Messages

[I've very little faith in Mulholland and think the improvement is all down to the players and not him.]

I wouldn't agree really. The game was 0-7 a piece after around 30 minutes and then in a short space of time either side of half time Galway got 4 goals. I thought Tipp looked the better team for large parts of the first half and with such a big lead in the second half Galway could sit back and counter against a team that had to pile forward. Ga;day are a long way short of the best teams based on last night. Not sure Kerry are one of the best teams though.

Wouldn't agree with what?

Tipp were the best team for the first 20, Galway were poor and in particular Kavanagh was shocking. I'd have taken him off he was that bad. Galway could have easily scored 7 or 8 goals, they carved Tipp open time and time again in the he second half. I was impressed the way the forwards dispossessed the Tipp backs on several occasions.

Don't think anyone is getting carried away, I'm not expecting to get too close to kerry at all. Progress has been made though from last year mainly due to the new introductions. Moore, Varley, FOC, Flynn, Walsh and Lundy have all made big impressions and should all be better players next year.

I'm still very sceptical about next week, I've very little faith in Mulholland and think the improvement is all down to the players and not him.

Mulholland probably can spot a good player. Has a great pedigree at underage, but being in with the Big Boys of Senior football is a different kettle of fish. He looks tactically naive and short sighted as to where Galway are going. On the plus side i do believe he will leave the next manager with allot of good players already blooded to work with.

I'm in agreement, we'll soon find out on Sunday.

Its starting to look an attractive job for the next man. 

I wouldn't agree really. The game was 0-7 a piece after around 30 minutes and then in a short space of time either side of half time Galway got 4 goals. I thought Tipp looked the better team for large parts of the first half and with such a big lead in the second half Galway could sit back and counter against a team that had to pile forward. Ga;day are a long way short of the best teams based on last night. Not sure Kerry are one of the best teams though.

Wouldn't agree with what?

Tipp were the best team for the first 20, Galway were poor and in particular Kavanagh was shocking. I'd have taken him off he was that bad. Galway could have easily scored 7 or 8 goals, they carved Tipp open time and time again in the he second half. I was impressed the way the forwards dispossessed the Tipp backs on several occasions.

Don't think anyone is getting carried away, I'm not expecting to get too close to kerry at all. Progress has been made though from last year mainly due to the new introductions. Moore, Varley, FOC, Flynn, Walsh and Lundy have all made big impressions and should all be better players next year.

I'm still very sceptical about next week, I've very little faith in Mulholland and think the improvement is all down to the players and not him.

On a positive note Galway scored 4-7 in a 20 minute period to Tipps 0-3 from the 21st minute onwards. Their was some great attacking play and was impressed with the pace involved in the goals.

The goals conceded is a blessing, although we got plenty of bodies back for most of the goals they didn't apply any pressure to Tipps forwards. A 5 point wasn't a fair reflection on the match, should have been 10 points plus.

I was very impressed with Lundy, some great runs and some very good quality balls delivered info the forwards.

My man of the match was Varley, thought he was outstanding, did a lot of running that went unnoticed and opened up space for the forwards.

Walsh looked like he was in 2nd gear, there's a lot more to come from him.

Well in fairness Breathnachs kickouts have consistently been a problem. Anybody who has been to a reasonable amount of Galway league and championship games over the past two seasons will have seen that. And kick outs are a huge element in the modern game.
This is an extremely difficult game to call.

Agree completely with you on the kick-outs, as I previously stated here after the Mayo game they were the clearest indicator of the gap between the two sides in terms of planning, given that the days of lumping the ball from a kick-out as far and as high as possible are now gone from the game it is now the single most important skill for any goalie to excel at.

How much of this is down to Breathnach not being able to carry out a plan versus Alan Mulholland not actually having a strategy in place for them will only be seen tomorrow night.

On average a goalie will have 27 possessions a game between kick outs and balls dropped short, think Cluxton in last years final only failed on two occasions to find his own player with his kick outs. Breathnach's kicking just sums AM up, it seems to be just aim for FOC and hope for the best. 

Galway team

Tomas Healy
Donal O'Neill
Finian Hanley
Joss Moore
Gareth Bradshaw
Gary O'Donnell
Paul Varley
Fiontain O'Curraoin
Tom Flynn
Michael Lundy
Shane Walsh
James Kavanagh
Michael Martin
Paul Conroy
Danny Cummins

Tipp are unchanged.

Great to see Moore back but disappointed to see Comer & Hoare drop out.

Starting to worry about the game now, I've no faith in AM to implement any sort of tactical plan to beat an organised team.

Alan to win at the weekend and give Kerry a surprisingly good rattle and then keep his job.

That's what your hoping.

Just don't see it under AM, its one step forwards one step backwards. Any sort if improvement thus year is down to improvements in individuals but collectively were as much as a shambles as last year. He's had 12 months to work on a strategy that makes us a more difficult opponent yet we still concede 3-14 against Mayo and it should have been at least 5 goals.

Galway team

Tomas Healy
Donal O'Neill
Finian Hanley
Joss Moore
Gareth Bradshaw
Gary O'Donnell
Paul Varley
Fiontain O'Curraoin
Tom Flynn
Michael Lundy
Shane Walsh
James Kavanagh
Michael Martin
Paul Conroy
Danny Cummins

Tipp are unchanged.

Great to see Moore back but disappointed to see Comer & Hoare drop out.

Starting to worry about the game now, I've no faith in AM to implement any sort of tactical plan to beat an organised team.

He puts the boot in on a regular basis.
Moysider he may be a sound lad but from anything I've ever heard out of his mouth he's a bitter mayo hating c**t

I don t think he s bitter. He s nothing to be bitter about. For a lad of his limited ability he maxed out captaining an AI team. While he was captaining Galway and winning AIs, he wouldn t have made a Mayo defence at that time. And 2 others wouldn t have either ...... ooops, sorry, I forgot about Pateen!

Of course he 'hates' Mayo. Who doesn t really? Sligo, Leitrim, Ros and Galway hate us. Major cities like London and NY probably do as well! It s a good thing.

Most people would like to see Mayo winning the thing at this stage. I agree about Silke, definitely overachieved in 98. But you take your chances.
[/b]

I dont believe that to be true not that i care that much either , it was certainly true back in the nineties and maybe even for both Kerry losses in 04/06 but not now well definitely not as much anyway, a lot of neutrals are fed up with Mayo in a way. Thats the vibe i get anyway.

Well this neutral would wish you'd hurry up and win it 

John Mitchels beat St Peters by 12 points yesterday in the championship. Odd game, Peters dominant for first 15 minutes, must have been 6/7 points clear. Mitchels got on top of the middle 3rd and never looked back. Very impressive from Mitchels, as usual always the team to beat.

Peters play Lawrences in a play off with the winners playing Mitchels in the semi.
Brendans play Oisins in the other semi.

Silke looks down his nose at Mayo (and Ros)! He quite enjoys Mayo's repeated forays to Croker without success. But that is only natural, we are rivals. And more importantly we are rival neighbours. I quite enjoy how much presently we are ahead of Galway. That is also natural. Galway have been the last decade or so looking down their nose at Mayo living off 98/01 and scoffing at us repeatedly falling short. Lines like we went there and finished the job off proper has been cast up to Many a Mayo supporter. Any time Mayo (or Ros or Sligo) beat Galway. Galway looked on this as a waste of a year and seen it almost as an entitlement that the red carpet should be laid out to let them get the job finished off proper. The last day at the Connacht final, a galway fan beside me said I hope it's a tight game, it will do Mayo the world of good to have a tight game. In the past i would have agreed. But the only team that a tight game would have suited on Sunday was Galway, it would have gave them confidence, we don't need confidence (not in Connacht anyway) and to be cruel you don't really care about your rival (really).

Only Galway play proper football (in the style of Kerry) we are constantly told. They are backed up by the lynch pins of Journalism (Magee, Spillane, O'Rourke, Breheney) to such a degree that the Myth of them being a fine football county is presently just that a Myth. But each year (like Arsenal) we get the youth talked up, the next terrible twins, the next great footballing side, the next set of unbelievable forwards. Meanwhile Mayo are still Mayo, Labeled as being Chokers, Labeled as not being able to win in Croke park, Labeled as not having players to get scores. Stereotypes stick hard in the GAA. If you are once known for something you are always known for that thing. A feck me trying to shake it off. Tyrone have done a decent job the last 10+ years to beat labels but there was still the begrudgers who just had to put them into the cynical category. 

Back to Silke. He's a Galway man. He has no real cares for Mayo. He was worked in Castlebar for a while and that has probably made him not want Mayo (even more) to win Sam. That ok! That's rivalry!

Hon Mayo!

Listen if we can put up with David Brady's gombeenery ye can put up with Ray Silke. And Brady is the much more ubiquitous of the two.

You'd think he'd put the boot into Mayo judging by a few of the reactions on here. Like so many people from Mayo his belief is they'll pull up short.

i would genuinely say that Dublin are the only team that Mayo would be overly worried about this year and going on the evidsence of what we have seen so far they would probably be right in fact at the moment my rankings would be,
1)dublin
2) mayo
3 Kerry
4) Donegal
5)monaghan
6 cork
7 meath
8 Tipp
9)galway
10 kildare
11 Armagh,Roscommon,sligo ,clare,

Talk about a windup, all speculative. We'll soon find out where 7-12 are in the next few weeks.

Adrian Varley would add more. Galway need continuity up front and Varley is very good at play-making and making a forward line consistent. Whoever takes over next year (as much as I'd like it, ye won't keep Mulholland, will ye?) will have to look towards nurturing his talents better next year.

The likes of Martin, Hoare, Cummins and Armstrong aren't the future for Galway up front. Cummins might be better as a workhorse forward playing deeper.

I'll be fuming if Mulholland is kept on. I agree Varley should have a future in our forward line but I wouldn't have thought he was physically ready yet. Were light weight enough with throwing another one in. How has he performed for his club this year?

[I'm not a fan of Martin, don't think he's that accurate and lacks the pace of someone like Cummins.]

Going to be a very interesting game. Tipp improving all the time and are in a good frame of mind aswell I would think. They have a good age profile in that team with several guys who have proven themselves in Sigerson or Minor teams in recent years so it's no surprise the graph is moving upwards.
Galway continue to be miles off where I thought they'd be given the u21 successes. The collapse of midfield in Connacht final was particularly concerning. Can anybody tell me why Martin wasn't playing btw? Looked to be a quality inside forward any time I've seen him.
I'd be veering towards backing Tipp if anything for this one given the state of both camps. Could be a very tight game though.

I'm not a fan of Martin, don't think he's that accurate and lacks the pace of someone like Cummins. I'd rather we stick with Cummins for the Tipp game.

We have a manger who is way out of his depth like no other county. I feel sorry for the players who have to play under a manager who doesn't really know whats he's doing. I'm not claiming we should be winning All Irelands with this team but we'd a good bunch of young players here who will develop providing they play under the right man. We still managed to kick 16 scores against one of the best 3 teams in the country and it should have been a lot more.

The midfield wouldn't concern me, their up against some of the best and most experienced opponents in the country. Their only young and no doubt they will be more physically developed next year.

Concerns for me are the amount of goal chances we concede, far too many. How many time did we dispossess Mayo yet they won it straight back, very frustrating. Nothing was done to stop the threat of O'Connor, he was outstanding but he was given so much space that he probably doesn't find in a club game. These are issues created by the lack of a decent manager, its his 3rd year in charge and were not really further on as a team , individually were in a far better place for moving forward.

From what I've seen (and I've seen both players quite a bit) Cummins might have a bit more pace, but Martin is far more accurate, a lot stronger AND his movement is smarter and more economical. Cummins will run all day but won't produce much. His shooting was very poor the last day overall.

There are undoubtedly people here more familiar with both but to me, looking in from the outside I think Martin would add a lot to the forward line.

If you'd have asked me last year I'd have agreed with you. Cummins was very wasteful against Mayo but took some good scores against Sligo scoring 4 points from play whilst Martin only got a point from a free. I hope he's given another chance, his pace caused Barrett problems and in fairness there was a lot of rubbish balls delivered into him.

Going to be a very interesting game. Tipp improving all the time and are in a good frame of mind aswell I would think. They have a good age profile in that team with several guys who have proven themselves in Sigerson or Minor teams in recent years so it's no surprise the graph is moving upwards.
Galway continue to be miles off where I thought they'd be given the u21 successes. The collapse of midfield in Connacht final was particularly concerning. Can anybody tell me why Martin wasn't playing btw? Looked to be a quality inside forward any time I've seen him.
I'd be veering towards backing Tipp if anything for this one given the state of both camps. Could be a very tight game though.

I'm not a fan of Martin, don't think he's that accurate and lacks the pace of someone like Cummins. I'd rather we stick with Cummins for the Tipp game.

We have a manger who is way out of his depth like no other county. I feel sorry for the players who have to play under a manager who doesn't really know whats he's doing. I'm not claiming we should be winning All Irelands with this team but we'd a good bunch of young players here who will develop providing they play under the right man. We still managed to kick 16 scores against one of the best 3 teams in the country and it should have been a lot more.

The midfield wouldn't concern me, their up against some of the best and most experienced opponents in the country. Their only young and no doubt they will be more physically developed next year.

Concerns for me are the amount of goal chances we concede, far too many. How many time did we dispossess Mayo yet they won it straight back, very frustrating. Nothing was done to stop the threat of O'Connor, he was outstanding but he was given so much space that he probably doesn't find in a club game. These are issues created by the lack of a decent manager, its his 3rd year in charge and were not really further on as a team , individually were in a far better place for moving forward.

Galway v Tipp in Tullamore and live on Sky at 7pm on the 26th of July

I was very disappointed once again, we conceded 3 goals and it should have been 5. Far too open yet again. Can't recall us creating any genuine goal chance,

Walsh rattled the crossbar. Conroy shot just over the bar when he could have gone for goal not long after. Walsh had his pen saved. Think there was an opportunity in the first half where one more handpass would have created a one on one with the keeper but it was messed up. They nearly all came from individual play though rather than from any team build-up.

From a Mayo perspective that would be the main concern I would imagine. Galway scored 0-16 and it could easily have been 1-20 or 1-21. I dread to think what Dublin could have scored against both sides yesterday. They would probably have put 6 goals past us for a start.

But none of them were great goals chances though, they were half chances compared to the chances Mayo created. I do agree we should have easily hit 20 points +, we hit some dreadful wides.