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Poor performance by our lads yesterday. Kerry outclassed us all over the field.
Dara O Se dominated midfield which meant the backs were under severe pressure all day.
Marc O Se had Meehan in his pocket all day.Mikey could win the ball but never work a yard of space to get his shot off.
Yesterday just proved that we don't have enough scoring forwards. Meehan and PJ were tightly marked yet nobody else stood up to the plate. Breathnach is not a corner forward and never will be. He could do a good job as a wing forward with his pace but there's no point playing him in the corner as he is not going to get you many scores. At least Armstrong or Nicky Joyce have the potential to get scores on the board from the corner - Fiachra doesn't.
He was left on almost for the whole game which I couldn't believe as he did nothing at all after scoring an early point. Meehan is the only one of the full forward line to consistently threaten the opposition. Clancy is a fine player but more suited to a deeper lying role.
We won't do damage in the championship with only 1 threat in the inside forward line. we need to find some scorimg forwards and quick. Armstrong needs to sort his hamstring injury out once and for all as well.

P.S. Joyce, Deccie Meehan and Paul Doherty are the 3 players who weren't involved in the u-21 AI wins. Doherty certainly didn't start anyway in 2005 but may have been involved with the panel I'm not 100% sure.

Does anyone know if this game is on Setanta or TG4 this week sometime?
Can't believe they didn't show any action from this game on Sunday Sport last night. They showed a bit of Fermanagh v Wexford for Gods sake!!

Good win for our lads today.I actually thought we just about deserved the win. We hit the woodwork a few times and I thought looked the more threatening of the 2 teams up front.
I have to say though that the referee was atrocious. Talk about inconsistency in decisions. There were times in the first half in particular when backs were being mauled coming out with the ball and got penalised for over carrying while at other times in the second half the slightest contact resulted in a free being given.
Maybe I'm showing a bias here but i thought he was particularly hard on Galway on a few occasions and some of those poor decisions led directly to Mayo points.

Anyway back to the real action. Cullinane did well overall at midfield though Galway by no means won the midfield battle.Mayo possibly shaded it here overall.Meehan had the beating of Conroy all day and forced Mayo to move Higgins over on him early in the second half. There were a few occasions where he was away from Conroy in the first half only to spill the ball and the chance was lost. Clancy roasted Colm Boyle also. Damien Dunleavy did well also.Breathnach was ok - took his goal well but tends to put the head down and run into traffic. The backs did well. Deccie Meehan's distribution is awful though. He gives the ball away far too often with poor passes. The full back line were solid while Sice & Mullaghy were outstanding once again. Mullaghy has been our best player in the league so far and once again was very good today.

Mike Meehan didn't score too much from play today but he won almost every single ball that came his way. Gave a beautiful pass to Breathnach for the 1st goal and was also heavily involved in the 2nd goal.
On a bad note, a few people were saying in Castlebar that they had heard that Bergin has a suspected broken ankle.
This would be terrible news for Joe himself and for Galway as it would put him out of the championship. We're not exactly flush with midfielders as it is. Paul Conroy had a supoer second half today. He got on a lot of ball and used it well.

You would have to compliment both teams for such an entertaining game in atrocious conditions. There were frequent showers of sleet and hail for most of the second half and the ball would have been like a bar of soap.

That forward line looks a bit short of scoring power apart from Meehan and maybe Joyce.
Hoare,Clancy and Breathnach are more workers than scorers while Dec Meeehan is a defender and will probably play a deep lying role.
We badly need to find a few more scorers. Nicky Joyce will improve this when he comes back but apart from him we've on-one else to come in and get scores from play. Armstrong could possibly provide this if he can ever get his hamstrings sorted out for the summer. That's a big "if" though considering the number of times he has pulled/torn them over the last 2 years.

Also, midfield doesn't look to strong for Saturday. We need Bergin back in there. Coleman is a good player but Geraghty just isn't up to county standard as has been proven time and again.
Cullinane has his limitations but he's far better than Geraghty.
It'll be very difficult to come out of Ballybofey with a result. I can't see us getting anything out of it to be honest.

Does anyone have the fixtures for this weekend?
My own club have 2 players on the panel at the moment, though I know that it's not the finalised panel yet and there will no doubt be about 10 Jarlaths lads called up when their colleges campaign is completed. They beat Kildare well a few weeks ago.
Apart from that, I'm not sure how our lads have been shaping up or what players are on the panel so far really.

Ya, I'd have to agree. It would be great to see Tuam Stadium redeveloped properly.There is absolutely no atmosphere in Pearse Stadium at all. I much rather watching football matches in Tuam. There is also always a feckin wind blowing in Pearse which ruins a lot of matches.
Again like Maroon&White I'm from North Galway but that's not the main consideration for me as I'd be roughly as close to Galway as Tuam (from the home house) and I live in Galway city at the moment anyway.

Lads, got a dead leg at training myself last night (Tuesday). Have a big game on Sunday. What's the chances of the leg being right by then?
The plan is to keep icing the leg today and maybe get physio after work tomorrow (as it will be almost 48 hours since injury).
I'll get more physio on Friday/Saturday if needed.
Could it be okay in time for Sunday do ye think?

Have just finished reading Jack O'Connors book. My God the man is obsessed with Declan O'Sullivan.
Every second page in the book seems to contain a reference to O'Sullivan and how great he is etc.
Having read it, I can now understand what was being said in the lead up to the AI final in 2006 when Brosnan was dropped for O'Sullivan. This is no fault of O'Sullivan I might add. He's a fine player but the way O'Connor went on in the book made it look like he picked him cos he was a personal friend and from his own club.

The Killererin defence was woeful yesterday. Especially the FB line. I lost count of the number of times a player in the FB line ran out to meet an incoming Brigids player too early - thereby leaving his own man free inside available for the pop pass over his head and in on goal. Headless stuff. The golden rule I've always been taught is not to leave your own man free inside and only start coming out when the incoming player hits the 21.That way the player will usually either try to go himself, or else if he does pass over your head, then the goalie should be on top of the player by the time he gets it.

Brigids were by far the better team overall and fully deserved their win.
PJ showed what a class act he is once again though.He always plays well in Tuam Stadium.
He still has plenty to offer at county level. Nicky was quiet.

I'd fancy Ballina to win the Connacht final, as they are particularly strong.

Lads/lassies, I'm looking for a recommendation on a Nokia phone for the girlfriend's birthday at the weekend.
I wouldn't be too up to date on the various models that are available and which ones would be a good choice etc.

Can anyone recommend a particular model? Cheers

The way I see it, it is speed (i.e. dangerous driving at high speeds and dangerous overtaking maneouvres etc at high speed) that kills people on our roads. People who speed and drive dangerously are naturally not going to do this in a driving test situation, so whether they pass or fail the test will not determine the speed they drive at once they leave the test centre imo.

To be honest, I am absolutely dumbfounded that Geordan Murphy has been excluded from the 22.
How anyone could put Gavin Duffy ahead of Murphy beggars belief. I have seen Duffy play quite a few times and he is a very limited player. Murphy on the other hand has talent to burn.His defence has at times been suspect but surely if you are looking for impact off the bench then he is the perfect player to have.

Andrew Trimble is another limited player.He is nowhere near as good as either Murphy or Hickie in my opinion.

I would agree with bringing Reddan into the team but again it goes to show the futility of having Boss on the bench in the first place. Surely if Reddan is your second choice scrum half then he should have been on the bench ahead of Boss all along?

I believe we have no chance on Friday.France will beat us with a bonus point which will effectively put us out of the competition before the Argy game. Depressing.

Christ Jodyb, so much for being gracious in defeat!!
The words "sore loser" definitely come to mind here. Take your beating.
We rode our luck a bit granted but overall we won the game fairly and squarely and based on our second half performance - which included the disallowing of a valid point which would cancel out the fact that Derry would have got a point from the free that was thrown up - I believe that we deserved the win.
Derry were the better side in the first half without doubt but we were by far the better team in the second half. Just because you hit the front late on in a game having trailed for the most part doesn't mean you don't deserve to win a game.

I honestly didn't think watching the game that the ref gave poor decisions for one team over the other.
From our point of view, you'd have to say Damien Reddington won the game for us. That was some goal to win an AI final.
I had been less than convinced about him having watched him in the Connacht games gainst Sligo and Roscommon where I felt he did very little but Croke Park really seemed to suit him and he used his pace to great effect as he was always well out in front of his man and kicked 2 fine points also.

Well done to all involved.

Graet result for our lads today. Thought it was a cracking game of football. Some of the point taking was unbelievable. i thought Kerry would never miss. They had a grand total of ONE wide in the entire game.Considering this, it was a super win for us.
For me, Anthony Griffin at midfield was our man of the match.He was outstanding. Our 2 corner backs were also very good though Colin Forde at full back had a nightmare game.
Conroy also did very well and kicked some nice points.Damien Reddington had a storming last 15 minutes while Conor Doherty was brilliant in the first half at wing back.
Jonathan Ryan had a poor game - he is so totally left-sided it is easy for the opposing defence to read him.Also, he was miles behind his man for most of the game when the ball was played into his corner first time.
Michael Martyn did quite well especially in the second half as did John O'Brien throughout.
Overall though, a good win and much room for improvement still.

Seanshunt, quote "The forwards can score but the ball needs to be quick accurate and low, Coleman can deliver this".

Are you serious with the above statement?? I don't think I have ever seen Niall Coleman give a low pass. Seriously, watch him when he gets the ball. Every single time he drives it long and high up in the air. Sometimes it works out (like Bane's first goal against Mayo) but much of the time it doesn't. There's no method to his kicks, he just drives them and hopes for the best.

Am finding this game very difficult to call. We are well capable of winning it but I wouldn't bet on it.
As I've said in a previous post, I believe this game is all about the individual motivation of the galway players. If they are well up for it then we will be hard beaten but if not then Meath will make us suffer