Was John Mc Intyre for real about Galway's chances this year ?

[orangeman]

I don't know if any of you were watching Sunday Sport tonight where they had an interview with Galway hurling manager John Mc Intyre in which he said the following :

Everybody thinks that Galway hurling is a whole lot better than it is -
Galway haven't won an AI in 20 years and it's time for a reality check.
Galway will not win anything of any significance in the short term.
Galway have a lot of work to do in order to even be competitive in the Leinster championship.

Michael Lyster said to Declan Ruth afterwards that John was actually saying that he had no confidence or belief in them.

Was he on the wind up, was he serious or a bit of both ?


Whatever he was, I think he's in for a short career as Galway manager after this. And it's only March.



Gutless was another word that was supposed to have been mentioned.

[Saffron exile]

Would say that he's not getting through to the players and is voicing what a lot of Galway people would agree with, especially in relation to the unhealthy club rivalry. Maybe he's going dangerously over the top considering its early in the year and the Portumna players are yet to return.

[GalwayBayBoy]

The RTE interview was tame compared to the Setanta one.

"waste of money going to see them"
"no pride in the jersey"
"too many egos"
"club rivalrys too bitter"
"think they are better than they really are"

Obviously trying to get a reaction of of them but I don't know how this will play out in the long run. I mean what's he going to say come the championship?

That said they were terrible today and worst of all they visibily gave up during the game. Heads were going down before the first half was over and they were only a point or two down at that stage even though they had the wind advantage. No joke to say that Portumna would have beaten that Galway team on today's display.

[GaillimhIarthair]

To be honest, I dont think McIntyre is far off the truth based on yesterdays "performance", however, I dont think RTE or Setanta is the correct forum to be expressing these views.  He cut a frustrated figure on RTE last night and its hard to blame him after what he witnessed in Salthill yesterday.  Portumna would have beat that team with a bit to spare.  We wont be making much of an impression on the Leinster championship unless there is a dramatic improvement between now and June which seems highly unlikely at this juncture. 

[orangeman]

Galway can't be as bad as what was shown yesterday - the Portumna contingent will fairly bolster the team - it's alright giving your players a rollcking behind closed doors but divulging your inner most thoughts to every TV station and assembled journalist is quite another thing entirely.

[GaillimhIarthair]

Unfortunately orangeman, the reality is that we are not very good and have not been for a long while now.  We get hyped up in the media from time to time but you wont find too many Galwegians buying into these works of fiction.

In the last couple of years we have beaten Antrim, Laois and Westmeath in the championship and have lost to Waterford, Clare, Kilkenny and Cork.  Nothing to get excited about in fairness.  The return of the Portumna players will make a difference for sure but we had 4 - 5 of them involved last year also and we still lost to a very poor Cork team (by their standards).  

We are struggling to fill too many pivitol positions on the team right now to compete with the top teams and the reality is that the best players available are currently involved.  There are no undiscovered rough diamonds out there.  We are a good way down the pecking order at the moment and that is the way it is going to stay for a while.

[mouview]

For what it's worth I think McIntyre was correct to speak out so. If there's a final chance it might motivate a lot of the underachievers on the team then he's right to do so. As some have correctly suggested the return of the Portumna contingent won't solve the problems on their own. I'd say there'll be a big clear out of the panel when the NH league is over (thankfully not as important for Galway now that they're in Leinster) and the domestic championship gets underway. The (current) problems in Galway started post-2005 when they never followed on properly from the good showing that year; Ger Lock exacerbated things with his bizarre team selections. And what's all this about inter-club rivalry? It's no worse than anywhere else in my estimation...

[thejuice]

I wonder how much of Ger Loughnanes rant from a few months back was actually the truth. Galway should be better then they are if you ask me. Had a rash of great minor teams but seem to struggle in turning the boys into men.

[johnneycool]

Maybe John is just setting low expectations for the Galway public but either way he can't have endeared himself to the players in the changing room who ultimately he'll need their support later on in the year.

i think it's a mistake on his part to ridicule the team even though he used the 'I heard others say' crappola.

[orangeman]

I wonder how much of Ger Loughnanes rant from a few months back was actually the truth. Galway should be better then they are if you ask me. Had a rash of great minor teams but seem to struggle in turning the boys into men.

Maybe Gerard's claim about winning the AI in 2 years is part of the problem as well ?

[INDIANA]

Dangerous ground, they'll either respond or go the other way.
I do believe half galways problems are mental though, back to the way they were in the 1970's. But still there is a sizeable amount of natural talent there better than 27/28 other counties. thats not a bad starting point.

[GaillimhIarthair]

I honestly dont think that we have had a rash of "great" minor teams to be honest.  We have had a few very talented individuals (Hayes, Farragher, Lee and Canning) in competent, well managed minor teams but through constant chopping and changing by various senior managers, a lot of these lads have fallen away.  Below are our last 4 winning minor teams.  Not too many of these lads are making big waves on the senior scene right now with one or two notable exceptions!

1999: J. O'Loughlin, B. O'Mahoney, J. Culkin, R. Reilly, F. Moore, C. Dervan, M.J. Quinn, H. Whiriskey, G. Farragher, R. Murray, M. Coughlan, K. Brady, D. Hayes, D. Forde, C. Coen. Subs: B. Gantley, S. Tierney

2000: Aidan Diviney, B. O'Mahoney, T. Regan, N. Corcoran, S. Kavanagh, Adrian Diviney, A. Cullinane, G. Farragher, B. Coen, R. Murray, P. Garvey, K. Brady, D. Hayes, T. Kavanagh, D. Greene. Subs: J. Gantley, F. Moore, JP O'Connell, K. Brady

2004 - M Herlihy, P Loughnane, G Mahon, C O'Donovan, M Ryan, J Lee, J Hughes, A Keary, D Kennedy, K Kilkenny, K Hynes, F Coone, K Wade, J Canning, B Hanley. Sub - D White

2005 - J Skehell; A Leech, P Loughnane, P Callaghan; J Hughes, C O'Donovan, K Kilkenny; A Keary, K Coen; S Glynn, J Greene, A Callanan; C Kavanagh, J Canning, B Murphy. Subs - F Kerrigan, S Howley, T Flannery, J Gilsen, B Kenny

[AZOffaly]

I might just pull my quote from the thread when he was appointed and post it here. He has form

[AZOffaly]

Interesting to see how John McIntyre will get on. He was a sound man in charge of Offaly, but his sense of realism (read pessimism) was almost legendary. I remember hims being interviewed before Offaly hurled Kilkenny in one of the more recent maulings, albeit not the 31 point one. It was on Midlands Radio 3, and after appealing to the supporters to 'come out tomorrow and give the lads a big boost', he then was asked if he felt Offaly had a chance. Instead of the stock reply 'Sure we'll turn up and give it our best shot, if we play well and they have a bad day blah blah blah' John came up with this Gem.

'Look Ricey*, you have more chance of bumping into a Polar Bear in the Sahara Desert, walking around with a bag of ice on his head trying to keep cool'.

It didn't exactly rank up there with 'We'll fight them on the beaches'.


* May not have been Ricey Scully, but it was one of them,

[orangeman]

you have more chance of bumping into a Polar Bear in the Sahara Desert, walking around with a bag of ice on his head trying to keep cool'.



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