Galway footballers get mad to show what they are made of

July 27th, 6:00am July 25th, 10:33am

John McIntyre

Connacht Tribune

Inside Track with John McIntyre

IT was an evening when the Galway footballers got mad and reaped a spectacular reward for having the fire in their bellies which was conspicuous by its absence in the team’s harrowing and unexpected defeat by Roscommon at Pearse Stadium in the Connacht final.

Reputations were on the line against Donegal and given Galway’s troubled past relationship with the qualifiers and the big hit morale would have taken after losing to the Rossies, there was no guarantee that the Tribesmen would respond to the challenge with the necessary vigour and ambition.

This time, however, at Markievicz Park, Galway performed with much more bit and energy. Even when Donegal led by 0-5 to 0-4 after 16 minutes after a second point from their best player Patrick McBrearty, you sensed that the Tribesmen were really up for the contest. They were getting stuck in all over the field and playing on the front foot.

The team management also juggled their forces, notably recalling Bernard Power between the posts, restoring the fit-again Sean Armstrong to the attack and surprisingly springing Ian Burke for his championship debut. Tactically, Galway were also far more direct while utilising Damien Comer’s strength further out the field paid off as well.

It was refreshing to see Galway having a cut and though Johnny Heaney grabbed most of the headlines with his two-goal blast in the first-half, this was a liberating 70 minutes for the men in maroon. They didn’t stand on ceremony, were positive and attacked with a pace which had a mistake-ridden Donegal on the rack by the interval.

Sure, so poor were Rory Gallagher’s squad that you have to qualify the merit of Galway’s triumph, but part of it was that they made look Donegal look bad and forced them into repeated errors. By the time, they were reduced to 13-men, the game was already long gone for them, with a missed penalty and McBrearty also rattling the crossbar only compounding their misery.

Galway possess no shortage of talented footballers, but it appears that the penny finally dropped on Saturday evening that you also have to work like savages and get a big angry. They were robust and physical against Donegal, and though now having to face Kerry in the All-Ireland quarter-final is something of a dubious reward, it is to be hoped that the Tribesmen will again throw the shackles off and carry the fight to the Munster champions from the throw-in.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.