O’Donnell hopes Galway can break Mayo’s grip on province

GALWAY versus Mayo at Pearse Stadium on Sunday (4pm): victim and perpetrator returning to the scene of the crime.

It is two years since Mayo destroyed Galway when they last met in Salthill but the horrific imagery of that day remains fresh in the consciousness of local Gaelic football fans. It’s still raw.

Galway restored some pride in defeat to Mayo in Castlebar last year but surely only a win over the ‘auld enemy’ will entirely erase the hurt from the humiliation in 2013. The final score was 4-16 to 0-11; Galway, reduced to 13 men, were beaten out the gap, the 17-points deficit, a record-equalling losing margin that stretched back over 100 years.

Galway centre-back, Gary O’Donnell, returning from injury that day, was only sprung from the bench with 15 minutes to go. By then the contest was long over, and it had turned into an exhibition for Mayo.

“It was a hard watch really,” admits the Tuam Stars man, whose Mayo parents Pat and Mona are from Louisburgh and Claremorris.

“Watching the game at the start you’re itching to get in and hoping to make an impact but once I came on  . . . you’re not going to turn it down but at the same time it was a bit surreal. We were down to 13 men, we were 12 or 13 points down and you’re kind of chasing your tail. It was damage limitation at that stage.

“We probably weren’t prepared for the level of intensity they were playing at. They’re a Division One team the last few years and competing at the highest level. We walked into the unknown really. They kind of blitzed us. They played at a level of intensity that we weren’t used to and we needed to learn from that and hopefully we will.

“We were just a bit vulnerable and they did a job on us . . . It hasn’t been mentioned at all, to be honest with you. Obviously a couple of lads have it in the back of their minds that they want to put things right but from our perspective we haven’t discussed it at all. We’re focussing on the now and what’s important for us and what we can do.”

Sunday is only a Connacht championship semi-final but Mayo are on a ‘drive for five’ provincial titles this year. O’Donnell, a business and PE teacher in Presentation College, Athenry, says that’s not something that has been specifically mentioned within the squad but breaking Mayo’s supremacy out west is the aim.

“They have a stranglehold on the province. We are obviously looking to stop that. But being honest about it I don’t think the five-in-a-row has been mentioned at all by the lads. Small little things like that, I’m sure lads have it in the back of their minds about certain things and putting a few things right. The fact that they have had so much recent success in Connacht is definitely a driving force to maybe stop it and maybe turn it around. During the 1960s and 70s, Galway had their periods of dominance and Mayo turned it around and hopefully we can do that as well.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.