Mayo v Galway 26.6.11

[Duine Eile]

oh we're crap cos we were relegated 11 odd weeks ago. 

[myball22]

To be honest, I don't know what to expect from this Galway team and I don't think anyone can predict either with any great accuracy.

From reports of the most likely teams from this thread Galway will enter the match will a new full back, centre back, centre forward and our normal full back playing midfield. That's the entire spine of the team!! The only constant is Padraig Joyce and am afraid he will have to carry our hopes in the forward line. Bane is hit or miss, he can be anonymous in games, and in particular in open play but can be a poacher too. I assume they are hoping Conroy will be the new Donaghy but I'm not sure. I would prefer Bradshaw in the half back line taking the game to the opposition as I don't think he will score enough as a forward.

There are too many questions to be honest and I'm not sure I will like the answer. I think we will battle and considering how many games in the last few years we lost by one point that may be the obvious choice, given where the two teams are I would forsee with home advantage a narrow Mayo win of a couple of points.

[seafoid]

It will come down to whichever team scores the most frees .

[western exile]

It will come down to whichever team scores the most frees .

Or fouls the least!

[GalwayBayBoy]

The Galway Senior team for Sunday has four players new to the Senior Championship , Colin Forde, Johnny Duane, Greg Higgins and no 11 Mark Hehir

1 Adrian Faherty
2 Alan Burke
3 Colin Forde
4 Johnny Duane
5 Gary O'Donnell
6 Greg Higgins
7 Gary Sice
8 Joe Bergin
9 Finian Hanley
10 Owen Concannon
11 Mark Hehir
12 Garreth Bradshaw
13 Padraig Joyce
14 Paul Conroy
15 Cormac Bane

[ross4life]

1 Adrian Faherty
2 Alan Burke
3 Colin Forde
4 Johnny Duane
5 Gary O'Donnell
6 Greg Higgins
7 Gary Sice
8 Joe Bergin
9 Finian Hanley
10 Owen Concannon
11 Mark Hehir
12 Garreth Bradshaw
13 Padraig Joyce
14 Paul Conroy
15 Cormac Bane

In bold are players that started the League game v Mayo in Tuam.

[highorlow]

Christ thats a poor Galway team. Mayo by 5 or 6. Could be even more painful than that for Galway and we could open the floodgates altogether and win by 10 to 15.

[myball22]

I think a lot depends upon our experienced palyers like Bergin, Hanley and Joyce. We have to do well at midfield considering we have three debutants in the backline. The backline looks weak to me, hopefully I'm proved wrong but I worry about our lack of pace there.

I would say the long ball into Conroy would be the idea with PJ and Bane to try to pick up the pieces around him, interesting to see if that works out. I think we need goals to win, at least 2 to my mind.

[moysider]

Christ thats a poor Galway team. Mayo by 5 or 6. Could be even more painful than that for Galway and we could open the floodgates altogether and win by 10 to 15.

Hope you re right highorlow. I m not to well up on a few of those Galway lads but I wouldn t write them off at all. Any young lads that dismantled a Cork U21 side that was rated as one of the best ever has to be respected. Besides Galway traditionally can beat our better sides with ordinary teams by their standards. I m thinking about 87 and 90 when we would have been fancying our chances for a long summer and they were in recession. Even 98 I remember a friend of mine in Castlebar going 'who the f*** is Derek Savage... what has he done?
Flaherta is no daw and there is a reason for picking Bradshaw there as well. As well as being an extra ball winner I suspect he may do a Kevin McL role and drop deep and drive on from there. Important Mayo win midfield and Trevor keeps him on the back foot. Horan will have his homework done on these new fellas anyway and will have every angle covered.
Conroy playing full-forward would suggest that Galway are considering route 1 an option anyway. Easy for any manager playing Mayo. High and long into the square usually gets rewarded a good bit of the time. We re just going to have to live with it until we stop conceding goals in this way. While I believe Hennelly is a fine keeper I would go with Clarkey still. He s a leader in the squad now and is more experienced and is thicker about attacking ball into the square. Any forward will think twice about being brave if Clarle is coming off his line. Anyway I m still more hopeful than confident.

[rosnarun]

i really cant see galway coming with in 10 to 12 points of mayo.
they remind me of Roscommon 2 years ago rushing young lads onto the team not because they are any good but they have no one else and with that and lads that are past it and those that ncould have but never made it i dont think were in for a very competitive afternoon.
whereas horan seems to be realizing just because you throw a Mayo jersey on some one it doesn't make them a county player mayo are doing well to have 15 county players and def ont have the 50 odd that he has played to date.
if C o connor hits his free like we know he can the jersey iss his till he's 35..or at least till C Mort comes back

[mckieran]

Its certainly an interesting team. But according to recent reports about challenge matches etc. it is the team that Galway were expected to name.

I'd have concerns about Alan Burke at number 2, Gary O'Donnell at 5, Greg Higgins at 6 and Bradshaw at 12. There isnt a whole lot of scoring potential in that Galway forward line. Bane can be good but can be anonymous too; Conroy isnt a natural forward; Bradshaw has played most of his career in the backs or at midfield (Although I stand by my view that he is too small for inter county midfield), Mark Hehir scores a lot for Milltown but for the U-21's was more inclined to drift out the field and pull the strings rather than score himself. Therefore, you are looking at Concannon & Joyce to get you a lot of the scores.

I think Galway may have an advantage at midfield; If Bergin can put in a better performance than he has in recent championship matches. Some of the local media suggested that Diarmuid Blake was pushing hard for a place after recently coming back from injury and that it was not necessarily in defence. Therefore, he must have been vying for a place with Bradshaw? I am poretty sure we will him introduced at some stage on Sunday; If any back is in trouble, he will be brought on, if midfield is in trouble, he could be called on to.

Its a hard game to call because both teams have been so poor recently...but I fancy Galway purely because they seem to be on an upward trend whereas Mayo seem to be on a downward trend.Although Mayo may have hit the bottom when the struggled against London

[Blowitupref]

i really cant see galway coming with in 10 to 12 points of mayo.
they remind me of Roscommon 2 years ago rushing young lads onto the team not because they are any good but they have no one else and with that and lads that are past it and those that ncould have but never made it i dont think were in for a very competitive afternoon.
whereas horan seems to be realizing just because you throw a Mayo jersey on some one it doesn't make them a county player mayo are doing well to have 15 county players and def ont have the 50 odd that he has played to date.
if C o connor hits his free like we know he can the jersey iss his till he's 35..or at least till C Mort comes back

You do know only 3 of the Galway U21 team is on that starting line & those 3 are fine additions to the team. the rest of the players have been round for years & i would say Mayo have a younger team.

For Galway to win PJ will have to roll back the years & Bane will have to have a similar game to the one he had v Mayo in 2007 but i feel Mayo with home advantage & having a competitive game already under their belts should win it by 3-4 pts

[GalwayBayBoy]

I don't have much expectation for this game given the talent we are misisng up front but hopefully we are at least competitive and avoid a 12 or 15 point beating.

[Barney]

In 2003 Joe Bergin made hay against an immobile Mayo midfield of Gill and Kelly - scored 5 points. That would be a big concern on Sunday if he allowed to win possession.

[galwayman]

they remind me of Roscommon 2 years ago rushing young lads onto the team not because they are any good but they have no one else

Bit of a lazy analysis there rosnarun... 3 under 21s is hardly rushing a load of young lads onto the team is it?
2 of them played in the league before the Galway u-21s played at all in the championship this year so it is hardly a reaction to the u-21 victory. There were other good players on that u-21 team who haven't been thrown in. Hehir gets in probably because we are short up front without the likes of Meehan,Armstrong and Nicky Joyce. He is well worth his place imo.

That's not a good Galway team on paper though. I don't think Duane has the pace for corner back. He was excellent at number 6 for the u-21s but I think his lack of pace could be exposed by a speedy corner forward. Alan Burke showed last year as well that he's not tight enough for corner back.He is a wing back and there's a huge difference between those poisitions. Gary O'Donnell has never convinced me as a county footballer either.
Our midfield is average at best. Joe Bergin has not pushed on since he starred in the 2002 u-21 final against the Dubs. As Barney said - he made hay against Mayo in the 2003 Connacht final but has hardly played a good game for Galway since. He has been extremely disappointing given the potential he showed at that time. Hanley is not a midfielder and I don't think this experiment will last too long. Joyce,Bane and Hehir are the only scorers in that forwardline. The other 3 won't get scores consistently. As for Galway pumping long high ball into Conroy - well he is not exactly the tallest of players - barely touching 6 foot tall I would say so I don't see that as an option.
Overall - Mayo should win. I'd be more confident if Mike Meehan, Armstrong and Nicky were on board as all are capable of scoring and a forwardline of those 3 along with PJ,Bane and Hehir would have a lot of potential