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Galway are probably the side who are under achieving the most. They probably have the best set of forwards in Ireland yet managed a paltry 9 points against Roscommon. They are epitomised by Shane Walsh who always looks like a great player but yet far too seldom delivers what his ability suggests that he is capable of.

The same Walsh that wasn't playing yesterday?

It's getting a bit ridiculous the slack he takes. He's had one bad season since 2017. There were multiple times over covid he was sensational but Galway were disjointed and got knocked out. Narrative then follows that they can't get the best out of this 'maverick', one that has still somehow has man of the match awards coming out of his ears over the years

Yesterday was a poor game in terrible conditions. Galway will be disappointed they didn't win given the flow of the game but on paper Roscommon were decent favourites going in. Galway are without their 4 most important players by any objective standard and 3 other starters, a situation that won't improve short term. Survival will be a serious achievement at this point

For a local piss stained bar stool merchant ,you seem to concern yourself with my comments a lot . Not very nice to throw out personal insults like that now tbh . Mrs  larryin had to console me after i read your reply and my mary is going to give you an earful if she finds you in salthil sunday week .

Ah Lar. When you've set down the tin foil hat for a sec you must surely realise that repeated unprompted pops at your richer, better looking and more storied neighbour is going to elicit the odd response in return?

Btw, "Kiss my mayo hole" might be satisfying to blurt out in the immediate term but is a little more of a self-own than you realise. You don't tend to hear "kiss my Somalian hole" or "kiss my Iraqi hole". Il leave that one for you to ponder

'At christmas 1951 Galway and Mayo had three all irelands "

Id actually dispute that and the farcical championship of 1925 . Mayo were declared all ireland champions after beating wexford in semi final with cavan and kerry been turfed out for fielding illegal players at the time in the other semi final . Galway subsequently played Mayo in a cònnacht final in 1926 and won  as there was no conncaht championship played in 25 for reasons i am unaware of , Mayo were nominated to represent connacht that year and rightfully won the all Ireland , how anyone can strip Mayo of the 1925 all ireland when they were the only county to compete within the rules of said year and won their all ireland series match , were declared champions at the time . Absolute skullduggery of the highest order to strip Mayo of that all ireland victory .

This is where the riding of Mayo started and i say this with a straight face ,we were also robbed of the chancce of a replay in  1948 all Ireland , when the worst decision ever made in a final was made , Mayo were awarded a free kick on the 14 to tap over the bar but bizzarely the referee blew for full time not allowing the kick to be taken even though he awarded the free and cavan take sam  . This treatment by HQ has continued right into the modern era ,one day the truth will be known on cormac reillys cheating in limerick in 2014 , a venue our CB should of refused to travel to in the first place .


To address mr Manning and his disingenuous sniping about bulmers and boot cut jeans , kiss my mayo hole , we beat ye again when it counted sin e . Maybe you will get the upper hand this year , tbh i think we are a year or two away yet from reaching that elite group of competing at the latter stages but the pressure on PJ must be huge with the lolly alone thats been thrown at Galway football .

Ah amazing 😂

Larry, your local piss stained bar stool merchant has uncovered a conspiracy at the top of the GAA.

Mayo, a county famous for leaving everyone else alone and never once stealing a bit of land has been absolutely SHAFTED since 1925. Who can forget that disgraceful referee performance in 1948? Il never forget it. Mayo hadn't a TV in the county until 1984 yet it's still picture clear in everyone's minds

How dare Kerry win a game in 2014 by a full 3 points, in a venue James Horan himself proposed more than once

The conspiracy started in 1924 when Patrick Breen of Wexford took the presidency of the GAA. How many All Ireland's have Wexford? 4

Who's been trying to catch Wexford's All Ireland total for the last 150 years? MAYO (3).

Sin E

Mayo get on their high horse very quick but let's not forget Galway are operating off half a county.

A near 50 50 split between hurling and football and a strong rugby and soccer presence

Meanwhile Mayo have football only to concentrate on and getting the turf home by mid July.

Galway's population is 277,737.
Mayo's Population is 137,970.

So going on about advantages starts primarily there.

There's more registered footballers in Mayo by a decent distance so that puts the population nonsense on its arse from the beginning.

There's technically the same amount of football clubs but a good portion of those token tag-ons to hurling clubs.

Sure don't half of Mayo people live in Galway in anycase?

Despite this the respective Gaelic football history of each county is fairly stark in its difference

A lot will depend on the approach Kerry take to the league or what players available.
I think last year the cliffords and Sean O'Shea were missing in the early parts of the league.
Tyrone even beat them! 

For Derry, if we can retain Div1 status that will be a win.
We'll need some early wins as teams will get stronger as the league goes on (but then everyone will be targeting early wins so there's nothing insightful there).

For what it's worth, I'd currently rate the teams in this order but you can never rule Tyrone/Monaghan out and Derry could also really struggle with tough games early in the year, though hopefully not:

1. Kerry
2. Dublin
3. Galway
4. Derry
5. Mayo
6. Roscommon
7. Tyrone
8. Monaghan

Poor aul Mayo , even when we go to their backyard and knock them out of the championship , beat them in a league final in croke park and were still considered inferior to the aristocrats/fancy dans

Getting humiliated by about 35 points by Dublin a week later probably knocked ye back down a bit.

But sure if you're that confident that yer better than a non injury ridden Galway side then there's 7/4 available on Mayo winning Connacht Larry. You could keep yourself in cans of Bulmers for the summer, maybe even a fresh pair of bootcut denim

You'll be outsiders in Salthill in 3 weeks also. Maybe a chance to top up the Nokia for a few months there $€£

How do I know ? For a starter both are named .
Sean Kelly played last week and went off with an impact/contact injury that has came from several reports including Barry cullinane on mayo news podcast last night .
All indications are Damien comer has been rested with a view to the knockout stages , all evidence points to he was good to go last week bar a bit of a fook up with paper work .

So I larryin89 of sane mind will confidently make an assessment of all available evidence and say both will be part of the Galway team on Sunday . Now if you think that is talking shite that's your opinion which you are entitled to but I beg to differ .

Absolute bullshit. That is a complete lie re Comer

Strong words there. You should back them up with some facts .

Have you read 3 posts up?

I'd love to know what possible paperwork mess up can disqualify a player you named to start. Why would you submit doctors certs if you wanted to play him? The poster above mentions Barry Cullinane saying one injury is a contact injury on a pod, but fails to mention or take on board that Barry Cullinane says he doesn't think Comer or McHugh will make it on the same pod. This is what you're dealing with

[Both teams probably threw away any chance of getting to the AI final last Sunday given the road left to travel]

Both teams probably threw away any chance of getting to the AI final last Sunday given the road left to travel now, hard to know which was the worse butchering of the prime position each team was in to top their groups, Mayo's probably a more spectacular collapse but Galway's just as bad really given the context.

we got the worst team out of the hat anyway, Mayo are a really good team and Galway are in serious bother with the injury situation.
If Comer and Kelly are unavailable I don't see how Galway can get a result, they are just too important to the team, along with the underrated McHugh. If Comer plays last Sunday and I think we have the feet up this . Mayo's record in knock out matches between the two counties when it's do or die as well is formidable. Hopefully this match will see Galway making a real stand and not a 2019 like situation.
Regardless, the eternal question remains "will Galway bate Mayo?".

Wouldn't necessarily agree with this.  The winner of the game on Sunday will get good momentum for going into the quarter finals and while they will get a difficult game in quarters a win next weekend and I would expect last weekends results will be largely forgot about.  As things stand, the winner of the groups would like to avoid the winners of this one.

Not enough recovery time for Galway (assuming the favs win ) to get right for a qf against a top side . Galway had a very good chance of all Ireland glory this year but I'd be surprised if they followed through now simply because they didn't win their group .

How much will you lose on them Larry when they go out? You'd a hefty all Ireland bet hadn't you?

For all that Maher was brilliant when he came on the last day and Sweeneys had a very good year, I struggle to see who you'd replace for them.

Hernon maybe, but given that this will in all likelihood be our least important game to come, it makes sense to continue the experiment after a good showing. I don't think we're at the stage where Conroy doesn't start yet, especially in provincial grounds, or a game like this where game management and a few clear brains (given score difference) will be important. Burke is the only other option and it would cause a reshuffle, and leave us light a man inside given Walsh drops so deep. 

With those two and Finnerty, I think we've 18 players now and we can introduce anyone at any stage and not weaken the whole. It's nice to think we can potentially finish a game with as strong a team as starts, as was the case with the last two All Ireland winners. It's a big change from last year at least. If we manage to get Molloy back to an impact sub role, that becomes 19 with some specific role players (Fitz, Mulkerrin, Tomo) you wouldn't be too afraid to throw in

I hope the pubs in Carrick on Shannon didn't cancel those Buckfast orders

Well they wouldn't want to be waiting on yer bucks to invade the town .

Hard to get the bucky hounds to move when they've the best social life in the country on their doorstep

[They don't have the consistent range of kickers that Dublin or Galway have right now.]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/07/darragh-o-se-dublin-are-being-written-off-and-thats-what-they-will-like/

Mayo kept tipping and tapping away against Louth, but struggled to kick points the way they did against Kerry. Sure, Matthew Ruane kicked a great point, Paddy Durcan later on too, but they didn't get the same spread of scorers, or range of kickers, as the last day.

That's still their Achilles heel and could come back to haunt them. They don't have the consistent range of kickers that Dublin or Galway have right now.

The talk of Galway depth upfront is overplayed.
In terms of the forwards, outside of Comer and Walsh, no one has put up a big match winning scoring contribution in a match that mattered in CP. Galway depth at the minute is in the middle eight, plenty of lads in HF line that can chip in with one or two points (maybe that's all that will be needed but we didn't get it in the final last year) but would be worried that Walsh is miles out of form. Galway really need another heavy scorer to step up, Finnerty could be that player but he's been injured all year basically, if the ankle has hobbled him again then forget any meaningful impact this year given how much of the IC season is left. Tierney has it in him but needs to do it more often, Ian Burke is never going to be that big scorer, Cooke will get scores but unrealistic to expect 4 points from him every day given his role. Galway are really poor at finishing goal chances this year as well, my biggest worry about the team is up front to be honest.

Mayo don't even have one marquee forward. They don't produce them, for some reason
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nFGkGbs4DE&t=1012s

They have the top scorer of all time, I'm no fan of O'Connor because of his other antics but he scores often and scores heavy, how is that not marquee?

He is some freetaker but at the business end in all of those finals Mayo always seemed to come up against a scoring ceiling. This problem is very old. A marquee forward would have fixed it with a bit of support.

He kicked the equaliser for the draw 2016 final and it was not some easy tap over free, just inside the 45 and as high pressure a kick as you'd get. Middling lads don't get that score, I don't think on mature reflection that he is the reason they lost any of the finals, you mention a lack of support for a "marquee", I'd say that's more the issue.
I can't believe I'm having to defend a player I absolutely can't stand but here we are.

The main problem is a lack of scoring forwards and no sign of a culture of producing them. Mayo would be morchuid runners, gannchuid shooters and that problem goes back to the 90s if not before. Something got lost post 1951.

The great struggle of Connacht football between 1995 and 1999 was settled by 2 scoring forwards- Joyce and Donnellan. Mayo got very close in 96 and 97 but no cigar.
You need scoring forwards to win stuff. Frees are not enough.

Galway forwards outside of Shane Walsh and possibly Comer are unproven on the big day. Tierney and Larry Finnerty  big tallies in league and against minnows in Connacht.

You counting Roscommon in the minnows? Their top class performances have come against them I suppose to be fair

Ian Burke had top class performances v Kerry in Croker in 2017 and 2018. Was very lively v Dublin in 2018 semi in the first half, until Galway got killed in the second. Don't think he's played IC there since, only winning in club

Disagree totally on Breffni, we may as well have had a toss for match to be there or the Hyde then, Breffni is unbelievably inconvenient for Galway support compared to Armagh.

You could hardly argue that Breffni was more inconvenient for Galway than Carrick is for Armagh?

Is this a joke? It's near the same distance for both.

You're saying above "There isn't an absolutely ideal ground for this game but Breffni was as close as you could get". For starters I can think of 4 grounds.

But to play your game, in which possibly way would Hyde Park Roscommon for instance not be as fair or fairer than Breffini? Why shouldn't it be played there?

On CoS it looks like it's c1hr15mins from Tuam and Ballinasloe. No part of Armagh is remotely as close.  1hr50 from Galway city is still a bit shorter than any part of Armagh. But the number of towns that people travelling from any part of Armagh is going to drive match day travel time way up. There will be match day traffic coming from Galway as well and nobody is going to achieve satnav projected times but it looks way worse for armagh.

On Hyde vs Breffni. Again Hyde is 38 mins from Ballinasloe and 54 from Tuam. That's a bit long from even the nearest parts of Armagh.

But again none of the above takes in the context of the other matches.

Objectively all parts is Armagh to Roscommon is more difficult than any part of Galway other than the extreme west and the islands to Breffni. So no, not a joke.

Yawn. You disregard predominantly football parts of Galway like Knocknacarra, Bearna and Clifden that doesn't suit your argument but happy to include Ballinasloe, a mainly hurling town that does. Cavan is closer to the Athletic grounds than Pearse stadium is to Roscommon.

Note that no Galway person is saying the Hyde would be fair. All we've done is refute the suggestion that somehow Breffini is fair, or in your words "There isn't an absolutely ideal ground for this game but Breffni was as close as you could get.

Judging by what's gone on in the last 24 hours at the announcement of a perfectly fair venue in COS, then thank god it wasn't fixed for the Hyde. You'd almost let Armagh have home advantage to avoid the headache. I can't wait to see the new dual carriageways available to us for avoiding the likes of Castlerea and Frenchpark

Disagree totally on Breffni, we may as well have had a toss for match to be there or the Hyde then, Breffni is unbelievably inconvenient for Galway support compared to Armagh.

You could hardly argue that Breffni was more inconvenient for Galway than Carrick is for Armagh?

Is this a joke? It's near the same distance for both.

You're saying above "There isn't an absolutely ideal ground for this game but Breffni was as close as you could get". For starters I can think of 4 grounds.

But to play your game, in which possibly way would Hyde Park Roscommon for instance not be as fair or fairer than Breffini? Why shouldn't it be played there?

PSmD has a capacity of 9k. What happens if projected numbers exceed that ?

Then tough I suppose. Games sell out

I can't see how they will exceed that though. Unless Armagh can beat Galway by 7+, which is possible but unlikely, or Westmeath get a result v Tyrone, then Armagh are booked for third. If only 8k were at Tyrone v Armagh with loads on the line, then I can't see how more than that will show up to this one once that reality dawn's on people

It'll be a sparse crowd from Galway also. For once, there was actually a very decent Galway crowd in Mullingar, I thought it was 50/50 or so. But they won't make this trip in numbers when rightly or wrongly, the vast majority expect they'll top the group regardless. There's also a Leinster final to travel for this weekend for the dual folk

If I had to guess on the delay, i'd say what's been leaked for the past number of days was the plan for the last week or so. Namely Derry v Clare, Galway v Armagh in Croker, with the rest set in double headers in Tullamore, Portlaoise, Tyrone v Westmeath in Cavan and Monaghan v Donegal in Omagh.

Now, after their lovely long weekend off, they're in a pickle as Derry V Clare is a dead rubber that won't attract 1k and Galway v Armagh, a weird game with likely outcomes for each and a star player probably missing, won't attract 10k. So that coupled with shiite attendances last weekend probably want them moving that game out of Croker. I'd hazard a guess there's been a objection by Galway to Breffini, and also they've to find a new venue for the Tyrone game

Wouldn't be happy with Breffni as a venue, a joke for Galway really given the travel distance compared to the opposition. Anywhere in South Armagh about an hour away, it's two hours from Tuam and as for travelling from West Galway forget it. I don't want to hear about the size of the Galway support base and how many might travel either way, this is an advantage that shouldn't be given in terms of venue access to Armagh.

What do you propose? Having it in the Hyde, that would advantage Galway just as much? Longford and Mullingar simply are too small.

If it was in the Hyde, the vocal Armagh support would (rightly) go bananas. Breffini is equally an unfair venue, if not worse

After a weekend of poor attendances though, it makes a decent crowd more likely, being close to the bigger fanbase. Still doesn't mean Galway should be the ones getting screwed though. Tullamore was/is a perfectly fair venue for both and more than big enough but sounds as if it's been allocated elsewhere

How would Breffni be less fare than Roscommon?

Breffni is significantly closer to equidistant than Roscommon.

Don't think there is a perfect venue. Breffni looks the best. And if it is Cavan just hope it doesn't rain. We got drenched there in the first round of the Ulster championship.

Both cities are 2hr 25 from the further venue. Galway city is slightly further from Roscommon than Armagh from Cavan.

I won't get into a tit for tat on smaller towns but suffice to say that large swathes of Galway are 3-4 hrs from Cavan and there's not the equivalent.

There are perfectly fair venues available, namely Mullingar, Tullamore and Portloaise. The latter two comfortably cover any capacity concerns