Inside Track with John McIntyre

It wouldn’t have taken a lot for the Galway hurlers and footballers to be putting their feet up this weekend and watching on as the respective championships hit the point of no return. Instead, the county’s two flagship GAA teams will themselves be involved in do-or-die encounters.

The margins have been that tight. The hurlers would have sailed into the All-Ireland semi-final only for committing defensive hari-kari in the build up to Cillian Buckley’s dramatic winning goal in the Leinster Final, while a solitary point was also the margin as the footballers surrendered their place in the quarter-finals against Armagh last Sunday.

Spurned goal chances and being turned over in possession too often came back to haunt Padraic Joyce’s charges in a helter-skelter finale in Carrick-on-Shannon. Despite Galway’s injury troubles, it still represented a surprising defeat despite another top-class display from team captain Shane Walsh, and the prominence of Peter Cooke, Cillian McDaid and Paul Conroy for long stages.

It was the type of robust encounter which would have been tailor-made for Damien Comer. Galway missed his physical presence and bustling aggression. As a result, they lacked a target man on a day Shane Walsh didn’t do badly, but his crucial first half penalty miss will torment him.

Those of us outside the camp have little idea if Comer, Dylan McHugh or Kelly, who picked up a serious looking ankle injury late on, will be available for Sunday’s big showdown with Mayo, but if all three are missing, Galway are going to need a huge effort from everyone else to get over the line.

Ian Burke hardly featured against Armagh but if the team management persist with the Corofin player, they will need more from him. Laying off neat passes when Galway are winning is one thing, but that’s not enough when a match develops into trench warfare. Rob Finnerty, assuming he is fully fit, must be in the running for a recall.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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