Same old story as Galway come up well short again

Inside Track with John McIntyre

HEAVES or revolts by GAA players against their management have little tradition of turning a team into All-Ireland champions – barring the notable exception of the Offaly hurlers in 1998 when their mid-season mutiny against Babs Keating ultimately delivered an unlikely championship triumph that September.

It’s still a seldom used nuclear option for disaffected inter-county squads, but last autumn in the West not one but two high profile teams went for broke off-field in successfully removing their sideline personnel after big-day defeats in Croke Park. It was almost as if the Mayo footballers and the Galway hurlers believed their management staff were holding them back.

Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly, the joint Mayo bosses, immediately saw the writing on the wall and stepped down quickly, but Anthony Cunningham refused to budge until belatedly realising that his understandable defiance would end up hurting the county he had served so loyally as a player and manager. In his resignation statement, he criticised the ‘kangaroo court’ environment and was still clearly struggling to come to terms with the players’ uprising after leading them to two All-Ireland finals in four years.

But now in the space of little more than a fortnight, the Mayo and Galway teams have been left looking a little foolish after both failed their first big tests of the summer. Mayo’s five-year reign in Connacht was ended on their home turf in Castlebar when their unexpectedly negative game plan contributed to an unexpected defeat by Galway. They looked men under pressure and failed to perform.

At least, the Galway hurlers had a cut at Croke Park last Sunday, but in a Leinster final which bore remarkable similarities to the 2015 All-Ireland decider, the Tribesmen again flattered to deceive as they just didn’t have the answers or leadership to cope with Kilkenny’s marked increase in intensity levels on the resumption. Who will the players blame on this occasion? Lads, it’s time to take some personal responsibility.

Don’t get me wrong as Galway put up sterling resistance and hardly took a step backwards until deep into the third quarter, but once the Cats sharpened the claws the response from the maroon-clad challengers was disappointing. Too many key figures – notably, Joe Canning – were again marked absent when the heat came on and the body language of several players was that of beaten men long before the finish. Resolve rather than commitment was the problem.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.