Improving Galway hold their heads as Derry lash referee

Inside Track with John McIntyre

DERRY manager Brian McIver was spitting fire after last Saturday’s All-Ireland football qualifier at Pearse Stadium – and it was hard to blame him. The Ulster team had come out on the wrong side of several controversial refereeing decisions, not least the black carding of centre back Brendan Rogers and being denied a second half penalty when the game was still in the melting pot.

To compound Derry’s sense of injustice at the hands of Cork official Conor Lane, they also had a number of disputed frees awarded against them, with nine of Galway’s 11 points coming from the placed ball. McIver also resigned immediately after the game which gave him greater scope to condemn the overall standard of refereeing in Gaelic football. He didn’t hold back and you would have a certain degree of sympathy for the Derry boss.

For all that, Galway were deserving winners after overcoming a poor start to set up an intriguing date against last year’s All-Ireland finalists Donegal in ten days time. New manager Kevin Walsh has added a harder edge to their play; they’ve become more cynical; and have finally brought into the modern-day style of defending in numbers. In short, the Tribesmen are less pleasing on the eye, but have become harder to beat.

They weren’t short of individual inspiration against Derry either with the half back line particularly excelling. Two of them, Gary O’Donnell and Gareth Bradshaw sent over the team’s only points from play, while the third, Liam Silke, played several hands in Danny Cummins’ decisive goal in the 62nd minute. Along with Gary Sice, who landed a series of invaluable frees, these quintet were arguably Galway’s top performers against Derry.

But Fiontán Ó Curraoin and Thomas Flynn are an improving midfield duo, too, and though he failed to score, the team’s full forward Damien Comer remains a handful for any backline. In a further boost, Shane Walsh returned to competitive action late in the game after suffering the trauma (and breaking his wrist) of being involved in that fatal traffic accident last month. Furthermore, they shouldn’t fear Donegal either on the weekend after next as they looked somewhat battle fatigued when surrendering their Ulster title to Monaghan in Clones last Sunday.

Reverting to Derry’s grievances at Pearse Stadium, there is no doubt that Rogers did not deserve a black card and that a couple of frees awarded against them were dubious, but the failure of Lane to award Derry a penalty just before Cummins’ superbly taken goal is much harder to be definitive about. Countless TV replays fail to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Finian Hanley fouled Cailean O’Boyle as he tried to make contact with Eoin Bradley’s looped pass across the square.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.