Traumatic day for hapless Tribesmen in Tralee hiding

Kerry 4-21

Galway 0-11

STEPHEN GLENNON IN TRALEE

IT may only have been the opening fixture of the National Football League, but if Galway do not improve drastically from last Saturday’s 22-point massacre at the hands of Kerry at Austin Stack Park, their 2021 campaign will be over before it has even begun.

The question on everyone’s lips this week is: what has happened to Galway’s senior footballers? In spring of last year, they were making huge strides in closing the gap on All-Ireland champions Dublin, but since the pandemic hit, they have struggled to generate any momentum.

Indeed, when Galway lost to Mayo on a 3-23 to 0-17 scoreline in their National League tie at Tuam Stadium in October, it was viewed as a blip – albeit an embarrassing one – but, still, plenty of reasons, including injuries, could be found to explain the aberration.

Three games later, the ‘aberration’ has occurred again and this time the circumstances and backdrop for both counties were the same: short run-in, no challenge games, two teams looking to put the disappointments of 2020 behind them.

The way Kerry and Galway started – Paudie Clifford and Damien Comer each registering a point in the opening 90 seconds – this looked like it was going to be a real humdinger and, yet, what transpired afterwards, has horrified Galway supporters.

In the opening quarter, Kerry hit Galway so hard that if The Kingdom was an iceberg, it would have been the one that sank the Titanic, such was the devastation. For the Munster kingpins produced nothing short of a cold, clinical, ruthless display that all but ended this game as a contest by the first water break as they led 1-7 to 0-2.

At every opportunity and in every area of the field, Kerry squeezed the visitors, forcing Galway into turnover after turnover after turnover, and Peter Keane’s charges were relentless in this exercise throughout the 70 plus minutes.

To the fore for the victors was the exceptional David Clifford, who tallied 3-6 before he was withdrawn with a quarter of the game left to play. His brother Paudie shot another 1-2 while Sean O’Shea (0-7, three frees, two 45s and two marks) and Killian Spillane (0-4) were also outstanding.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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