Inside Track with John McIntyre

LITTLE did we think that when Galway and Mayo fought out an absorbing draw in the opening round of the National League at MacHale Park last January that the great Connacht rivals would end up contesting the Division One final at Croke Park on Sunday.

And there is no fluke about the all-Western showdown either as Galway and Mayo have been the country’s two most consistent top-tier footballing forces this spring. The greater hype has been about Mayo, especially with a new manager Kevin McStay in tow, but the Tribesmen’s form has been just as compelling.

Game management, especially when clinging onto leads down the home stretch, has been an issue for Galway over the past couple of years. Even in that game in Castlebar a couple of months ago, Padraic Joyce’s team let a winning hand slip when carelessly giving away possession. A subsequent loss at home to Roscommon had some natives wondering if the great progress of 2022 had suddenly stalled.

Since then, however, Galway have been holding their nerve in tight matches, notably the last two, away to Armagh and against Kerry at Pearse Stadium last Sunday. Their players may have learned the hard way, but Seán Kelly and company no longer appeared flustered or prone to unforced errors when in sight of the winning post.

Beating Kerry at any time is a good day’s work, especially in a game when you lead from the off but are never so far ahead as to be entirely comfortable. Three times in the second-half, the All-Ireland champions cut the margin to a solitary point, but on each occasion the home team came up with the answers.

Given their extraordinary exploits in last year’s All-Ireland final, you would have struggled to find a bookmaker pre-match who would have laid long odds on both Shane Walsh and David Clifford failing to raise a flag from play between them. Clifford, in particular, was out of sorts, spurning chances and giving the ball away more than once. He looked battle-weary.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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