Gaillimh-Ciarraí 2008

[Clarin Pearl]

i dunno lads. I'm really at a loss to see where this new found pride in the team is coming from. Did they win?? no. Are we exactly where we were with this team in 03? yes. Some marvellous performances. Lovely movement and possession and scoring. The biggest killer for galway was that they didn't have the legs in the last 20 mins to finish the job. I would imagine that while playing football with feet should always be a priority for Galway, a little longer in the gym in November-February may be required. You can't rely on one man in the middle to muscle everyone.

Plenty of hope and pride. but we always had that. nothing new. We are standing still and not going backwards.

[GalwayBayBoy]

i dunno lads. I'm really at a loss to see where this new found pride in the team is coming from. Did they win?? no. Are we exactly where we were with this team in 03? yes. Some marvellous performances. Lovely movement and possession and scoring. The biggest killer for galway was that they didn't have the legs in the last 20 mins to finish the job. I would imagine that while playing football with feet should always be a priority for Galway, a little longer in the gym in November-February may be required. You can't rely on one man in the middle to muscle everyone.

Plenty of hope and pride. but we always had that. nothing new. We are standing still and not going backwards.

I think you're being a little negative there CP. That is a young team bar PJ with a few more promising young players bubbling underneath. They played well last Saturday but Kerry are just a better team than them at the moment as seen by the fact that they are going for 3 in a row. They are probably the best football team since the great Kerry 4 in a row side.

Yes I think they maybe ran out of legs a little in the final 15 minutes but the fact that we were hampered by injuries to a few players meant Sammon had limited options available to him to throw into the game to freshen things up. Kerry in contrast practically emptied their bench and it really helped them at a time in the game when they were wobbling badly. I think there is merit in what you say though that maybe Sammon concentrated a little too much on ball-work this year after Ford's reign. We take it as a given that we have skillful players but probably physically we are short of Kerry and Dublin's level yet. That can be worked on though.

Certainly this year was a big improvement on going out tamely (and playing bad football) to Westmeath and Sligo. I did not have too much hope and pride after those games I can tell you. The age profile of the team is good. Most of those players bar PJ have yet to hit their peak years.

Hopefully once this Kerry team begins to fade (as all teams eventually do) we will be as well placed as anyone to step into the breach.

[DUBSFORSAM1]

Thats a bit tough Clarin Pearl.....Missing Nicky Joyce, Sean Armstrong and having Bergin, Meehan, Clancy unfit was always going to make it extremely tough for Galway as they were limited in their bench options...

[Clarin Pearl]

Galway were in awful hard luck for injuries this year.
And it is a serious improvement from last year.......could it get any worse???

NJoyce and Armstrong will still be players of potential in 5 years!! I'll believe it when I see it.

Maybe I'm just disappointed that in all the grand designs of flowing football that Sammon was planning, he only had one plan. Cullinane to get the ball or a free. Joyce to be 2 yards away and meehan to be running across a line 20-30 yards out. Route 1 football. the modh direch we all craved for the last 3-4 years.

Plan 1b was Bergin up front. He created a few chances but stopped meehan gettin one on one with his man. Galway stopped scoring points after that. 

There was no plan b or c to get Breathnach and bane involved in the game.

Maybe I live too much in hurlingland where false dawns are 10 a penny. Maybe I had the misfortune to be in Kerry during the match.

Its all well and good saying "whats another year?"  Try sayin that to the panel.

[Galforever]

Decent performance. To compare it to 2002 is very unfair. 2002 was pretty much the end of the 98 era and a lot of players on that panel were on the way out but here a number of players are still only in their mid 20's.

Very disappointed by Sammon on Saturday. Starting Matt Clancy & then bringing him on again? Why not bring on a fit player instead? Darren Mullahy could have played in that role. Thought Bergin was introduced a little too early too but then I guess he got the goal.

[myball22]

Looking towards the future I think Galway need to find some players in the mid-field and half forward areas. Hopefully Conroy who is only 19 will be able to fill in this mid-field areas once he bulks up his physique. Maybe some of the other minors will start to come through also, could do with one or two in defence also as 1-21 is a massive score to concede.

Also we need to find a goalie who can vary his kick-outs so we can take some short kick-outs, particularly if we are not competitive at mid-field.