
AT WALSH PARK
GALWAY’S hurlers were left in little doubt about the magnitude of the work they have to do in terms of championship preparation after they produced another disjointed display in this pivotal National Hurling League tie at Walsh Park last Sunday.
Following their whitewash against Tipperary a fortnight previously – and uninspiring win over Dublin before that – you would have expected a kick of sorts when the Tribesmen faced a depleted Waterford in this final group game. Yet, for all that, the visitors looked far from a team that brought the dressing-room doors with them heading out onto the field for this one . . . despite the fact they only lost this contest by a point.
This was, for all intents and purposes, a League semi-final, so if the reigning champions secured a victory, then they would have advanced to a May decider against Kilkenny . . . a game that would certainly have stood to them in good stead in terms of their hurling and championship training.
For whatever reason, though, it didn’t happen for Galway on Sunday. Once again, they were outplayed and outmuscled – as they had been by Tipperary and Dublin in previous outings – but what made it more pronounced was that it happened this time against a Waterford team shorn of a plethora of its stars, including John Mullane, Stephen Molumphy and Eoin Kelly.
True, it’s just the League while Galway – who are far from where they want to be themselves in terms of injuries etc. – had made no less than nine changes to the starting line-up that faced Tipp. However, a worrying trend has developed in this National League campaign, which will concern all associated with Galway hurling, and that is the lack of stability.
For if anyone – from manager John McIntyre to the most cursory of supporters – sat down this morning to select their championship fifteen, on the evidence of this league campaign, they would be hard pressed to do so. Yes, a number of players have showed up well at various stages, but the consistency needed from game to game has not just been there and, consequently, this was one of the reasons why Galway suffered three defeats in seven league games.
In any event, their 2010 National League title win aside, Galway were in a far stronger position and, indeed, had a more settled facade heading into last year’s championship and while a litany of injuries has, of course, impacted greatly on Galway’s preparations this time round, it cannot wholly be attributed to the disappointing nature of many of the Westerners’ performances.
The bug bear has, and continues to be, Galway’s inability to win primary possession under the high ball. A trait that has, undeniably, been a blight on their game over the past decade, this fundamental flaw was once again prevalent in Waterford on Sunday.
Accordingly, one would have hoped the Tribesmen may have gained some degree of proficiency in the skill – given where Kilkenny and Tipperary have taken the game in the past six years or so – in recent times. However, this has not happened as Galway keep getting hammered – continually – under the high ball.
The management cannot be entirely blamed for this deficiency either as this has become the culture of Galway club hurling – take a look at the local club championships and you would find it hard to count 10 hurlers, senor or intermediate, who are defined by this skill.
That said, who says hurling has to be all about the high ball? Why do Kilkenny and Tipperary have to dictate the way the game is played? Both Portumna and Clarinbridge – and Galway minor and U21 teams – have won All-Ireland titles in recent years playing a particular brand of hurling – a brand not reliant on the high ball – and that is the type of hurling Galway should be playing. Let the Kilkennys and Tipperarys mould their gold to their choosing, but let Galway cut diamonds.
The Tribesmen, under the current management, have become obsessed with winning the physical battles – breaking the tackle, taking the ball from the ruck and so on – but Galway club and underage hurling at present has become more than that.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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