Connacht SFC 2022

[Rudi]

Galway the better team by a good bit. Very difficult to penetrate & hard in the tackle. Roscommon didn't lay a hand on Galway let alone a tackle. Roscommon defence shocking poor, the decision to drop McCormack & not start Hughes poor calls.
Harney outstanding & drove us forward all day, really showed great leadership. Key decisions went against us to, handy free for a neck tackle not given, peno for foot block not given, black card for Conroy not given & first half point given as wide.
Roscommon I think can still have a decent say in rest of championship, Galway were the better team today, but when will their forward line be given that space again.

[Farrandeelin]

Roscommon's wides in the first half came back to haunt them.

[Cunny Funt]

Roscommon's wides in the first half came back to haunt them.

0-4 to 0-3 ahead then Roscommon kicked five wides in a row going 11 minutes without a score, during that period, Galway took full advantage, registering 1-3 without reply.

Loose marking, not tracking the Galway runners as they attacked on the counter/turnovers was Roscommon's downfall. Galway was the better organised team,with more intensity and three of their 4 best players Sean Kelly,Damien Comer,Shane Walsh all performing well but Galway fades outs in games remains an issue, Monaghan in the relegation play off last year, Mayo in the Quarter final in April and again today.

Best thing about winning Connacht this year is avoiding Kerry,Dublin unless you reach the final so the opportunity is there now for Galway to go one better than they did in 2018 by making their exit at the semi final stage.

[Rossfan]

Hard to disagree with Cunny.
We played League football the herrins played Championship football.
Not a time for criticising anyone but will single out and  praise Ultan Harney for a wonderful passionate display, his finest ever in a Ros Jersey, a man of the match performance.

[mouview]

Galway the better team by a good bit. Very difficult to penetrate & hard in the tackle. Roscommon didn't lay a hand on Galway let alone a tackle. Roscommon defence shocking poor, the decision to drop McCormack & not start Hughes poor calls.
Harney outstanding & drove us forward all day, really showed great leadership. Key decisions went against us to, handy free for a neck tackle not given, peno for foot block not given, black card for Conroy not given & first half point given as wide.
Roscommon I think can still have a decent say in rest of championship, Galway were the better team today, but when will their forward line be given that space again.

Think the Rossies will still have a say alright, if their forwards recapture the accuracy shown in the league final. Neither of the Ulster finalists on yesterday's showing, nor Kildare, Cork, Meath etc.  would be unbeatable, though Tyrone and Mayo would probably be a step up. Think that first half wide was wide, I have a feeling the linesman called it to the ref. Foot block incident call was borderline but correct, there was visible distance between the kicking foot and the block.

True, Galway did get the rub of the green from the post and the ref but had that extra bit of class required on the big days to give them the edge. Conroy was largely subdued through out, but the others carried the mantle, including Rob Finnerty who had his best day by miles in the maroon jersey. The Galway attack was helped in no small measure by a poor and porous Rossie defence though.

Yesterday was also by far this Galway management's best day and have finally moved on from the KW era, with a structure and style of their own evident. Though it still needs improving as a collective, I think for the first time in many years we have good players in defence, (no. 6 particularly), that can hold their own with anybody. For the first time in almost 20 years I would travel to CP with a bit of confidence we could take any other team down (bar the big 2 obviously).

[seafoid]

Galway the better team by a good bit. Very difficult to penetrate & hard in the tackle. Roscommon didn't lay a hand on Galway let alone a tackle. Roscommon defence shocking poor, the decision to drop McCormack & not start Hughes poor calls.
Harney outstanding & drove us forward all day, really showed great leadership. Key decisions went against us to, handy free for a neck tackle not given, peno for foot block not given, black card for Conroy not given & first half point given as wide.
Roscommon I think can still have a decent say in rest of championship, Galway were the better team today, but when will their forward line be given that space again.

Think the Rossies will still have a say alright, if their forwards recapture the accuracy shown in the league final. Neither of the Ulster finalists on yesterday's showing, nor Kildare, Cork, Meath etc.  would be unbeatable, though Tyrone and Mayo would probably be a step up. Think that first half wide was wide, I have a feeling the linesman called it to the ref. Foot block incident call was borderline but correct, there was visible distance between the kicking foot and the block.

True, Galway did get the rub of the green from the post and the ref but had that extra bit of class required on the big days to give them the edge. Conroy was largely subdued through out, but the others carried the mantle, including Rob Finnerty who had his best day by miles in the maroon jersey. The Galway attack was helped in no small measure by a poor and porous Rossie defence though.

Yesterday was also by far this Galway management's best day and have finally moved on from the KW era, with a structure and style of their own evident. Though it still needs improving as a collective, I think for the first time in many years we have good players in defence, (no. 6 particularly), that can hold their own with anybody. For the first time in almost 20 years I would travel to CP with a bit of confidence we could take any other team down (bar the big 2 obviously).

Hard to believe it has taken so long.

[full moon]

Poor from Roscommon it was over at half time

[Rudi]

Galway the better team by a good bit. Very difficult to penetrate & hard in the tackle. Roscommon didn't lay a hand on Galway let alone a tackle. Roscommon defence shocking poor, the decision to drop McCormack & not start Hughes poor calls.
Harney outstanding & drove us forward all day, really showed great leadership. Key decisions went against us to, handy free for a neck tackle not given, peno for foot block not given, black card for Conroy not given & first half point given as wide.
Roscommon I think can still have a decent say in rest of championship, Galway were the better team today, but when will their forward line be given that space again.

Think the Rossies will still have a say alright, if their forwards recapture the accuracy shown in the league final. Neither of the Ulster finalists on yesterday's showing, nor Kildare, Cork, Meath etc.  would be unbeatable, though Tyrone and Mayo would probably be a step up. Think that first half wide was wide, I have a feeling the linesman called it to the ref. Foot block incident call was borderline but correct, there was visible distance between the kicking foot and the block.

True, Galway did get the rub of the green from the post and the ref but had that extra bit of class required on the big days to give them the edge. Conroy was largely subdued through out, but the others carried the mantle, including Rob Finnerty who had his best day by miles in the maroon jersey. The Galway attack was helped in no small measure by a poor and porous Rossie defence though.

Yesterday was also by far this Galway management's best day and have finally moved on from the KW era, with a structure and style of their own evident. Though it still needs improving as a collective, I think for the first time in many years we have good players in defence, (no. 6 particularly), that can hold their own with anybody. For the first time in almost 20 years I would travel to CP with a bit of confidence we could take any other team down (bar the big 2 obviously).

Hard to believe it has taken so long.

Should go without saying, wish Galway well & any other team from the west in future stages of championship.
For me Galway or Roscommon have to beat a decent team in a big match in Croke Park,  before they lose their flaky status.
Galway were 7 or 8 points the better team yday. Only player to stand up for us was Harney. The line had a poor day too.
Here's hoping we get a reaction the next day & avoid Mayo Tyrone.

[Blowitupref]

Poor from Roscommon it was over at half time

Was over midway through the 2nd half. The last Connacht final between the two Galway also led by 5 at half time.

[weareros]

Congrats to Galway, better team, and 3 point margin of defeat flattered us. Joyce showing he has ability to learn and adjust as a manager with the defensive plans he had for both Mayo and Ros. AC must have been expecting league final type of game and win a shootout because it opened up like the Red Sea every time Galway attacked at speed. Actually there was no sea. Of course, Galway is a different team when Shane Walsh is on song but they got a lot of great performances yesterday. Good  to see Hughes back for us and brought much needed pace to our attacks when he came on. Still somehow we scored 2-16 playing poorly and left plenty behind as we kicked a lot of bad wides. I'd be hopeful if things click in 2 weeks, we'll be alright.

[Maroon Manc]

A surprisingly comfortable win for Galway, kickouts still an issue but Gleeson is improving on the shorts one; Looked like on first viewing Roscommon won more of the kickouts that went long then Galway did but haven't seen the stats. Tierney, Comer & Patrick Kelly all came off which didn't help in this department, wasn't like for like height wise.

What pleased me most was the way Galway came out for the 2nd half and didn't give Roscommon a chance to get back into the game and the way Galway reacted when Roscommon got their 1st goal, Galway went straight back up the other end and got a score; Roscommon never got close. Finnerty won't get anywhere that space going forward but was pleasing to see him hit that many scores.

McHugh & Molloy work very hard and have improved this year although Molloy still capable of poor decision making. McDaid has a lot of talent, all about him keeping fit and getting a proper run at it. There's a nice balance to that front 8, all very comfortable in front of the posts.

There's still plenty too work on but Galway are in a better position then I expected to be.

[seafoid]

Such a change from the spring on the board

"Realistically where are Galway going conceding 3-10 at home to the likes of Offaly? Absolutely ridiculous. Worrying signs the last two weeks, you'll get away with that type of slack and mistake laden performance against lower Division Two standard teams, but will be blown out of it against serious opposition who won't give up a big score.
Have the three best teams left to play and I hope that Galway go up purely because we will fall even further behind Division One standard if they don't, the gulf is big enough as it is. Will be a difficult task though, 10 points mightn't be enough to go up given the huge imbalance in the Division, needless to say, anything bar a win against Clare and Galway will be in serious bother.
As for the championship will be looking for a good run in backdoor unless something serious changes between now and April 24th, a top level Division One team like Mayo are not going to give up cheap scores and will wreck a defensive setup that's letting in huge scores against Cork and Offaly.. Went into this league hoping to see some big improvements on 3 things: kickouts, defence setup and score conversion rate. When you see the calibre of opposition at this level, there is no improvement on the first two aspects and that level of performance today just isn't good enough.
"

[An Fhairche Abu]

Great weather, great win in Salthill.
No point dwelling on the performances of the match winning full forward line as it was obvious to all, I would question whether they will get as accommodating a defence again this year but in fairness, all three players had stages where they did wreck. Kelly, Walsh, Finnerty and Comer all came out on top in their match ups, Galway were always likely going to win if that transpired. The fortuitous second goal really blew the game open for Galway, but it was the result of good play prior to the ball coming back off the post and Kelly was live to it like a good forward should be, the finish was top class.

McHugh has turned into a really important player for Galway, I must admit that I couldn't see it when he started lining out in the Senior jersey, looked a limited player who didn't have any outstanding physical attributes. Boy was I totally wrong, he's an integral part of that Galway setup now and is basically giving a consistent 7/8 out of 10 performance every time he lines out, have to have lads like that who will just be solid and reliable.

One player definitely pegged from a good bit out is John Daly, who first stood out in a big way to me when Mayo overran Galway in Limerick, he was the youngest player on the pitch and there was more fight, effort and solid play coming from him that day in the face of adversity than many of the other more vaunted players who basically folded up the tent and didn't want to know about it. Not sure there is another player in Galway that has his football nous, an unbelievable reader of the game. Serious injuries are the only thing that has held him back and here's hoping he gets a long healthy run now, a vital player for Galway.

McDaid in the last two games has shown glimpses of the potential player he looked at U21 level, he has a level of natural athletic ability that Galway generally don't have in the squad compared to the half back athlete factory over the border in Mayo. Roscommon had to change their tactics and personnel at ht purely on the basis of his 1st half performance, this is a player affecting the oppositions game in a manner that can only provide dividends moving forward as he will have to be accounted for, another man who will hopefully get an injury free run now.

Conroy wasn't as important the last day – he still kicked a trademark long range score in injury time – but it's no harm that Galway could play well with one of the main men only having an average enough game by his standards.

Such a change from the spring on the board

"Realistically where are Galway going conceding 3-10 at home to the likes of Offaly? Absolutely ridiculous. Worrying signs the last two weeks, you'll get away with that type of slack and mistake laden performance against lower Division Two standard teams, but will be blown out of it against serious opposition who won't give up a big score.
Have the three best teams left to play and I hope that Galway go up purely because we will fall even further behind Division One standard if they don't, the gulf is big enough as it is. Will be a difficult task though, 10 points mightn't be enough to go up given the huge imbalance in the Division, needless to say, anything bar a win against Clare and Galway will be in serious bother.
As for the championship will be looking for a good run in backdoor unless something serious changes between now and April 24th, a top level Division One team like Mayo are not going to give up cheap scores and will wreck a defensive setup that's letting in huge scores against Cork and Offaly.. Went into this league hoping to see some big improvements on 3 things: kickouts, defence setup and score conversion rate. When you see the calibre of opposition at this level, there is no improvement on the first two aspects and that level of performance today just isn't good enough.
"

You may as well have quoted me on that one Seafoid!

Would 100% stand by that assessment as it was at the time, the defensive system that showed up against Mayo was not seen during the league in matches I attended at least, watching a poor Cork outfit walk through to score a big total in PUC wasn't great viewing at all. However, even accounting for the "garbage time" scoring, it was still a total of 2-16 conceded the last day and some of the Rossies wides in the first half were reasonable chances that they would have expected to execute. The defence has numbers back and there were some nice swarm tackles but at times the opposition is still getting through far too easily, I'd put it firmly in the work in progress column.

In mitigation against that, the score conversion rate has definitely improved, they are putting away a greater proportion of chances compared to previous years and even the first half wides from McDaid and Comer last Sunday were the correct option to take on which is all you can ask for. Couldn't fault their efficiency in front of the posts at the moment, obviously vital to maintain that moving into the Q-final. Walsh, who has had issues with simple enough frees in the past, has been absolute money with placed balls in the championship so far, Galway need that to continue.

However, the kick outs have improved marginally but when the fat was in the fire coming down the stretch against Mayo and to a lesser extent against Roscommon, Galway still have not shown that they have "go to" kickouts that will ensure they keep the ball when the pressure is on. Stats for the kickouts last Sunday were well in favour of the Rossies and the limitations of the Galway kickout will be the eventual end of this team IMO. Reasonable success on the overload kickout during the first half in particular and there were a number of better instances of working a short kickout to Silke, but we saw with the two misfires to Jack Glynn out over the sideline where Gleeson's limits are. Even watching his short kick out warmups prior to throw in, his placement on the ball was always a fraction off, bouncing in front or slightly to the side of the coach receiving the ball. Assuming that this wasn't the objective of the drill for ball placement, then, ideally, they should be going straight into the chest or catching radius of the target, the top lads at that position are hitting it so well you couldn't hand the ball off to a player better.

Anyway, it is currently looking a lot better at the moment than it was in the league, no point getting carried away, but PJ basically had to get promotion, then beat a superior Mayo team on their patch and win Connacht beating the other provincial big gun in the final to keep his job, that's been done. A Q-final win now and it's been a good year, the vagaries of the draw will play a part in that but given that Dublin and Kerry are on the opposite side of the draw that means the two stand out teams aren't in the way, plenty of teams left that could beat each other depending on the day, what response we will see from Tyrone and Mayo next weekend will be key to the remainder of the championship as well.

For me Galway haven't showed enough yet to firmly move themselves past a number of other teams who are of a similar enough level, what Galway have done is put themselves in a fantastic position to improve and make this a memorable summer journey, no guarantees that it won't end at the Q-final stage but there is potential now to build on the year to date. We are not quite playing with house money yet but if Galway get past the Q-final, then there's an opportunity there that hasn't come along in years.

[Manning18]

Good post AFA. Would agree with all of that. Walsh has really gone from being a bang average (due to inconsistency) free taker, to a top class one. Thats in line with his general improvement in consistency from open play. For all that's thrown at Joyce, it was clear from the moment he asked to have Walsh brought on the international rules trip in 18 because "I wanted to get a hold of him", that one of his main priorities was getting that insane talent out of Walsh. We're a lot further along that path than we were at the end of 2019.

I've had it in my head all year that Galway were 4/5 players away from really competing. The goalkeeper situation is still unresolved, and it's a pity Flaherty got injured when he did. Gleeson is showing improvement, but it won't be enough not to have us at a distinct disadvantage for the rest of the year. A full back to free up Sean Kelly. This may or may not be resolved in the coming years, it depends on how Mulkerrins comes back and progresses and whether Fitz will make it in future.
One real half back with searing pace and drive. Even though he's not playing there, I think we've found that now with McDaid and it'll end up being his position. He's started to look a proper player again. All limbs crossed that he's stays injury free.
Lastly, one or two true midfielders, to either play next to Conroy or in the coming 2 years, to free an aging Conroy up to play closer to goal. One is already around, getting Peter Cooke back for the next couple of season is of paramount importance. The other obvious contender is McLaughlin, and I really hope injuries don't curb his huge potential.

There's about a 3 year window now before the old axis of Walsh, Comer and Heaney will be past their prime. Obvious we've to hope Conroy's powers don't wane quickly. This is the first time in a long while I've felt there's possibly a chance at an AI there in future. Huge caveats to that, staying injury free, the younger lads like Paul Kelly, Patrick Kelly, Tierney, Glynn, McLaughlin and Sweeney continuing to progress and maybe some able returning men like Cooke & Mike Daly. Seems like a lot to ask! One can only hope though

[seafoid]

https://youtu.be/71umNNJHiUg