Antrim v Galway

[seafoid]

I thought mullholland was highly regarded and widely accepted as the best man for the job? Hard to put a finger on exactly what's wrong but tactics or not there are too many journeymen in the team. In order to be competitive Galway will have to adopt more negative tactics as they have an average defence (though they have one or two good individuals), a woeful midfield and scoring forwards. Drawing teams in a breaking quickly to get Meehan et al. in space might make them a top 8 team again.

It looks like

Poor gym monkeyness
Chronic inability to foul out the field
too sportsmanlike
Lack of players who can slow down a game to grind out a win
Tactics 
General lack of suitable personnel
Distaste of puke football

From the outside looking in...

- You actually do have some decent footballers so gym monkeys is harsh.
however...
- You have absolutely no leaders.
- You can't win dirty ball.
- A massive problem Antrim have always had is that they play a spare man back(it was more than one on saturday), the other team push up and then antrim don't know what to do. It's a simple tactic antrim always fall short on and you didn't know what to do.
- You are very reliant on Gareth Bradshaw to set up attacks. James Loughrey has an engine as good as the best of them and bradshaw didn't count.
- Your forwards are too easily dispossessed. This tallies with the fact that when antrim pushed a load of men back you didn't push enough men forward and didn't have the support.

A few other comments:
- There were some boys who came on as subs who probably should have been started. The wee half back guy from Corofin who looks very gutsy looked like he should have started.
- Your number 12 was starting to cause antrim problems then you took him off.
- Kevin O'Boyle put his head where a lot of people wouldn't on saturday towards the end to stop a certain goal otherwise this conversation wouldn't be going on.
- Joyce on earlier would have made a difference.

The top teams have needle in them and are good at winning break ball. You fall very short in both areas.

Also I felt, and I know nothing about your manager, that tactically you were incredibly naive on saturday night. Baker has the most simplistic game plan you would find and most managers combat it with ease. You were void of ideas to a very simple game plan which would be concerning.

I like Galway and I think with the right manager there could be a lot in that team but look at the teams who are coming up. Donegal, Mayo and Kildare have introduced a lot more needle etc into their football and they can win ball. You lack both of these but with the right manager etc behind you I think you could improve a lot. As it stands though that was a poor poor show on saturday.

Good stuff there.  I don't know if either of the three teams you mention are good enough to win it though. Maybe if Galway got engaged with the puke programme they could move up the rankings but it seems like an awful slog . It looks like asphyxiation . 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWlABqUppF0

I wouldn't pay to watch a match like that. i dunno if i would like the young lad to play that sort of style either.
All that fouling is very negative and cynical.

[imtommygunn]

I wouldn't say they are either but I think those 3 are getting the most out of what are possibly not the most talented footballers. (compared to your tyrones/kerrys/corks /dublins(who while a lot say are just athletes have a number of great forwards).)

Even with Galway playing football that match on saturday, dunno if you were at it, was hard to watch. Other teams who play like this will drag you down and you're not going to beat them without playing in that manner so you're pretty much damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Hanley, Bradshaw, Meehan, Sice to a lesser extent, Conroy and boys like that are good footballers. (Though Conroy is a too greedy and needs that knocked out of him). You play a system round them boys and you'll do alright.

(However in converse to this if you'd have pushed more men up on saturday you'd likely have won...)

[saffron sam2]

I thought mullholland was highly regarded and widely accepted as the best man for the job? Hard to put a finger on exactly what's wrong but tactics or not there are too many journeymen in the team. In order to be competitive Galway will have to adopt more negative tactics as they have an average defence (though they have one or two good individuals), a woeful midfield and scoring forwards. Drawing teams in a breaking quickly to get Meehan et al. in space might make them a top 8 team again.

It looks like

Poor gym monkeyness
Chronic inability to foul out the field
too sportsmanlike
Lack of players who can slow down a game to grind out a win
Tactics 
General lack of suitable personnel
Distaste of puke football

Swap A Mulholland for P Joyce and that's 2, 3 and 4 on your list sorted straight away.

[From the Bunker]

Galway are a team in transition. Just want to see what damage Duine Eile will do!

I have transferred my allegiance for this year over to Mayo, Farr, and am hoping now for a Connacht double with Mayo winning the fuball.   I  hope ye don't get strangled by some team that can only score 6 points but hold ye to 3.

You now have picked two of the biggest fallers when it comes to false dawns of the past 24 years. Both have levels of looking the real deal this year, but you know there aint going to be a happy ending in both cases. (All the same, Boy do i hope i'm very very wrong)

[seafoid]

I thought mullholland was highly regarded and widely accepted as the best man for the job? Hard to put a finger on exactly what's wrong but tactics or not there are too many journeymen in the team. In order to be competitive Galway will have to adopt more negative tactics as they have an average defence (though they have one or two good individuals), a woeful midfield and scoring forwards. Drawing teams in a breaking quickly to get Meehan et al. in space might make them a top 8 team again.

It looks like

Poor gym monkeyness
Chronic inability to foul out the field
too sportsmanlike
Lack of players who can slow down a game to grind out a win
Tactics 
General lack of suitable personnel
Distaste of puke football

Swap A Mulholland for P Joyce and that's 2, 3 and 4 on your list sorted straight away.

In fairness to the manager it was his first season and he never wins anything in the first year. It was the same with the minors and under 21s.

I was reading an article from the Connacht Tribune this time last year re the hurlers after a similar Antrim style trauma  (Dublin) .

"Where does Galway hurling go from here? There must be a root and branch review to determine where the county is at and what it needs to do to challenge for top senior honours. The key weakneses at senior level must be identified and addressed at the earliest opportunity. For the most part the focus in Galway has been on the small skilful exponent with the larger perhaps more cumbersome player consigned to the margins. Given the tribesmen's lack of physicality at the top  level these players could easily be the future of Galway hurling"

And 12 months later
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5KSr-LD2ts

The thing about hurling is you have to have the skills even with the workrate so it isn't really comparable with Donegal  fuball 
 
So I suppose it depends if they want it badly enough on the football side.

[seafoid]

Galway are a team in transition. Just want to see what damage Duine Eile will do!

I have transferred my allegiance for this year over to Mayo, Farr, and am hoping now for a Connacht double with Mayo winning the fuball.   I  hope ye don't get strangled by some team that can only score 6 points but hold ye to 3.

You now have picked two of the biggest fallers when it comes to false dawns of the past 24 years. Both have levels of looking the real deal this year, but you know there aint going to be a happy ending in both cases. (All the same, Boy do i hope i'm very very wrong)

Statistically,  it must happen some day. Even if Mayo only win once every 40 years. It is about time now.  And who can forget 2001 and Crossmolina and Athenry doing the Connacht double in the club championships ? Unbelievable.

[Sportacus]

If Finian Hanley is one of your stronger players/leader?  - then he was under used in full back - bit like Seamus moynihan stuck in full back for Kerry.

[Duine Eile]

Full back has been his position since he started playing intercounty, he was tried at mid-field once and it was a disaster. Doesn't have the pace for the half back line and isn't tight enough for a corner back, he can't kick the ball either so full back is the best place for him. He'd be one of the longer serving players alright, he's 27 I think, don't know would I call him a leader though.

[mouview]

Galway are a team in transition. Just want to see what damage Duine Eile will do!

I have transferred my allegiance for this year over to Mayo, Farr, and am hoping now for a Connacht double with Mayo winning the fuball.   I  hope ye don't get strangled by some team that can only score 6 points but hold ye to 3.

You now have picked two of the biggest fallers when it comes to false dawns of the past 24 years. Both have levels of looking the real deal this year, but you know there aint going to be a happy ending in both cases. (All the same, Boy do i hope i'm very very wrong)

Statistically,  it must happen some day. Even if Mayo only win once every 40 years. It is about time now.  And who can forget 2001 and Crossmolina and Athenry doing the Connacht double in the club championships ? Unbelievable.

Emm..  surpassed only by '06 when those 2 ultra-gifted exponents M Donnellan and J Canning won AI club medals on the same day.

[Syferus]

Galway are a team in transition. Just want to see what damage Duine Eile will do!

I have transferred my allegiance for this year over to Mayo, Farr, and am hoping now for a Connacht double with Mayo winning the fuball.   I  hope ye don't get strangled by some team that can only score 6 points but hold ye to 3.

You now have picked two of the biggest fallers when it comes to false dawns of the past 24 years. Both have levels of looking the real deal this year, but you know there aint going to be a happy ending in both cases. (All the same, Boy do i hope i'm very very wrong)

Statistically,  it must happen some day. Even if Mayo only win once every 40 years. It is about time now.  And who can forget 2001 and Crossmolina and Athenry doing the Connacht double in the club championships ? Unbelievable.

Emm..  surpassed only by '06 when those 2 ultra-gifted exponents M Donnellan and J Canning won AI club medals on the same day.

We planned to do the inter-county double for Connacht in 2006 as well but the Christmas Lights got stage fright.

[seafoid]

Galway are a team in transition. Just want to see what damage Duine Eile will do!

I have transferred my allegiance for this year over to Mayo, Farr, and am hoping now for a Connacht double with Mayo winning the fuball.   I  hope ye don't get strangled by some team that can only score 6 points but hold ye to 3.

You now have picked two of the biggest fallers when it comes to false dawns of the past 24 years. Both have levels of looking the real deal this year, but you know there aint going to be a happy ending in both cases. (All the same, Boy do i hope i'm very very wrong)

Statistically,  it must happen some day. Even if Mayo only win once every 40 years. It is about time now.  And who can forget 2001 and Crossmolina and Athenry doing the Connacht double in the club championships ? Unbelievable.

Emm..  surpassed only by '06 when those 2 ultra-gifted exponents M Donnellan and J Canning won AI club medals on the same day.

That was magic as well.
A huge improvement from 1988 when the 2 teams went away with nathin
 

[Cosmo Kramer]

I know it was mostly a dig at Alan Mulholland and the state of Galway football but Joyce should have known better than slagging off the two teams that beat them like that.

It's the footballers equivalent of a spectator going on about watching 'two bad teams' as he watches his own team being beaten - its a very ungrateful way to lose. Antrim and Sligo have both improved their standing in the last ten years while Galway have gone backwards. I don't know too much about Antrim but Sligo certainly have a far better team than Galway at the moment, Joyce should acknowledge that rather than dismiss them, incorrectly, as a division 4 side.

Mulholland needs to spend the next few months working out how he's going to reinvent Galway football. The rules aren't going to be changed just because they want to play catch and kick.

[seafoid]

I know it was mostly a dig at Alan Mulholland and the state of Galway football but Joyce should have known better than slagging off the two teams that beat them like that.

It's the footballers equivalent of a spectator going on about watching 'two bad teams' as he watches his own team being beaten - its a very ungrateful way to lose. Antrim and Sligo have both improved their standing in the last ten years while Galway have gone backwards. I don't know too much about Antrim but Sligo certainly have a far better team than Galway at the moment, Joyce should acknowledge that rather than dismiss them, incorrectly, as a division 4 side.

Mulholland needs to spend the next few months working out how he's going to reinvent Galway football. The rules aren't going to be changed just because they want to play catch and kick.

God loves a trier and all but Sligo and Antrim are nowhere near all Ireland standard. There are puke teams that can strangle the life out of the opposition with less effort. 
Joyce was just saying that  Galway should be capable of beating these teams. And they should. Losing to Louth, Wexford, Westmeath, Sligo, antrim- with all due respect none of these are  worldbeaters.  Meath beat us last year but they have their own issues.  Banty out!

After the Sligo match Mulholland said it would be tough to get the  players back on the road- I'd say he realised at that stage that they weren't at the races.    I think this year is the end of the road for the notion that Galway can do their own thing.
So there needs to be some thinking done on the reinvention.

Mayo are further ahead on the programme but can they pull it off ? 

[Cosmo Kramer]

We planned to do the inter-county double for Connacht in 2006 as well but the Christmas Lights got stage fright.

Syferus, remind us all again how many wins your seniors have had in Croke Park in the last 30 years.

[sans pessimism]

We planned to do the inter-county double for Connacht in 2006 as well but the Christmas Lights got stage fright.

Syferus, remind us all again how many wins your seniors have had in Croke Park in the last 30 years.

Cosmo, ignore like everyone else