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Fair enough, ye are defending the indefensible as far as I'm concerned, I'll say no more on it.

It's Sean Kelly's fault for being on the pitch in the first place alright, the only logical position.

[An Fhairce's finest]

The bitterness that has transferred to games has not avoided this fixture, some awful crap being spun on all sides. Surprised An Fhairce's finest resorting to calling out O'Donoghue as a tr**p, not many innocents out there yesterday. Kelly bravely started on the much lighter Hession and was rightly taken to task about it, Kelly was fine afterwards and the game started. Sounds like you are out for your pound of flesh.

Whatever about anything else the bit bolded is completely incorrect although I can see the ironic usage which I'm sure was the intention.
No one is looking for angels or innocents on the pitch, will win nothing with that, cynicism is a fact of life for successful teams but there's degrees here, surely we must be realistic about that.
Are we really trying to deceive ourselves as to what we saw yesterday, to me a comparison of the usual jersey tugging and grabbing that we see in every single IC match with a lad looking down and clearly trying to draw a kick/stamp on a players ankle that he knows is already injured is absurd. If there was just the dunt into the back and that's all he did then obviously there wouldn't be a word about it. To me the follow action was one of a tr**p and I called it as such. Mayo people everywhere today are defending their man regardless of what happened or just saying nothing happened at all, as is the case with all of these things it seems nowadays.

If a Galway player does similar in a match and I don't call it out in the same terms and express disappointment that they would even think to do it, then by all means return here and absolutely call me out on rank hypocrisy, I will deserve every bit of it. I see no reason whatsoever to describe that Mayo player in any other fashion, that's what those actions are. If he's some hero in Mayo people's eyes for the those same actions as apparently Hession was in such mortal danger out there, then they are free to do that also.

Mayo deserved the win yesterday as they put away their chances and Galway the architects of our own destruction with a pathetic return on shots. That is the truth of it as I see it also.

[Very ironic how well Galway did on kickouts yesterday, easily the best day under Joyce considering the opposition. Galway had a lot more possession & shots but the profligacy in the first half really cost Galway which has been a familiar theme this year, so many missed easy goal chances have been missed and yesterday was no different.]

Disappointed but as AFA states the dream died last week, when you've as many injuries as Galway they needed to top the group. Only 10 from last years final started and then add that Kelly & Comer weren't fit it was always going to difficult.

Very ironic how well Galway did on kickouts yesterday, easily the best day under Joyce considering the opposition. Galway had a lot more possession & shots but the profligacy in the first half really cost Galway which has been a familiar theme this year, so many missed easy goal chances have been missed and yesterday was no different.


Mayo were 100/30 with PP at half time which I thought was crazy, they were still even money after the goal went in. No place in the game for what O'Donoghue did and he's lucky its not been completely caught on camera, Flynn tried kicking Kelly too which is a red card offence.

Galway have nobody to blame but themselves anyway, they were unlucky with the injuries but given the amount of them I'm sure they'll take a look and see if they can do something different next year.

Galway forwards are the reason we're out, the less heralded defence held the opposition to a fairly reasonable score in every match this year, certainly to the level that an attack that is functioning correctly would have been able to get the job done and Galway have had the chances, it's not like the system didn't allow them to create (although it could be a lot better in this respect certainly) at all, there was more than enough chances available to win that match yesterday and against Armagh last week. If nothing was altered bar the return from frees then we were fine. This is why we made the final last year, a good shot conversion ratio from play and Shane Walsh nailing nearly every single free and 45. Our goal conversion ratio from shots has been absolutely terrible and so costly, couldn't even convert a peno, those free misses from Walsh in the first half yesterday were beyond shocking, an U15 would have kicked them over wind assisted.
Midfield destroyed Mayo from restarts yesterday for large parts of the game so really the appalling standard of shooting throughout was the undoing.

McHugh's importance to the team and how he assists scores with runs into opposition territory was only highlighted by his absence in the Armagh and Mayo matches, but if lads are injured (even the players you can't do without really) you have to trust the bench and see how it goes, Maher and McGrath really stepped up this year when they got opportunities. Sean Kelly shouldn't have been out there.
Should have been some changes up front as well really. Johnny Heaney has been a great player for Galway but has been well down on his usual levels this championship, Tierney hasn't made the leap that he looked to have in him from the league, should have converted his goal chance. Burke is done, nice cameo in the Rossie game but his return was overstated. Cooke improved throughout the year but no guarantee he'll be back next year due to work. We need to find a few new lads up front, will be difficult.   
It's fairly clear that up front Galway go as Comer's health goes at this stage, there's no focus up there whatsoever without him. Shane Walsh, well it's been said already but he doesn't need to hit the AI final performance every day, just be middling good is enough, couple of points from play, occupy a few defenders to give space elsewhere at least and just kick all the frees. He was miles off it for whatever reason.

Don't know what Paul Conroy will do but he was better yesterday than a lot of his younger team mates who have way more in the legs, I don't know how he'd have faired out in CP at this stage but you couldn't fault the application and effort for Galway, he's 15 years plugging away and a lot of that time in terrible Galway teams, I can recall a day that we'd have been knocked out of the championship to Waterford only for him.

Didn't see SG but I hear PJ was moaning about the ref again, absolutely crazy stuff, Hurson had no bearing on the result yesterday at all from what I saw and I wouldn't give the officials much blame over missing the tr**p that targeted Kelly's ankle with a kick, was off the ball prior to throw in, very hard to see everything in fairness.
PJ's comments to the press corp directly after the game that I did hear were more like it, said it was Galway's own fault, didn't score enough which is entirely accurate and leave it at that. I get that he is a bad loser, which is fine to a point, but yesterday wasn't a match impacted by the officials, there was no huge incident that they got wrong, it wasn't some total incompetent like Jerome Henry out there.

The best thing for Galway now is a bit of time, for the injuries but also  for players who need a reset and for the search for more players. Next year another county could get the injuries.
There isn't any hegemonic team like Dublin 2015-20. There are going to be All Irelands available.

You keep saying that as if it's a guarantee they will get back there, we didn't even make a Q final this year after throwing away a commanding position in the group, the best thing for Galway was to build on last year and try to become a more consistent championship team. Other teams will improve as well, it's only Kerry and Dublin that can think like this about available All Irelands. Galway got a few decent new players for the squad this year out of it but up front it's been a real regression, and getting lads that can kick the ball over the bar consistently is the hardest thing to find.

Well I didn't think there was one in Galway looking at that performance and there was f**k all in that match, didn't see some seismic brilliance in Mayo today but also said I wouldn't write them off going on a run in CP either, which you chose to ignore of course.
I'd say best of luck to Mayo but I wouldn't mean a bit of it.

[I was fuming leaving Carrick on Shannon Sunday, I felt that whatever chance Galway had of getting back to the final had been lost for the year.]

Galway trained in pearse stadium last night Tuesday, was only looking through the gate but no sign of the injured players and Shane Walsh did not participate in the training but was on the sideline.😳

Would not be surprised to find out when Galway exit that there is something off injury wise with Walsh, not taking any frees/45s off the ground in warm ups or during games is a huge red flag at the minute.
I think it's unrealistic to expect miracle turnarounds on injuries giving that you are taking days and not weeks in this championship format, the consequence of not having the week break to better facilitate getting players back on the pitch for a knock out match is huge.
Personally I think it's highly unlikely that Galway will have enough to beat Mayo with those key players out and Walsh out of form, probably couldn't pick two lads it would be worse to be without than Kelly and Comer to be honest, but they will have to go with whoever is fit and it's up to them to take their chance and show that they can win a match for their county, if they aren't good enough then so be it but go down swinging at least.

Won't get many more "real" and drama weekends in this championship than last weekend.   Mayo v Cork,Kildare v Roscommon,Donegal v Monaghan, Westmeath v Tyrone and Galway v Armagh producing unexpected results according by the bookie odds and their pundits.

Did any of the teams on the wrong side of each result, get knocked out of the Championship?

Did the winning teams have more to play for?

Do you consider that real championship?

They didn't get knocked out but in hindsight the Mayo and Galway games were huge at the weekend. Winnable games that should have saw them progress to the quarter finals.

Now they are faced with a really difficult knockout game and a tough quarter final the week after.  They've both significantly reduced their All Ireland chances.

There has been plenty of meaningless games during the year, the ones on Sunday were far from it.

Agree completely with this, I was fuming leaving Carrick on Shannon Sunday, I felt that whatever chance Galway had of getting back to the final had been lost for the year.
The bar for both Galway and Mayo was making a semi-final this year and seeing where it might go from there. Both have made it far harder than it could, and should, have been. The ask has gone from winning one match against a team coming in for their 3rd week on week game (remember that they changed the Munster and Leinster hurling round robin structure to avoid any team having to play 3 weeks in a row because those teams were all underperforming and getting pasted in the 3rd game) to having to beat another Division 1 team that was in this year's league final and then beating a rested Derry, Dublin, Kerry or Armagh. Just to even get to the semi-final. Those games last weekend were huge.

Par for the course, AFA. Imagine Statler and Waldorf in maroon jerseys  transported to Pearse Stadium. At least you are consistent.
This is a huge challenge for Galway but if they get over it the path is clear. I wouldn't write them off on the basis of last Sunday. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpYEJx7PkWE

Is that Seafoid guy ever right?
No but his name let's you know ahead of time!

Season ended last week as was obvious to anyone, not going to win matches with lads injured and having to tog out playing due to some do or die game that we shouldn't even have been playing in. Chances like last year are hard to get for Galway, no need to make anything more difficult in terms of getting back.
If Shane Walsh isn't carrying some form of injury then he needs to take some time to consider where his head is at, his missed frees have put Galway out of the championship, today and last week. Not kicking anything off the deck into that wind was bananas unless he just can't do it.

Galway made a bags of a great position in the group, the danger was always there when the feet weren't up this weekend. Even if we somehow scraped through there then would have been beaten next week given the direction of travel and the lads out, feel bad for Kelly having to go out there today and clearly nowhere near fit.
Goal was always going to be the key score, Mayo finished their chance and Galway didn't, sin é.

I don't think there's a Sam in that Mayo team either but if they get a good draw you wouldn't write them off going on a run, have the pace for CP anyway.

Going by Galway's scoring this year against div 1 opposition in league and championship you won't need you 17-18 points to win this Sunday.

2-8,0-8,0-16,1-9,1-13,1-8,1-13,0-11,1-13,0-16, and 1-12 that's an average of 14 points per game.  I'd expect an slugfest of a contest where a score line of 1-11 will likely be enough to win.

This is a key point, Galway have been winning matches because they have only been conceding an average around 12/13 (ish) points, the problems have been up front as you've outlined.

Are they both not named in the team or am I missing something , surely if we are to deal in facts , the fact is Galway management have named both to start on Sunday , one side of your mouth is saying one can't rely on whisper/rumour and the other is saying we can't take team selection as truth either . Nobody from the Galway camp has said Kelly or comer won't be playing . Sin E

That's not the same as comments on last Sunday's squad though that are factually incorrect, I genuinely can't understand the lack of comprehension on the 24 man squad issue along with Comer and McHugh's unavailability last Sunday, it's not complicated.

That said and as you referenced there, all that matters now is whether those players named in the 26 are fit (and properly match fit) to play this Sunday. We don't want to see a repeat of the desperation stuff from Limerick in 2019 when Comer was brought into the fray and clearly shouldn't have been next nor near the pitch, desperately unfair on all the players. Accepting that some players aren't really replaceable, there is still a large squad there, if you have to rely on others now that's just the way, they will either meet the challenge or not be good enough, so be it either way.
If the Galway team plays as selected all the better.

Mayo tend to play best when the safety net is gone, we've seen inferior Galway teams manage to beat Mayo and vice versa.
Either team could win and it should be a close game if everyone shows up. How both contrived to ruin such strong positions at the top of their groups, ending up having to play each other at this stage before even the last 8 is the real problem for both.

[all evidence points to he was good to go last week bar a bit of a fook up with paper work .]

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 .

Just one thing to clarify from last week as it seems to keep getting mixed up and as I've seen numerous people say that Comer would have played only for a medical note delay. McHugh or Comer could have played against Armagh, but after the team sheet was submitted Thursday morning, they picked up what sounds like hamstring strains at that Thursday evening training. Galway management obviously wanted to give them as much time as possible to potentially recover but then made a bags of getting the doctor statement to say they were unfit to play submitted in time so that they could be replaced in the squad by two of the named standby players when they didn't recover. Galway then played with a squad of 24 players against Armagh.
There was no need to do anything with medical notes or paperwork to allow them to play last Sunday. Nothing. Given the nature of the game and how it played out, I would suggest that if Comer had been able to play even ten minutes then we would have seen him substituted in before the likes of O Curraoin who hasn't played a second for Galway seniors.
I've no doubt beforehand that the thought process was not to risk him in a non knock out game with any strain and if Walsh kicks that free for a finish then it would have been fine. If there was any potential for him to play last weekend given how things panned out on the day then we'd have seen a late appearance to try and secure a draw at least and there was nothing paperwork related that stopped that.

If that Galway team starts at named and they are all fit to play then we have a really good chance of a positive result so fingers crossed it does, there's been late changes to the named team in both of the last two matches though. We've heard conflicting reports on player availability, realistically unless people are in IC setups you won't know 100% until the day, very little gets out these days.

One question for this match is will Mayo continue to persist with Loftus in defence?

[I was fuming leaving Carrick on Shannon Sunday, I felt that whatever chance Galway had of getting back to the final had been lost for the year.]

Galway trained in pearse stadium last night Tuesday, was only looking through the gate but no sign of the injured players and Shane Walsh did not participate in the training but was on the sideline.😳

Would not be surprised to find out when Galway exit that there is something off injury wise with Walsh, not taking any frees/45s off the ground in warm ups or during games is a huge red flag at the minute.
I think it's unrealistic to expect miracle turnarounds on injuries giving that you are taking days and not weeks in this championship format, the consequence of not having the week break to better facilitate getting players back on the pitch for a knock out match is huge.
Personally I think it's highly unlikely that Galway will have enough to beat Mayo with those key players out and Walsh out of form, probably couldn't pick two lads it would be worse to be without than Kelly and Comer to be honest, but they will have to go with whoever is fit and it's up to them to take their chance and show that they can win a match for their county, if they aren't good enough then so be it but go down swinging at least.

Won't get many more "real" and drama weekends in this championship than last weekend.   Mayo v Cork,Kildare v Roscommon,Donegal v Monaghan, Westmeath v Tyrone and Galway v Armagh producing unexpected results according by the bookie odds and their pundits.

Did any of the teams on the wrong side of each result, get knocked out of the Championship?

Did the winning teams have more to play for?

Do you consider that real championship?

They didn't get knocked out but in hindsight the Mayo and Galway games were huge at the weekend. Winnable games that should have saw them progress to the quarter finals.

Now they are faced with a really difficult knockout game and a tough quarter final the week after.  They've both significantly reduced their All Ireland chances.

There has been plenty of meaningless games during the year, the ones on Sunday were far from it.

Agree completely with this, I was fuming leaving Carrick on Shannon Sunday, I felt that whatever chance Galway had of getting back to the final had been lost for the year.
The bar for both Galway and Mayo was making a semi-final this year and seeing where it might go from there. Both have made it far harder than it could, and should, have been. The ask has gone from winning one match against a team coming in for their 3rd week on week game (remember that they changed the Munster and Leinster hurling round robin structure to avoid any team having to play 3 weeks in a row because those teams were all underperforming and getting pasted in the 3rd game) to having to beat another Division 1 team that was in this year's league final and then beating a rested Derry, Dublin, Kerry or Armagh. Just to even get to the semi-final. Those games last weekend were huge.

Par for the course, AFA. Imagine Statler and Waldorf in maroon jerseys  transported to Pearse Stadium. At least you are consistent.
This is a huge challenge for Galway but if they get over it the path is clear. I wouldn't write them off on the basis of last Sunday. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpYEJx7PkWE

I'm old enough to get that reference at least. Sure we'll see, hopefully you're right.

Galway trained in pearse stadium last night Tuesday, was only looking through the gate but no sign of the injured players and Shane Walsh did not participate in the training but was on the sideline.😳

Would not be surprised to find out when Galway exit that there is something off injury wise with Walsh, not taking any frees/45s off the ground in warm ups or during games is a huge red flag at the minute.
I think it's unrealistic to expect miracle turnarounds on injuries giving that you are taking days and not weeks in this championship format, the consequence of not having the week break to better facilitate getting players back on the pitch for a knock out match is huge.
Personally I think it's highly unlikely that Galway will have enough to beat Mayo with those key players out and Walsh out of form, probably couldn't pick two lads it would be worse to be without than Kelly and Comer to be honest, but they will have to go with whoever is fit and it's up to them to take their chance and show that they can win a match for their county, if they aren't good enough then so be it but go down swinging at least.

Won't get many more "real" and drama weekends in this championship than last weekend.   Mayo v Cork,Kildare v Roscommon,Donegal v Monaghan, Westmeath v Tyrone and Galway v Armagh producing unexpected results according by the bookie odds and their pundits.

Did any of the teams on the wrong side of each result, get knocked out of the Championship?

Did the winning teams have more to play for?

Do you consider that real championship?

They didn't get knocked out but in hindsight the Mayo and Galway games were huge at the weekend. Winnable games that should have saw them progress to the quarter finals.

Now they are faced with a really difficult knockout game and a tough quarter final the week after.  They've both significantly reduced their All Ireland chances.

There has been plenty of meaningless games during the year, the ones on Sunday were far from it.

Agree completely with this, I was fuming leaving Carrick on Shannon Sunday, I felt that whatever chance Galway had of getting back to the final had been lost for the year.
The bar for both Galway and Mayo was making a semi-final this year and seeing where it might go from there. Both have made it far harder than it could, and should, have been. The ask has gone from winning one match against a team coming in for their 3rd week on week game (remember that they changed the Munster and Leinster hurling round robin structure to avoid any team having to play 3 weeks in a row because those teams were all underperforming and getting pasted in the 3rd game) to having to beat another Division 1 team that was in this year's league final and then beating a rested Derry, Dublin, Kerry or Armagh. Just to even get to the semi-final. Those games last weekend were huge.

That may prove to be so in time but at this juncture I'm only worried about Galway seafoid and I think we've made it far harder than necessary by lumping another match and less recovery time for the key injured players we have currently.

[In terms of whoever wins it, i think the turnaround to a quarter-final against rested opposition is likely to be a killer.]

I don't know anyone who is confident as regards the result in regards to this game - pretty much everyone I've been talking to has said either could win it and will come down to whoever performs on the day.

In terms of whoever wins it, i think the turnaround to a quarter-final against rested opposition is likely to be a killer.

Pretty much all the teams who topped the groups will have good momentum anyway so I don't think that is going to help who wins much.

My thoughts before the championship started and looking at the schedule was that it would be one of the 4 group winners to take Sam and I think that even more so now. It will be really tough on the prelim winners to get ready for another tough game against top opposition with no recovery time. I can't see Galway beating Mayo and then being able to take out a rested Derry, Kerry or Dublin 6 or 7 days later. I would give Mayo some slight chance as they can avoid Kerry in the draw and don't seem to have as many key players injured as Galway but really I think the 4 teams that have the feet up this weekend have a massive, massive advantage.

Whoever wins this will have had a kick in the hole followed by an analysis of weaknesses followed by a win. That will probably stand to them more than a weekend off.

I would disagree, recovery and player availability are key now, there's only 5 weeks left in the IC season, be hard enough to win 3 must win games against good opposition without adding another must win match against a Div One team on top of that. Teams know what they are about at this stage. Really Galway and Mayo totally sabotaged their seasons last Sunday, it genuinely felt like the year was gone last Sunday after Walsh missed that free, the odds are really stacked against Galway now.

Comer was named to play at the weekend when the teams were submitted Thursday morning but got hamstring injury at training Thursday and not available to line out.
McHugh was in the same boat in terms of being named but then out with reoccurrence of his hamstring injury also. Galway had a mix up with the medical exception list and only had a panel of 24 as they weren't replaced in time for the squad.

No word on possible return for next weekend for any inured players but it's do or die so who knows, Comer has been risked in similar situations before and it's just made things worse so if he's in bother Galway should just leave him out of the squad and let someone else try to step up. Comer was badly missed at the weekend to be honest and if Kelly is also absent I'd say they could be fatal blows, certainly it turns the dial much more in favour of Mayo.