Gaillimh -v- Ros Comáin

[AZOffaly]

That's a bit of a pity. I can't see Leitrim beating Galway in Salthill. I would have given them a puncher's chance in Carrick.

[SLIGONIAN]

Galway V leitrim is in Galway. They played in Carrick last yr when leitrim ran them to 3 or 4 pts and could of been closer but for wasteful shooting.

2yrs ago they played in salthill and it was Galway 1-10 leitrim 1-8 if my memory serves me right. It would not suprise me leitrim beating them with a free taker of mulligans class and maxwell FF they will cause Galway plenty of problems. Connaght isnt quite so clear cut anymore with the big 2 not improving.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Moysider, I know your a Mayoman, it doesnt suprise me how passionate you are at talking up this Galway team. But this Galway team is nothing to be feared. It was a piss poor performance yday and they know it. Sugar coat all they want. It was 6-4 at HT against a ros side devoid of any quality on the ball apart from glimpses from no 13.

Absolutely ridiculous to say it was a piss poor performance. Galway won by 16 points for goodness sake! Would Sligo have beaten that Ros team by 16 points? I seriously doubt it. Albeit Ros lost a man I still think the winning margin would have ended up somewhere around 10+. Yes much of the first half was very scrappy on a difficult surface but everyone expected Ros to at the very least come flying out of the traps and make a decent fist of it for a while anyway. Which they did as they are proud footballers. In the first half it was almost impossible to look good as every time a Galway player got within 40 yards of the Roscommon posts he was fouled. There was no fluency in the game as the ref was shagged out from blowing his whistle every 10 seconds. In many ways it was a no win fixture for Galway. If they won the game by 3 or 4 points everyone would be saying how bad Galway are. If they won the game by 16 points everyone would be saying how bad Roscommon are. Yesterday was the type of game where in the past few years we might have scraped home by 4 or 5 points so in that sense it was an improvement although tempered by the fact that Ros are in a bit of a slump right now.

Yes the Galway midfield is probably the weakest area in the team even though Kerry were the only team who really got on top of Galway in this area in the league and they were helped by the fact that they had three midfielders playing that day in Dara O'Se, Seamus Scanlon and Tommy Griffin. Obviously Joe Bergin is a big loss but we just have to get on with it now without him. Incidentially I didn't think Cullinane was all that bad yesterday and the stats show that midfield was fairly evenly contested overall. Not a huge amount of clean ball won but so much of midfield now is about claiming the breaking ball. Big Barry was probably a bit lucky that he didn't get the line even though I think he's more clumsy than anything. Equally Donal Shine was fairly lucky not to see the line after the elbow he stuck on Paul Doherty.

I still think a bit of rejigging is needed as far as team selection goes but overall it was only a reasonable start and we probably won't be able to tell much about this Galway team until the Connacht final and possibly not even until after that as games against Mayo (if they win their own game) are a bit of a lottery. I don't believe we are contenders to win an AI but if one of two things went right we could conceivably make a semi-final but I think that would be the limit of our ambitions. Equally we could lose a Connacht final and lose the next qualifier. It depends what shape other teams bar Kerry are in this year and that remains to be seen yet.

The remarks of the Galway contributors have been fairly measured as you'd expect after the last few years so I don't know where this fanciful notion has come from that we're now wildly optimistic about success? We're far from world beaters but neither are we piss poor.

[magpie seanie]

Would Sligo have beaten that Ros team by 16 points? I seriously doubt it.

I doubt it too but I fail to see the relevance.

[Farrandeelin]

This was by far Galway's best championship opener in, er, 12 months. Like last year, it was a case of the oppostion being poor rather than the home side being good. (Beware of the hype-machine being driven by GBFM and OTT!) I don't like saying it but Ros' were simply dire - it must be really dispiriting for their good support to have to watch some of yesterday's stuff. As for Galway, it's not that the players have improved much but that the style has - kudos to Sammon for that. However the weaknesses at midfield remain, though I thought Big Bad BC wasn't as bad as some would suggest - again he mostly tried to win primary possession and lay it off as soon as he could. Breathnach huffed and puffed and didn't do much. Matt Clancy; typical, I spend the year giving out about him and he goes and scores 1-3 from play. His lack of composure on the ball is still evident though (see first half) and in many ways is symptomatic of Galway in general - good against lesser opposition but found wanting when the quality is stepped up. Nothing against the lad, he's a good honest player, but only when he scores 1-3 against the likes of Tyrone, Kerry or Dublin can we say that Galway will have improved significantly. Beware also of those (Anthony Davis) who say Galway have a strong subs bench; not really - Bane came on yesterday and did very little, somewhat typically making a smather of one of the 2 good chances he got. The good bits from yesterday were the performance of Doherty in goal, Coyne at CHB (not too bad) and the enduring class of PJ all through. A Connacht (!)  final in C'bar will be a good examination of where Galway are at present.

It will show more about where Mayo are I think as Galway are the team to beat in Connacht this year. No point in denying it. (Sorry Sligo boys)

[SLIGONIAN]

We are the ones with Nestor last time I checked . Its good to see the complacency and getting carried away stuff written here. I can only hope it transmits to the players.

Mayolads bigging up Galway so they get the underdogs tag in the final. Mayo and Galway talking of connaght final. If yer so brave why dont ye just start a Mayo Galway connaght final thread now and see what happens?.

[GalwayBayBoy]

We are the ones with Nestor last time I checked

We know that. You haven't stopped mouthing about it since.

[Rossfan]

Well what I feared might happen did. Any team with only one natural defender is going to be in trouble unless they can score bucketloads.
While we had chances - 4 goal chances and a number of bad place kicks - unfortunately the whole point is to take them.
Anyway yesterday is gone- forgrt it and let's prepare for the Qualifiers.
p s - message to Ros Co Board - sit down and think out an oul' strategy for managing Co teams for the next 3 or 4 years.

[Farrandeelin]

We are the ones with Nestor last time I checked .

Yes, last time I checked too and don't give me that rollin eyes... I just think that Sligo got Galway on the hop last year in the final. Of course you'll probably come back and say something else with rollin eyes. I'm not looking for underdogs tag either. I'm just stating the truth as Galway seem to up the physical stakes when they play Mayo and IF we manage to beat Sligo this year they would probably do the same. IF they beat Leitrim of course.

[myball22]

Only had an armchair view of the match yesterday, had a family thing. Thought it was a relatively poor performance by Galway and a shambolic one from Roscommon. I thought Ros would put it up to us but they fell away badly. To be honest I am not sure how much further on we are than last year. I think we are in a bad way in midfield and better midfielders could really go to town with us there.  The backs weren't great either giving up a couple of goal chances. Sice had a poor game I thought and will be under pressure from Mullahy. FB didn't do much and will probably lose out to Nicky Joyce too.

Good points were the performance of Paul Conroy and Matthew Clancy who really kept the scoreboard ticking over but truthfully we were no great shakes. It would be nice to get another game against Leitrim and to be honest we should be winning this well if we are thinking of going far in the championship.

It is very hard to get a sense of where we are at present. If we got Nicky Joyce and Armstrong back to bolster the attack and also it may be no harm to try either Blake or Damien Burke at midfield, may not have the height but have better mobility and footballing skills and may be capable of getting a few scores.

[SLIGONIAN]

We are the ones with Nestor last time I checked

We know that. You haven't stopped mouthing about it since.

Well would you expect anything different from me? I never had that comeback before and it doesnt get any sweeter or maybe it does.

Infairness to Sligo people MAYO and GALWAY are always mouthing about we caught Galway on the hop etc and we won connaght because it was poor. It doesnt look too great this yr either. Yee never know ye might be caught on the hop again God forbid .

[An Fhairche Abu]

Fair play to the Sligo lads putting the boot in over the Galway performance and our chances for the year, tis time for ye to make the most of the reigning Connacht champions tag because I don't see ye beating Mayo at all.

The sad thing is that a lot of what has been said negatively about Galway is right on the money, how any Galway fans can have a even mildly optimistic outlook for the year is beyond me. The scoreline at the end means nothing, that Roscommon team was one of the worst inter-county teams I've seen play championship against Galway. The 1st half was really terrible stuff, a half decent team would have been well on top of Galway by half time, Roscommon were abject though.
In mitigation for both teams the conditions were not conducive for playing good football; the rain before and during the 1st half made the surface like an ice rink, but even this cannot explain all the bad football on display.
You will not win championship matches against top class opposition without some semblance of a decent midfield. Cullinane would have been sent off if it was a league game, would have been harsh if he was but I felt at the time that it was a very stupid trip on the Roscommon player when Sice was already going to get the loose ball - could he really complain if he got another yellow for it. Besides that I thought that he didn't have a good game, Lydon didn't have a good game either. A half decent midfield is going to destroy what we have at the minute.

Positives for Galway were Clancy and Conroy, I thought that after his early free miss that Conroy might drop the head as a young lad but he had a fine game after that and struck the rest of his frees very well. Clancy continued his great league form where he was always amongst Galways best performers during most matches. Couldn't fault Fitzgerald either, was back to his best yesterday.
Can't see Galway doing much this year based on yesterdays performance, in fairness Nicky Joyce returning to the forwards should make a difference as he was our best player last year but outside that there's not too many on the sideline that are a lot better than what is on the field already will come into the side. Same old craic as last year I'm afraid, although at least the football isn't as dour as the Ford era.

Regardless of Sligo's status as champions, that was last year and I'll be very surprised if Mayo don't walk Connacht, they are a better team than Sligo and if they are tuned in at all they'll win. If the next Galway match was in Carrick they might well be facing Leitrim in the final, if Leitrim can replicate the display they gave last year in Carrick, they have a good chance of causing an upset in Salthill.

[SLIGONIAN]

In fairness to Sligo lads its just me. Im doing Galway a favour bringing them back down to earth . I just gave an honest assessment of a poor performance against a poor team by an average team.

No one does see us beating Mayo tell me something I dont know....its same old same old talk in connaght. Last yr the same, Next yr it'll be the same even if we retain it. Galway v Mayo connaght final and for the reigning connaght champions to think that they can get there again delusional . Sorry lads but I think we can but as I said we need to get right team out first.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Regardless of Sligo's status as champions, that was last year and I'll be very surprised if Mayo don't walk Connacht, they are a better team than Sligo and if they are tuned in at all they'll win. If the next Galway match was in Carrick they might well be facing Leitrim in the final, if Leitrim can replicate the display they gave last year in Carrick, they have a good chance of causing an upset in Salthill.

In fairness success for Galway this year would be winning a game in Croke Park after hopefully winning Connacht. Now maybe it says more about the standard in Connacht than anything else but certainly a provincial title is well within the radar of that Galway team as it is most Galway teams. Even average ones. Mayo are very much in the same boat as ourselves in being no world beaters albeit they have the home advantage this year which could swing it their way.

Win Connacht and see what you get coming out of the qualifiers. We don't know what the standard of the other teams is yet this year but I don't see many great teams around at present bar Kerry. I see a lot of teams that are much of a muchness but one or two of them will probably come out of the pack eventually.

[moysider]

We are the ones with Nestor last time I checked

We know that. You haven't stopped mouthing about it since.

Well would you expect anything different from me? I never had that comeback before and it doesnt get any sweeter or maybe it does.

Infairness to Sligo people MAYO and GALWAY are always mouthing about we caught Galway on the hop etc and we won connaght because it was poor. It doesnt look too great this yr either. Yee never know ye might be caught on the hop again God forbid .

I for one never mentioned the hop word. As regards Connacht being poor[ which you said yourself in an earlier post] when has it been otherwise?  However there are 2 Connacht teams in Div 1 of the league but the point will be made that the league does nt count _does it?  Sligo being in Div 4 does nt make F**K all difference on 22/6, makes them more motivated if anything. The reality for Connacht is that only Galway have won AI in last 57 years and counting and are the most likely to do so again- much as it kills me to admit it. Not bigging up Galway, they have less players than Mayo but have a smaller gap to bridge, less baggage and a more economical type of player who is better suited to win the big pot. Galway scraped out of Connacht in '98, and were  whacked in first round in '01. Not that I think they ll win it this year but if Kerry trip up they have as good as credentials as anybody.
Sure they looked muck at times last Sun but thats nothing to do with it. They won  they have enough pieces for the jigsaw and a few more pending to be still around mid/late August. Mayo on the other hand are ?? Signs at the moment are worrying rather than encouraging - in fact if I sat down and thought about it... depressing.  They have 2 home venues to win a provincial title and if they dont do so it will be a disaster for us. Nothing to do with opposition but home advantage must be taken advantage of. This is where the 'rebuilders for the future ' come up short. Next year the team might be a bit more mature or whatever but a trip to Mark. Park or Salthill anybody? Complacency has nothing to do with it either.