Inside Track
Troubled Galway must come out with fire in their bellies
Inside Track with John McIntyre
GALWAY football supporters may have developed a certain immunity to feelings of disappointment and frustration over the past decade such has been the scale of poor results for the Tribesmen, but none of them would have been prepared for the disaster which unfolded in Portlaoise on Saturday evening . . . for this was a shocker of extreme proportions.
Even by the standards of Galway’s ongoing struggles, a 15-point drubbing by second-raters Laois has led to almost unprecedented consternation and despair in the county’s football heartlands. It represents arguably Galway’s worst league defeat in living memory and has heaped renewed pressure on manager Alan Mulholland and his misfiring squad.
Galway shouldn’t be this bad, but they are. Managers are nearly always the fall guys in such situations, but the players can’t be allowed to duck their responsibilities either for an alarming trouncing which has left fans demoralised and searching for answers. The killing part was that it had looked a decent enough team – at least, on paper – assembled by Mulholland and his mentors for the trip to the midlands.
There was a fair clutch of All-Ireland winning U-21 players in Galway’s ranks, there was no shortage of experience either and with eight of the squad involved in Connacht’s long-awaited Inter-provincial triumph at Tuam Stadium the previous weekend, the expectation was that the men in maroon had a fighting chance of getting off the mark in Division Two.
But Galway hardly fought at all in O’Moore Park. Instead, they were embarrassingly submissive against a well-organised and tactically smarter Laois outfit. The lack of leadership in the squad is an old chestnut by this stage, but it was the lack of pride reportedly evident on Saturday evening which has put the spotlight on the players’ mindset and bottle.
At least, Galway had played in parts in difficult opening league assignments against Meath and Donegal, but they collapsed altogether in what had been perceived as the most winnable of the team’s early group fixtures. Now facing a desperate battle against relegation, Galway need to stop the rot as quickly as possible before the damage becomes irretrievable in the short term.
Against Laois, they were too lateral; too laboured in possession; lacking directness; and off the pace. It all contributed to a nightmare performance and the writing was on the wall when they trailed by 1-7 to 0-5 at the interval having been backed by the wind. Midfielder Kevin Meaney’s goal was the result of a turnover in the Galway defence and with Ross Munnelly and Donal Kingston kicking points for sport, Laois more or less controlled the battleground.
Naturally, it will be difficult for the management and players to lift themselves after such a humiliating defeat, but they have no choice. Every game is different and Galway do have the potential to be much better than this. Feeling sorry is no remedy and they must take a leaf out of the books of the Dublin hurlers. Remember, they were abject against Galway in the first round of the league at Pearse Stadium only to turn it around with an aggressive, high intensity effort which floored Clare just seven days later.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
SOMETHING very odd happened to Tyrone in the Ulster championship in early April. On their home turf of Healy Park, they were doing nearly everything expected of them when leading Monaghan by five points at half-time. You couldn’t say for definite that the match was done and dusted, but the 2021 All-Ireland champions were in pole position.
You would have expected them to drive on against an honest if limited Monaghan outfit. Instead, Tyrone didn’t score for the opening 16 minutes of the second-half and in an enthralling finale, were left stunned by defender Ryan’s Toole’s stoppage-time goal snatching the honours for the Farney men on a 2-17 to 1-18 scoreline.
A couple of weeks later, Monaghan themselves had exited the Ulster title race when Derry comfortably got the better of them (1-21 to 2-10), leaving us more puzzled than ever by Tyrone’s dramatic decline since overcoming Mayo to claim Sam barely 20 months previously. Last year, they crashed out of Ulster by 11 points to Derry and subsequently came up six short against Armagh in the All-Ireland qualifiers.
Against that background, their recent loss to Monaghan shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did. Tyrone may have made a shambolic defence of the All-Ireland title, but there is still a lot of quality in their ranks. They have an adventurous ‘keeper in Niall Morgan, while the long-serving Peter Harte, Darragh Canavan, Darren McCurry, Cathal McShane, Conor Meyler, Mattie Donnelly, and Conn Kilpatrick are all top-class performers when in the mood.
There’s hardly been a word about them for the past six weeks. Tyrone are lying low, desperately trying to rediscover the verve and cohesion which took them all the way in 2021. Their pride is on the line. It makes them dangerous opponents for Galway in the opening round of All-Ireland group matches at Pearse Stadium on Saturday.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Inside Track with John McIntyre
GALWAY footballers won’t get much credit for their easy victory over Sligo in Sunday’s Connacht Final in Castlebar, but when a team achieves something that hasn’t been done for 20 years, perhaps we should be a little more appreciative of the Tribesmen retaining the JJ Nestor Cup for the first time in two decades.
To be honest, if Galway were to live up to their standing as serious All-Ireland contenders, they needed to be doing a number on Sligo. In this year’s National League, the counties were three divisions apart and though Tony McEntee’s team achieved promotion and were on a nine-match unbeaten run, a serious rise in class faced them at MacHale Park.
Granted, Sligo made a bright start with three points in the opening five minutes from Pat Spillane, Sean Carrabine and the accurate Darragh Cummins, but they would only manage two more by the break despite having the wind behind them. Though wing back Luke Towey was catching the eye with his runs up-field, Galway rarely looked under pressure.
Sligo were bravely committing numbers to the middle third, which meant they were a little light in numbers around their own posts. They couldn’t afford to lose possession coming out of their own half, but that’s what happened in the build up to Galway’s second goal. Damien Comer overturned Cian Lally and from his counter-attack, Matthew Tierney expertly finished to the net at the near post.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
IS the Leinster hurling championship something of a sham compared to its Munster counterpart? Everybody knows who will end up in the provincial final in the east, but nobody knows the two teams who will feature in the ultimate battle for supremacy down south.
All-Ireland champions Limerick aren’t guaranteed to even make it out of the province, never mind reach the Munster final, after their narrow loss to Clare in Saturday evening’s epic at the Gaelic Grounds. Everything is still on the line for the five counties involved, although Waterford are again under serious pressure after losing their opening two matches.
In Leinster, there is little of that drama. Galway and Kilkenny are miles ahead of the rest; the only thing at stake is whether Dublin or Wexford – they meet in Croke Park on Saturday – will be the third team to emerge for the All-Ireland series. It’s a game which is hard to call. Wexford are going backwards while Dublin look callow as Micheál Donoghue is trying to build the nucleus of a new team.
Though Antrim are improving – they held the Dubs to a draw and only lost to Wexford by four points – the men from the Glens would be out of their depth in Munster; while Westmeath are proving cannon-fodder for everyone else. Since Galway headed east in 2009, they have clashed with Kilkenny in seven Leinster finals and another showdown is inevitable next month.
In contrast, every match in Munster is virtually do-or die. When Clare rolled into Limerick last Saturday, they knew another defeat after losing to Tipperary in the opening round would leave them on the precipice of exiting the championship. There’s a real dog-eat-dog appeal about all the games. In Leinster, there are two big hounds, and the rest are chihuahuas.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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