Sam Maguire Group 2 - Galway, Armagh, Tyrone, Westmeath

[JoG2]

Seems to be flying around that Mayo v cork is in tullamore along with dubs v Sligo . Galway v Armagh in croker with Derry match I think . Doing everything they can to give Galway an advantage in a year where they are expected to win it out anyway by many pundits .

Derry game won't be in Croke Pk surely? Carrick / Sligo most likely. Much would a double header in CP cost??

[bennydorano]

Croke Park for a dead rubber? Doubt it. I think Armagh have accepted our fate as a 3rd seed (if all goes well), and as much as Armagh fans love a jolly, a CP fixture at this stage might feel like getting squeezed for the coin

[Rossfan]

Will the 8 games attract 50k?
Talk of group games in Croker is madness. Then again madness has often happened before......

[bennydorano]

See @Armaghfans1889 twitter account saying its Breffni for us

[galwayman]

Absolutely zero point playing any of these games in Croker.

[armaghniac]

Croke Park for a dead rubber? Doubt it. I think Armagh have accepted our fate as a 3rd seed (if all goes well), and as much as Armagh fans love a jolly, a CP fixture at this stage might feel like getting squeezed for the coin

Playing devils advocate, it takes 15 minutes longer to drive to Dublin than Cavan from both Galway and Armagh cities. Then there are trains and buses and the like, whereas Cavan hasn't had a train from Armagh since 30 September 1957. The admission fee may not be any different, but the quality of the seat will be better. The atmosphere wouldn't be the best though.

[An Fhairche Abu]

Strange to say we had 3 or 4 top class performances and yet it was a poor display overall. Shows that others were well off the pace, and as a whole, the team is just a bit disjointed at present.

Sending off made a difference, but we were getting on top at that point and would've won regardless. That still doesn't change the fact that Westmeath were probably better for the first 45 mins. For all the talk about our 'control', we still keep kicking ball away.

Cooke and McGrath were immense. Comer and Maher made a savage difference once they came on. Kelly had a good first half and Hernon shook off a shaky first half to get two good scores. Not sure anyone else can be satisfied with their performance.

Hard to know where we are. Keep winning games but bar the odd good half here and there (Monaghan second half, Roscommon first half, Kerry game), I'm not sure we've put in a very good performance all season. You can take positives or negatives from it though, depending on your outlook

Important to note the 5 missed goal chances though (and zero for Westmeath). Had 1 or 2 of those gone in, I suppose the narrative would be different. Not the first time this season we've been incredibly wasteful

Very much agree with both of those observations, Galway continue to win while playing only middling at best. Westmeath looked like the team that had been in last year's All Ireland up until about 45 minutes in, the sending off was a killer for them and Galway had a big impact off the bench from Comer and Maher. The goal chance to goal conversion rate was poor again.
At no stage have Galway had everyone on the same page this year. Without Comer our attack is badly without a focal point, Walsh is way off form. Some sloppy play at times although have to credit Westmeath for this also, made Galway look bad.

Cooke was excellent even without the late scoring burst, clear MOTM. He's improved as the year has progressed, hopefully that will continue in the right direction. McGrath played well again, he a little terror out there, no fear of playing in front, his height disadvantage hasn't been exploited yet. Sweeney was good again, showing consistently every game at the minute, a player who has kicked on at IC level clearly from last year. Hernon had his best day in a Senior jersey, impressive in spurts but still ran into trouble a few times and is still finding his feet a bit. Athletically and in terms of the football in him, he clearly has a lot to offer though. I thought Loughlin gave Glynn the run around a few times, he stood out as a really good player for Westmeath.

Maher should be starting from here on out, made a power of difference in terms of line breaking when he came on and he puts himself about tackling anything that comes in his vicinity, unlucky with the goal chance as he did the right thing, just a good save, a really nice point as well. He had a bit of a down performance against Tyrone but he was missed the middle, not near the footballer Conroy is but you have to have a few hod carriers out there that are going to just get stuck in as well. A bit of a worry that Conroy's legs will be found out at as the pitches are now firmed up and playing faster, he was less of a force than springtime in the 2022 final and semi-final when the needs were most, is another year older at this stage. He still looks a rolls royce on wet, slower playing days like the Tyrone match in Salthill but on Saturday, until there was the combination of the sending off and the arrival of Maher, Cooke was fighting a bit of a lone battle getting through the work required around the pitch in the middle area. Don't want to be overly harsh as I could not speak highly enough of Conroy and what he's given to Galway football but no point in not flagging that there's a risk unless there's sufficient other lads out there to do that work for him.

Burke was poor, Culhane was even worse, there's a spot there for the taking with Finnerty's injury problems or at least to be the first forward sub in and Culhane didn't stick the hand up, Burke at least has shown well in other games. Talk of the Galway forward depth is oversold, with Finnerty injured all the time this year it's showing up that we're not as well stocked there as is made out, Burke is not going to score heavily. Galway scoring returns have been modest but enough to get the job done as not conceding much at the other end. The Mayo league final non performance up front is still bugging me however, if there's any repeat of that in any match left we'll be gone.

Shane Walsh was clearly hobbled in the 2nd half, ridiculous to have left him on as long. He has been either injured worse than let on or he is simply way out of form. Unless he gets back to near top form there's no chance Galway will get to where they want to go. Comer came on and was superb, if he had got the lobbed effort into the goal you'd nearly have had to give him MOTM for a 20 minute cameo.

Mattie Tierney gets through a mountain of work, but Galway really need him to step up and be a 3 points (at least) from play man consistently, he was well out of the game Saturday. For all the "squad improvement" if Comer and Walsh (and at the minute it's more a question of whether Walsh will have any impact) are well held, we are in serious bother. If Galway stick a couple of those goal chances, then maybe the narrative changes but we are just not clinical enough in front of the goal, it was like a repeat of the league final in terms of profligacy. Galway have a lot of improving to do really.

Must be stated that Westmeath were really good and it's so unfortunate they have nothing to show from the first two matches, should have got something against Armagh and the 8 point margin flattered Galway to an unbelievable extent. Been a good while since I was in Mullingar for a match, but it remains a fine venue with great local fans.

Seems to be flying around that Mayo v cork is in tullamore along with dubs v Sligo . Galway v Armagh in croker with Derry match I think . Doing everything they can to give Galway an advantage in a year where they are expected to win it out anyway by many pundits .

Match will be on in Breffni Park, hopefully your seemingly constant talk about Galway's apparent march to Sam isn't as inaccurate as the rest of your predictions.
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.

[armaghniac]

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.

[An Fhairche Abu]

Why? With the attendances to date in this round robin anything that can hold over 10k should be in play, you'd get 11,500 in Mullingar, a likely sell out and a venue that's equidistant between the counties. 
Breffni is far more advantageous for Armagh, I wouldn't dream of proposing the Hyde as it would be so unfair on Armagh but why should Galway have to take their medicine on pitch location?

[armaghniac]

Why? With the attendances to date in this round robin anything that can hold over 10k should be in play, you'd get 11,500 in Mullingar, a likely sell out and a venue that's equidistant between the counties. 
Breffni is far more advantageous for Armagh, I wouldn't dream of proposing the Hyde as it would be so unfair on Armagh but why should Galway have to take their medicine on pitch location?

I'm not objecting to Mullingar, who exactly is?

[Rossfan]

Cavan will have a Tailteann Qtr Final in Breffni that weekend.

[An Fhairche Abu]

Why? With the attendances to date in this round robin anything that can hold over 10k should be in play, you'd get 11,500 in Mullingar, a likely sell out and a venue that's equidistant between the counties. 
Breffni is far more advantageous for Armagh, I wouldn't dream of proposing the Hyde as it would be so unfair on Armagh but why should Galway have to take their medicine on pitch location?

I'm not objecting to Mullingar, who exactly is?

You just said it was too small?!

[armaghniac]

Why? With the attendances to date in this round robin anything that can hold over 10k should be in play, you'd get 11,500 in Mullingar, a likely sell out and a venue that's equidistant between the counties. 
Breffni is far more advantageous for Armagh, I wouldn't dream of proposing the Hyde as it would be so unfair on Armagh but why should Galway have to take their medicine on pitch location?

I'm not objecting to Mullingar, who exactly is?

You just said it was too small?!

If the capacity really is 11500, then it will do, but grounds nowadays often turn out to have less capacity than we thought they had.

[Manning18]

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

[yellowcard]

Looking at the table and I see this match as a bit of a shot to nothing for Armagh. I think we should play this match with one eye on the play off game the following week. We can only top the group if either we beat Galway and Tyrone don't beat Westmeath or alternatively if we beat Galway by 7 points or more and Tyrone beat Westmeath by less than us. I would say that either outcome is not likely. It is also very unlikely that Westmeath can now qualify so you would question their levels of motivation. The chances of us finishing second also look fairly remote as it would be dependent on us beating Galway by more than Tyrone beat Westmeath but both would have to win by less than 7 points.

I think the best option is to use the match as prep for the following week and get some game time into players who might need it like McCambridge, Morgan (if fit), McPartland and Hall. We can still be competitive but the more important game is the next one which is do or die knockout.