Inside Track with John McIntyre

IF you spent the entire year marooned in Outer-Mongolia with no access to the internet, you would still have a fair idea of the fortunes of Galway GAA’s flagship teams if someone posted you the respective All-Stars selections for 2025.

The reality is that the All-Ireland Finals still have an unbalanced influence on the panel of judges’ thinking and given that the Galway hurlers and footballers had both exited by the semi-final stages of the championship, you wouldn’t need to be an Einstein to figure out that the county will have scant representation on this year’s All-Stars teams.

Sure, we expect Cathal Mannion, who had a terrific season in the maroon jersey, to make the hurling line-up despite Galway bowing out tamely enough to Tipperary in the All-Ireland quarter-final in June, but the footballers are likely to be left out in the cold altogether.

That shock quarter-final loss to Meath turned what had been a largely positive campaign into something of a disaster, even if Galway had been put to the pin of their collar in their previous outings up North against Derry, Armagh and Down. The Tribesmen weren’t sparkling, but Shane Walsh and company were still grinding out results.

Furthermore, they had a fourth consecutive Connacht title in the bag, but that opening round qualifier loss to Dublin at Pearse Stadium was to cause Galway problems further down the road. They had to take the long way round, and facing the rejuvenated Royals in the team’s third game in a fortnight meant the obvious danger of fatigue setting-in.

Having reached two All-Ireland finals over the previous three years, bringing the Sam Maguire Cup back West was Galway’s only priority in 2025. Unfortunately, a demanding campaign caught up with them as did the individual brilliance of Jordan Morris in that quarter-final with Meath.

The legacy of that defeat means that Galway will struggle to have a single football All-Star and that would be a tough scenario on Rob Finnerty, who scored more in this year’s championship (3-40) than anyone bar Player of the Year elect David Clifford, his Kerry teammate Sean Ó Shea, and Donegal’s Michael Murphy.

Finnerty also came up with important scores at key moments of matches, but Galway not making the last four will probably tell against him. The two Clifford brothers, David and Paudie, O’Shea, Armagh’s Oisín Conaty, Murphy and Conor O’Donnell of Donegal appear to be in pole position for inclusion, but Finnerty does have a fighting chance of featuring.

Pictured: St James’ Dessie Hynes on the turn against Darragh Cox of Bearna na Forbacha during Saturday’s Senior Football Group 2 clash at Pearse Stadium. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy