Galway v Leitrim 14/6/08

[GaillimhIarthair]

Galway's football support is very poor alright though obviously Salthill doesn't help matters.

Its particularly poor this year and to be honest Salthill as a venue is sometimes trotted out as an all to handy excuse for poor attendences. 

[Barney]

Whatever the problem with Salthill its not that far a trek for the Tuam brigade.

Anybody interested enough will travel - but as one of the programmes on TV was saying yesterday there is a lot of luke-warm support for county teams out there. A core will go to all games, and a large bandwagon jumps on board come August when Croke Park is now full of corporate D4-type Ole Olers.

As well as that €30 is outrageous for a stand ticket. Mind you I enjoyed the game yesterday and felt I got value for money.

Galway have work to do. Leitrim always push them though, and remember they have been focussed on a Connacht Final all season. They remain hot favourites.

[mouview]

Unsettled in defence, bad at midfield, good scoring potential up front - Galway siupporters could be forgiven for thinking they were watching the hurlers yesterday. Coyne was a loss as Sice isn't really a stopper at CHB. Mullahy had a poor game overall and was a long way off his man. Further back, Hanley was given a fair testing by Maxwell, as was Damien Burke by his opponent and failed it, jury still out on Bradshaw. Defence improved as a unit though when Barry came on at HT. Up front the FBP (Fiachra Breathnach Project) has now to cease immediately and funding diverted elsewhere. Nicky wasn't as good as some believe - too greedy in possession. Matt Clancy wasn't as good as v Ross. but a knock in the first half stung him a bit I'd say. Michael Meehan was in better form but ball-winning is a big weakness in his game. Conroy should have been given more time as he's the future, long term at midfield I'd say. As usual PJ was several classes above everyone else abroad, further augmenting my contention that he's perhaps the greatest Connacht forward ever.

A Connacht final against Mayo (probably) will bring back the fans in big numbers. However time is running out for Sammon to settle his team; defeat in the final will be sustainable if it highlights once and for all how weaknesses in the team must be addressed.

[GaillimhIarthair]

Up front the FBP (Fiachra Breathnach Project) has now to cease immediately and funding diverted elsewhere.

[MaroonAndWhite]

No doubt the Galway crowd are fairly fickle on the whole  . Its the same faces there week in week out....freezing the bollix off yourself in Tubbercurry at an FBD game, up in Ballybofey, Crossmaglen and God knows where else for league games. Its disheartening for Galway people actually going to the games as it undoubtedly is for the players. At the minute its a county of "bar stool pundits" as P Joyce put it in the Tribune yesterday.....quick to abuse, not quite so swift to support. The "Salthill factor" while definitely a cause of the diminished support is not an excuse.

Damien Burke is a massive worry now....I dont know where the form of 18 months ago is gone. He was one of the best man markers in the game then but something seems not right now. He was left standing umpteen times yesterday and didnt seem to react quickly to anything going on around him. Bradshaw will hold his spot and Fitz will come in for Burke next day if he gets over the hamstring problems. Hanley was the same for the goal.....Maxwell was 5 yards away from him before Hanley even moved. Seemed leaden footed which is surprising since I didnt think Sammon was from the Ger Loughnane school of running up sand dunes training.

Sice while not a CB did ok considering he was a last minute switch in there. Blake had another setback in his recovery unfortunately.....i think he would be the man for 6 at this stage. Its a backline desperately in need of a bit of physical presence and hes just the man to do it. Coyne hasnt done anything wrong really, just wouldnt inspire the same confidence in me as Blake does.

Barry Cullinane proved he must start against Sligo/Mayo. Coleman beside him. In fairness to Coleman, he did ok yesterday given his size and the fact that Lydon may as well have stayed at home with the "fans". Coleman broke a good bit of ball which was probably as much as he could do....there just wasnt the same bite in the half backs/half forwards in winning the breaking ball.

Like Mouview, didnt think too much of what Nicky did yesterday. I think he should be left in the inside line if at all possible. He doesnt like the dirty work of scrapping for broken ball. You can imagine yourself that with his pace, if he gets good early ball in to him he would roast most corner backs and he is a very good finisher. On the other hand, the first cousin was unreal again yesterday.....where did that burst of pace come out of for the goal! He fairly turned the jets on! Id be inclined to give Dunleavy another chance on the wing....he was bad against Ros but hes better than that. And as for the bould Fiachra.....well...... Cormac Bane has to start next day.....

[Rossfan]

. Saving Rossfan's and Matt's presence, Roscommon have never been as weak in living memory, and yet still they turn out game after game. Fair play to them.

Sure what else would we as supporters do?
Of course we were "customers" we would have taken our custom elsewhere long ago 

[Kilconly SuperSub]

The Tuam issue is huge..

Club games in Tuam in the towards the end of the Championship will be getting crowds like yesterdays. The problem is Salthill apart from being unaccessible with Traffic a nightmare it is also a slap int he face to Tuam...
Last year or the Year before I went to the Club quarters all on one day two is Salthill and two in Tuam... Salthill was lucky to have a thousand (seemed like a few hundred for either game) while Tuam was over 6 thousand which came for the first and stayed till the end.. Loads of neutrals.. Galway is desperate at supporting any sport (bar Galway Races)... Connaght Rugby has the same problem...

By moving to Galway the fans were taken for granted and they revolted...

My father didn't miss a game until Salthill took the games.. He just won't go to Salthill the same for the brother... They feel absolutely cheated by Galway Football in that respect... He will be up at the crack of dawn for the Connaght final because it is in Castlebar, he went to the league encounter...

The thing is Galway's support is in Tuam. Most of the opposition have to pass thru Tuam to get to Galway... Traffic is all going up one road which creates a nightmare.. the bridges are bad normally... Tuam is a dream to get in and out off. And will be better when the train line goes in... The position of the pitch is awful...

So the best thing for Galway Football is to go home, back to Tuam...

P.S. I live in Salthill...

[pairc sean]

disappointed today naturally enough but really there are times when you just have to say you're not good enough. Leitrim did OK yesterday, but there were a number of our lads who just never got going for whatever reason. Galway seem to have problems at midfield and there were problems at the back. You'd have to think that one is related to the oher and if they can shore up midfield, it might make life a bit easier on the defence. I thought the movement in the Galway forwards was exceptional at times and they are developing nicely overall.

Despite some comments to the contrary on here, once Leitrim are out, we generally turn our attentions to supporting Sligo. I'd love to see them win on Sunday, but you'd have to fancy Mayo as the twice Sligo played us this year, they looked very poor (I would argue that they have generally saved their best football for the summer though over the last few years, so they at least have a chance on Sunday)

[GalwayBayBoy]

Well if nothing else I think yesterday should have helped to pick the team for the Connacht final.

Doherty to stay in goal. Think he has looked very steady this year.

Fitzy, Hanley and Burke for the full-back line. Fitzy back would be a help. Hanley seems to have awful trouble with Maxwell but generally he has done fine apart from that. Damien Burke seems to be not quite on the form of the past couple of years but I'd give him another chance.

Deccie, Coyne and Sice in the half-back line. Blake doesn't look like he'll recover from his injury troubles at this stage and yesterday Mullahy was not as impressive as he was in the league which raises concerns about his mobility when the ground gets harder.

Cullinane has to play. Only physically imposing midfielder we have. Coleman has probably done enough to get a spot beside him. Lydon after a couple of good showings in the league has been anonymous in the last two games.

I'd stick with Conroy, PJ and Nicky for the half-forward line. Fair enough the game passed Conroy by yesterday a little but he'll be better for the experience.

Full-forward line of Clancy, Meehan and Bane. Breathnach's hard work can't continue to cover up his lack of actual ability. Bane may not work as hard but at least he knows where the posts are.

One very disappointing aspect yesterday was the lack of breaking ball won around the middle of the field by Galway. Leitrim themselves didn't catch a huge amount of clean ball but they hoovered up loads of scrappy ball on the ground until Cullinane came on. Seemed a bad call in this regard to play Breathnach further out the pitch rather than Mattie Clancy who seems to have a radar for picking up loose ball. Can't remember Breathnach picking up any yesterday. Deccie used to be brilliant as this as well but not quite so good at it these days.

On the postive side we scored 2-12 from play despite playing with a non-functioning midfield in the first half and up against a pretty decent Leitrim defence. The defence in fairness to it only conceded 1-3 from play but did give away too many frees (albeit some of them very soft) which Emlyn Mulligan was able to convert from seemingly any distance or angle.

[GaillimhIarthair]

I'm not so sure about Burke at all GBB.  He is a natural corner back in poor form where as Bradshaw is a natural halfback playing steay football in the corner. I do concede that Bradshaw has not been tested yet and I would have a worry about him when up against a good quality corner forward.  Sammon has a big call to make there for the Conn Final.  Agreed with the rest of your summary, Breathnach experiment has come to a natural conclusion after yesterday and the rest of the team more or less picks itself at this stage.

[mouview]

Where's Alan Burke these days? Was promising a couple of years back but hasn't prospered under Sammon...

[GallBoss]

In a word Tuam is not fit to host a championship game in its current state whats the story with the new stand is it ever going to get off the ground again ?

[GalwayBayBoy]

I'm not so sure about Burke at all GBB.  He is a natural corner back in poor form where as Bradshaw is a natural halfback playing steay football in the corner. I do concede that Bradshaw has not been tested yet and I would have a worry about him when up against a good quality corner forward.  Sammon has a big call to make there for the Conn Final.  Agreed with the rest of your summary, Breathnach experiment has come to a natural conclusion after yesterday and the rest of the team more or less picks itself at this stage.

Yeah I agree Bradshaw has done nothing wrong so far even though I think his future is further out the field. A top corner back may really put him to the test but he can only mark who's put in front of him I guess and he's done that pretty well so far.

[Solo Run]

Disappointed too and all-round generally cranky (more about not being in the qualifiers than anything, Leitrim were very good at times yesterday but Galway were better) but there are a few things grating with me....

- One championship win of note in 4 years (excluiding NY and London) - bad return given the good players we have
- Counting extra time games as drawn in these 8 championship games our points difference over 70 mins is -8, an average of a -1 point a game of which we have won just one !! (Under O'Mahoney in the 90s we seemed to win every friggin' game by a point, sometimes didn't deserve to)
- For the second time in salthill we,ve got back to within 1 or 2 only to concede a soft goal immediately....aaarggh, head-wrecking!
- Not taking the first couple of rounds of the league seriously and losing the first two games
- Still p**ed off with the desperate decisions that went against us playing Fermanagh when we had them beat off the park - Ulster ref
- Having a crucial point against Limerick chalked off as the ref blew while it was in the air going over the bar - Munster ref
- The lack of atmosphere at Galway matches compared to Leitrim vs Mayo or Roscommon, last year's game against Donegal was electric the best ever. they were league champions took us very seriously and brought thousands to Carrick-on-Shannon.But that's Galway's problem
- Mind you having said that, the Galway fans you meet at matches do tend to be friendly and knowledgeable, quality over quantity perhaps. Ros take note . (Might be on thin ice here as there were some right ignorant Leitrim fans close to me yesterday, I suppose all counties must suffer them
- Magpie Seanie bleating on about Leitrim fans not supporting Sligo when any such folks are clearly in the minority. I remember the 90s when there very many people from North Leitrim like myself, going into Markievicz to give Sligo a cheer. He might know one or two but they are the exception
- But being honest despite some things that have gone against us much of our misfortune is self-inflicted - the source of my crankiness

Anyway while I'm ranting, isn't it amazing that in the 4 years under Dolan, nobody has ever played well against us in the championship!!

Our record....

Sligo won 4 or 5 pts Carrick 2005, Galway lost 3pts in Salthill 2005, Meath lost extra-time 2005, Mayo lost 1 pt 2006, Sligo lost 1 pt 2006, Galway lost 4 pts 2007, Donegal lost extra time 2007, Galway lost 4 pts 2008. Not once did any of those teams say or reported that they played well - I find it irritating since on many occassions those teams often played outstanding football for periods of the game particularly Mayo for spells in 2006 and Donegal last year in an absolute belter of a game,  but if teams somehow aren't able to keep us under the kosh for 70 minutes they haven't played well.

Its a load of b**ll*x, Galway in fact played very well at times yesterday particularly at the start -- free-flowing, very athletic, very sharp. However they were playing a team who were never going to rollover and who themselves possess sufficient talented players to cause most teams problems. I thought it would be closer, and I was quietly confident beforehand, but Galway have improved under Liam Sammon; Leitrim yesterday would have beaten Peter Forde's Galway - that version of Galway would have been more susceptible to get thrown off their game and get into a scrappy dogfight, this Galway team kept playing varied ball, wide and up the middle, high and low ball too, looking for space and playing their own game, very composed under a potentially dangerous threat.

Analysis of the match to follow when I'm out of my sulk .

[GalwayBayBoy]

Its a load of b**ll*x, Galway in fact played very well at times yesterday particularly at the start -- free-flowing, very athletic, very sharp. However they were playing a team who were never going to rollover and who themselves possess sufficient talented players to cause most teams problems. I thought it would be closer, and I was quietly confident beforehand, but Galway have improved under Liam Sammon; Leitrim yesterday would have beaten Peter Forde's Galway - that version of Galway would have been more susceptible to get thrown off their game and get into a scrappy dogfight, this Galway team kept playing varied ball, wide and up the middle, high and low ball too, looking for space and playing their own game, very composed under a potentially dangerous threat.

First 20-25 minutes I actually though we played pretty well. Went 5 points up and it looked like Leitrim were barely hanging on but Maxwell's goal made a big difference to them. Leitrim players took heart from it and it gave them the appetite to fight hard for the remainder of the half and they finished the half strongly. Only for that goal Galway may have gone on to record a very comfortable win but goals change games and it became a real dogfight from then on.

Second half though I thought our finishing was poor enough especially after we went 6 points up. Think we hit 3 or 4 bad wides after that and that kept Leitrim in the game and they added a couple of scores on themselves.

It was an enjoyable enough game in fairness albeit a bit frustrating. Don't think it was quite as bad as the Sunday game seemed to think last night. There were some very good passages of play along with some poor enough passages of play.