Galway v donegal

[cornetto]

It's going to be like a home game for donegal 8,000 tickets already,just checked the capacity there it is 18,000.how many will travel from galway 4,000 that's pushing it!!

[An Fhairche Abu]

There isn't a notion of 4000 Galway people being there.

[Syferus]

400 would be much closer.

[cornetto]

M.breheny independent sport.

The cold, hard facts of life for Connacht final losers leave Galway footballers facing a massive psychological challenge as they prepare for Saturday's qualifier clash with Donegal in Markievicz Park.
It won't be much easier for Leinster runners-up Kildare as they look ahead to their meeting with Armagh on Saturday week.

Beaten Connacht finalists have the worst record of any province in Round 4 qualifiers; winning only three of 16 games since the back-door championship format was introduced in 2001.

All four provincial finals produced big wins, which adds to the pressure on the losers as they bid to relaunch their All-Ireland ambitions.

Galway's case is especially acute, since unlike Cork, Kildare and Down, they were overwhelming favourites to win the Connacht final.

However, they were blitzed by Roscommon who won by nine points in what was Galway's biggest Connacht final defeat since losing to Mayo by 16 points.
"A big defeat like that takes it out of you," added Joyce.
"However hard you try, you're going to be down in the dumps for a week or so. It leaves only a few days to get right for the qualifier game against a team that has a few wins behind them.

"They have a different mindset, having recovered from the provincial quarter-final or semi-final defeat," said Joyce.

Galway manager Kevin Walsh will be looking for a similar response from his squad. Joyce was as puzzled as the rest of Galway by the poor performance against Roscommon but suspects that the aftermath of beating Mayo for a second successive year could have been a factor.

"Most people thought after the Mayo game that Galway would win the Connacht final, especially after the way they beat Roscommon last year. That can get through to players however hard they try to ignore it," said Joyce.

Despite that big setback, he believes that Galway could beat Donegal if they play to their full capabilities.
"That's the big question. Will they be able to put the Roscommon game behind them and get back to their best? Inconsistency has been an issue for Galway, not just over the last year or two, but for ten years. Most people think Donegal will beat them but that's the very time they could turn it on," said Joyce.

"Apart from the disappointment of losing and the knock to your confidence, you're coming up against a team with a few wins. They're thinking that if you lost your last game, you can lose the next one too," said Joyce.
"It's even worse when you're coming off a big defeat. Donegal will be looking at Galway and saying, 'if that's what happened them against Roscommon, why should we have any fears, especially since we beat them in the qualifiers before?'

"Galway have to put all that out of their minds and get back to the positive mindset that helped them beat Mayo for the last two years. If they do, they have a great chance,"

Ryan agrees that how players react mentally is crucial to their prospects after a provincial final defeat.
"In Galway's case, they had a very good year up to the Roscommon game, winning promotion to Division 1 and beating Mayo," he said.

"They'll be thinking, 'we were on the right lines, everything can't have gone from us in one game, what have we learned from the Connacht final and how will be make it count?' That will be very important for them."

Donegal have beaten Galway in their last three championship clashes.

[Rossfan]

I see we still have the narrative "Galway were awful" .......

[Maroon Manc]

I see we still have the narrative "Galway were awful" .......

Fast forward to the week leading up to your next game and the narrative will be Roscommon were brilliant.

Galway were awful.

[rosnarun]

if there is anything in this galway team This is the match they will have to produce it in.
Donegal are equally flaky anf the the hammering by tyrone must have been a severe reality check
but even if doneegal lose they have some where to go from here .
for Galway it could be Rip it up and start again time
Galway by 4 points

[Syferus]

I see we still have the narrative "Galway were awful" .......

Fast forward to the week leading up to your next game and the narrative will be Roscommon were brilliant.

Galway were awful.

Roscommon will be underdogs unless by some miracle Cork beat Mayo, so you really scored an own goal with that response.

The usual narrative is when a big favourite lose it's because they underperformed rather than them being prevented performing. It's lazy journalism, punditry and supporter commentary but no one should be taking it seriously in the first place.

[GalwayBayBoy]

I see we still have the narrative "Galway were awful" .......

Well they were awful. It's hard to gloss over it.

It's not liked they played well and just got beat or played OK and lost. They were septic.

[An Fhairche Abu]

I see we still have the narrative "Galway were awful" .......

Galway haven't played well in either championship game to date imo, didn't play that great in the Connacht semi-final but had some good individual performances on the day allied to Mayo not being able to capitalise due to their own on-going issues in terms of uneven performances, Aidan O'Shea not being fit to start, being down to 14 men for a lot of the match etc.

Galway were worse again in the Connacht final and definitely the fantastic Roscommon performance contributed to this as Galway weren't let play. I'm not a fan of the narrative that Galway took Roscommon for granted, the Rossies had done their homework on the weaknesses (which Galway did little to rectify in the interim) that were shown in the Mayo match,  hit them in the jaw the first 15 minutes and a Galway response wasn't to be found.

I don't think anyone is trying to (nor should they) take credit away from Roscommon by saying Galway were awful, it's just a statement of fact.

[Rossfan]

Ye Galway lads mightn't but the Brehenys and the rest of the media are.
Then again they were over estimating Galway in the first place.
Will ye're players be able to re focus or will they remain shell shocked and disillusioned?

[seafoid]

I see we still have the narrative "Galway were awful" .......

Fast forward to the week leading up to your next game and the narrative will be Roscommon were brilliant.

Galway were awful.

Roscommon will be underdogs unless by some miracle Cork beat Mayo, so you really scored an own goal with that response.

The usual narrative is when a big favourite lose it's because they underperformed rather than them being prevented performing. It's lazy journalism, punditry and supporter commentary but no one should be taking it seriously in the first place.

Mayo will probably tank Roscommon for lèse-majesté.
You can take Ros out of Connacht (every decade or so) but you can't take Connacht out of Ros.

[Jinxy]

Galway are a busted flush, and you can take that to the bank.

[magpie seanie]

This sort of thing happens with Kevin Walsh. When he's replaced by a proper intercounty manager Galway will be decent. The new managerial selection is critical for Galway.

[mouview]

This sort of thing happens with Kevin Walsh. When he's replaced by a proper intercounty manager Galway will be decent. The new managerial selection is critical for Galway.

Ain't that simple. Walsh's problems have been the same as his many predecessors all the way since '01. Lack of good players - simple as. We haven't had a decent CB since Mannion; midfield has usually been poor and inconsistent. I've often said it - there are no great defenders in Galway football anymore.

Hard to call the Donegal match; as it gets closer, optimism is returning to Galway fans but hope is the last thing to die in a person anyway they say. It could be a tight match with Galway scraping home, or Donegal could take a look at our defence and decide to go to town on it again. Maybe, just maybe, the changes that the dogs in the street are barking about might just give Galway the impetus to get there. We'll be so bad v Kerry in the next round that we'll confuse them into submission!