Galway v Wexford

[boro]

Just booked the hotel down in Galway and lookin forward to this match now. Wexford had a handy game to re-group after the heartbreak of blowing the dublin game. Hopefully the lads will be well up for this and i'd be quitefully confident of getting a result. It will be hard for Galway to get back on track after losing against sligo but home playing at home will be a big advantage. If Meehan plays or not will probably have a huge bearing on the game. Does anyone know the status of his and Nicky Joyces injuries?

[Duine Eile]

Mike is definitely out with damaged ankle ligaments. The news on Nicky Joyce is a bit more positive, he might be able to play a role on Saturday but there are concerns over Finian Hanley now, he picked up a calf strain on Saturday against Sligo. This panel are jinxed when it comes to injuries, I don't think we've had a full fit panel in about 4 or 5 years. It's very hard to know how this will go on Saturday, a lot will depend on which Galway team show up. This group of players really need to show what they're capable of and start playing for each other and play as a team. We probably won't see too many changes on the Galway team apart from a replacement for Mike Meehan. Hopefully we'll come away with the victory, not at all confident though.

[myball22]

I think Galway's record in the qualifiers is dreadful apart from coming through the qualifiers to win the All-Ireland the first year it was introduced in 2001.

That was a different time though, since then we have been handy pickings for Donegal, Meath and Westmeath. Not confident about this at all.

[ross matt]

Hmmmm...... Morale will be poor in the Galway camp but I'd expect them to win this one at home. Wexford are a good side having regrouped this year but I'm not convinced they've enough scoring power to put away the tribesmen. Maybe if Forde was 100% fit it would be a different story...

[Duine Eile]

Have Galway enough scoring power to put away Wexford though rossmatt? Its all on the shoulders of Padraic Joyce and Sean Armstrong, and Eoin Concannon to a lesser extent, Gary Sice, Joe Bergin and Matthew Clancy aren't exactly known as big scorers. Have a bad feeling about this one to be honest, it could be like Westmeath a few years back.

[ross4life]

With Forde, Redmond Barry,Lyng & Banville Wexford have the better scoring power between these two sides, but Galway should break even at midfield & plenty of weakness in the Wexford backline if Joyce & co can exploit it?

[ross matt]

Have Galway enough scoring power to put away Wexford though rossmatt? Its all on the shoulders of Padraic Joyce and Sean Armstrong, and Eoin Concannon to a lesser extent, Gary Sice, Joe Bergin and Matthew Clancy aren't exactly known as big scorers. Have a bad feeling about this one to be honest, it could be like Westmeath a few years back.

Agree Duine the Westmeath match from a few years back is an ominous comparison for Galway but I do actually think they've the scoring power to put away Wexford. Sligo (unless I'm completely over rating them) are miles ahead of Wexford at the moment. Both the drawn match and the replay were played at a very high intensity and physicality plus the scoring was high despite the elements. Joyce is on fire. In fairness Armstrong is hitting steady form and Concannon is worth a few scores. Mike Meehan is'nt a loss from the last day because he was'nt able to function due to his injury. If Nicky is half fit he would be capabable of doing damage in the open spaces of the stadium. But it's down the heads and if they have the hunger to lift it really more than any lack of ability on their part.

[ross4life]

Have Galway enough scoring power to put away Wexford though rossmatt? Its all on the shoulders of Padraic Joyce and Sean Armstrong, and Eoin Concannon to a lesser extent, Gary Sice, Joe Bergin and Matthew Clancy aren't exactly known as big scorers. Have a bad feeling about this one to be honest, it could be like Westmeath a few years back.

Agree Duine the Westmeath match from a few years back is an ominous comparison for Galway but I do actually think they've the scoring power to put away Wexford. Sligo (unless I'm completely over rating them) are miles ahead of Wexford at the moment. Both the drawn match and the replay were played at a very high intensity and physicality plus the scoring was high despite the elements. Joyce is on fire. In fairness Armstrong is hitting steady form and Concannon is worth a few scores. Mike Meehan is'nt a loss from the last day because he was'nt able to function due to his injury. If Nicky is half fit he would be capabable of doing damage in the open spaces of the stadium. But it's down the heads and if they have the hunger to lift it really more than any lack of ability on their part.

Might have been only a league but Wexford beat Sligo with plenty to spare a few months ago & they.. not Sligo would have got promotion if we played a full team v Sligo in the last Game, (7point win got them promotion)

[boro]

Have Galway enough scoring power to put away Wexford though rossmatt? Its all on the shoulders of Padraic Joyce and Sean Armstrong, and Eoin Concannon to a lesser extent, Gary Sice, Joe Bergin and Matthew Clancy aren't exactly known as big scorers. Have a bad feeling about this one to be honest, it could be like Westmeath a few years back.

Agree Duine the Westmeath match from a few years back is an ominous comparison for Galway but I do actually think they've the scoring power to put away Wexford. Sligo (unless I'm completely over rating them) are miles ahead of Wexford at the moment. Both the drawn match and the replay were played at a very high intensity and physicality plus the scoring was high despite the elements. Joyce is on fire. In fairness Armstrong is hitting steady form and Concannon is worth a few scores. Mike Meehan is'nt a loss from the last day because he was'nt able to function due to his injury. If Nicky is half fit he would be capabable of doing damage in the open spaces of the stadium. But it's down the heads and if they have the hunger to lift it really more than any lack of ability on their part.

We did beat Sligo by seven points in the league and that was without Matty Forde and PJ Banville, so i wouldn't say they are miles ahead of us, but i suppose Saturday will tell...

If Nicky Joyce and Michael Meehan are out i'd be quietly confident.  I'd imagine we will play an extra defender so that might stifle a Galway attack minus its two main scorers from the league. Our midfield isn't great but this also seems to be weakness for Galway. Up front we could make hay especially if it's a dry sod. However I'd be worried about our options off the bench if things start going wrong because we are fairly weak in this department, as Dublin showed well enough when the legs started to tire in the second half.  Galway will rightly go in as favourites but I'm hoping that Wexford might just sneak it. Fingers crossed anyway. It will long trip home otherwise.

[ross matt]

Have Galway enough scoring power to put away Wexford though rossmatt? Its all on the shoulders of Padraic Joyce and Sean Armstrong, and Eoin Concannon to a lesser extent, Gary Sice, Joe Bergin and Matthew Clancy aren't exactly known as big scorers. Have a bad feeling about this one to be honest, it could be like Westmeath a few years back.

Agree Duine the Westmeath match from a few years back is an ominous comparison for Galway but I do actually think they've the scoring power to put away Wexford. Sligo (unless I'm completely over rating them) are miles ahead of Wexford at the moment. Both the drawn match and the replay were played at a very high intensity and physicality plus the scoring was high despite the elements. Joyce is on fire. In fairness Armstrong is hitting steady form and Concannon is worth a few scores. Mike Meehan is'nt a loss from the last day because he was'nt able to function due to his injury. If Nicky is half fit he would be capabable of doing damage in the open spaces of the stadium. But it's down the heads and if they have the hunger to lift it really more than any lack of ability on their part.

We did beat Sligo by seven points in the league and that was without Matty Forde and PJ Banville, so i wouldn't say they are miles ahead of us, but i suppose Saturday will tell...

If Nicky Joyce and Michael Meehan are out i'd be quietly confident.  I'd imagine we will play an extra defender so that might stifle a Galway attack minus its two main scorers from the league. Our midfield isn't great but this also seems to be weakness for Galway. Up front we could make hay especially if it's a dry sod. However I'd be worried about our options off the bench if things start going wrong because we are fairly weak in this department, as Dublin showed well enough when the legs started to tire in the second half.  Galway will rightly go in as favourites but I'm hoping that Wexford might just sneak it. Fingers crossed anyway. It will long trip home otherwise.

No offence meant to wexford Boro. like I said in my post I may be completely over rating Sligo. Just think that the quality and intensity in the Galway/Sligo matches was much higher than most matches this year. Dubs are very very poor as seen since. Then its a home match for Galway. I wouldnt read in to too much in to the League. Kevin has Sligo in serious championship form. If Galway have any pride or ambition left they'll have to win this.

[An Fhairche Abu]

I'll be honest and say that I thought that Galway didn't play all that badly last Saturday, especially when compared to the game in Pearse which was a total disaster. Sligo are undoubtedly a good team, I think that Galway needed to and did improve a lot from the 1st match, with a bit more composure near the end I think we could have won the match, alas it was not to be and it's no overstatement to say we are left with a massive hill to climb to try and get back to Croke Park this year.

Looking at how the players performed in the Sligo loss, Hanley had a good game at FB until he had to be subbed; as one of Galways few performers in the 1st Sligo match he has shown that although his league form was woeful that he has been certainly up to fine championship form, he'll be a big loss if he is out for Saturday. Although Burke wasn't as badly roasted by Kelly as he was in Salthill but I think this had more to do with the better Galway performance out the field rather than any improvement from himself. Reilly did ok when he came on, might be in with a shout of a place next Saturday, would look to be first in line anyway if Hanley is out.
Bradshaw had a decent game and I think he is one of our few really class players but his error for Kelly's goal was monumentally bad, he got caught by Conor Mort for a similar thing in the '09 Connacht Final which is worrying, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice..." he recovered very well though which is the mark of a good player. Blake and O'Donnell did not have good outings, Blake was good in the 2nd half of the drawn match but his main deficiency in pace was once again brutally shown up the last day; there is a distinct lack of alternatives though. Of course the men on the sideline have forgotten more about the game then I'll ever know but Gary O'Donnell continuing to be a starter in this Galway side is bewildering to me given his performances, maybe there is something I'm just not seeing. Mullaghy is surely worth a shot if he is injury free.
Niall Coleman had his best game in a long while for Galway at midfield; the problem here was that Bergin gave him fizz all support. When the crucial final stages of the game were being played out the last 7 or 8 kickouts in the game were all won by Sligo, looking at this fact the question must be asked as to why Clancy was moved further forward after the break when he had his best half of football for ages around the HF/midfield lines in the 1st half?
It's easy to be correct in hindsight but Meehan should not have started last Saturday, he was unfit and now he is left with ankle damage that will keep him out for a few weeks, presumably long enough that we won't see him again this year if we are being honest. Concannon should be nearer to the goals if he is to be on from the start, Armstrong is going ok but needs to be more consistent from game to game.
Again on Saturday Joyce was our best player, as he has been on many, many other occasions, to still have the desire and will to win after all he has played and won in the game is an example to the other players.

The sight of Joyce chasing back after Brehony in injury time was to me emblematic of this current Galway team that has been carried for years by the great man, he can only do so much in a fifteen man team, where was Blake or the other half backs at this critical moment of the game?

I think most of us can remember the picture of Mattie Forde smiling in the Tuam rain the day after Wexford had just hit Galway for 5 goals (Forde contributing 4 of those) in the 2004 national league match and although I don't in a million years anticipate that Wexford will knock 5 in this Saturday, this game is realistically a very hard match to win if the Galway performance isn't right, mainly due to having only 6 days after a one point defeat (the Donegal game straight after the Connacht final last year unfortunately immediately springs to mind).
Joe Kernan might be whinging a bit about the teams schedule but he has a valid point, to have an 8 week gap between championship games and then be forced to play three in three weeks is crazy, the reward for winning is another game the following week.
The biggest problem with this situation is the lack of a break between games to allow for injuries to clear up, slight knocks and pulls that would be grand after two weeks can sometimes be made worse by playing a full blooded contest again so soon after the previous match.
Of our current injuries Mike Meehan is of course the really massive loss, not alone for his ability on the ball and the fact that his mere presence causes havoc in the opposition FB line but also as a long range free taker, it's a big advantage to have a man that sticks most of these on his good side, Wexford have both Forde and Barry capable of taking long range frees accurately, it's been evident that teams without this outlet suffer, Mayo are a notable county that don't have a reliable man to stick the long range pressure frees, if the match plays out as a tight game the loss of these points could prove crucial.
I would imagine that given our sceptic record in the qualifiers Wexford will have no trepidation whatsoever heading to Pearse Stadium, any fear factor that Galway had for the opposition was because of results 10 years ago, certainly nothing in our very recent history makes for foreboding reading from a Wexford point of view!
I haven't seen anything of Wexford this year bar the drawn Dublin game which they should have won. They have demolished London but really, that's no barometer of how they will be in this match. From reading the comments of Wexford followers they have marked their midfield as one of the weaker sectors of the team, that alone would give me some hope as the last thing Galway need to be facing on Saturday is a top class MF pairing.
That said although the talent isn't what it was 10 years ago in Galway, if the team performs like they did in the last Sligo match without the crazy moments of self destruction then we do have a live shot at beating Wexford who are a good team but with all due respect not unbelievably so, they are not a top 8 team by any stretch of the imagination (no more than ourselves at this point in time). The fact that Wexford lost a huge lead to a 13 man Dublin team that seems to be absolute muck bar the Brogans would give me some optimism that there is a fragile Wexford underbelly that could be exposed if enough pressure is applied by Galway however if the Galway performance is similar standard to the 1st Sligo game then the team can start looking forward to their holidays and for those of them with teams left in it the local club championship.
I mentioned in the Sligo match thread that I believed that the replay match between Galway and Sligo would be the defining match for both teams this summer, whoever won had a two week break, the benefit of a hard replay match under them and a Q-final place there for the taking against the Rossies in the provincial decider. Whoever lost was left facing the severe situation Galway has now.
With only a week to recover from a close loss, a third game in 3 weeks, it's a big ask and, with the crazy way the qualifiers are now structured, an unfair ask IMHO but the grievance of 4 games in 4 weeks would be a better complaint this time next week. Whether we can win I have my doubts, we've a terrible qualifier record and the 7 day turnaround is really coming against the team but there's a 50/50 chance in this match I think, hopefully Galway can come out on the right side of what should be a very tight match for once.

[Duine Eile]

Galway team named, 2 changes: Fiachra Breathnach in for Mike Meehan and David Reilly in for Diarmuid Blake

Adrian Faherty
David Reilly
Finian Hanley
Alan Burke
Gareth Bradshaw
Kieran Fitz
Gary O'Donnell
Niall Coleman
Joe Bergin
Gary Sice
Fiachra Breathnach
Matthew Clancy
Eoin Concannon
Padraic Joyce
Sean Armstrong

[mckieran]

Seems very very harsh on Blake. While he was poor the last day (Against a player who always causes him bother), He was one of our best players in the drawn game. Is he injured?

Its interesting to see K. Fitz at number 6; I thought he would go on to be Galways no. 6 after T. Mannion retired. It never materialised though.  I think he is more suited to being a half back than a full/corner back.

That half forward line does not inspire much hope in me at all. But full forward line has potential to do serious damage

[Duine Eile]

We're not going to see too many scores from that half forward line. I'd say we'll see a very crowded midfield. Very surprised to see Blake dropped, it's a bit harsh, he was one of our better players the first day out against Sligo. Nicky Joyce is still not starting but from what I've heard he'll probably be able to come on if needed.

[ross matt]

We're not going to see too many scores from that half forward line. I'd say we'll see a very crowded midfield. Very surprised to see Blake dropped, it's a bit harsh, he was one of our better players the first day out against Sligo. Nicky Joyce is still not starting but from what I've heard he'll probably be able to come on if needed.

God Duine... McKiernan..... Think Blake well deserved the chop. Very very loose. Over rated and gets on a lot of ball which disguises his defensive weaknesses I think. Reilly looked good when he came on the last day.