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Tough one to take but hard to begrudge the Rossies and great scenes and atmosphere at the Hyde. Thought we had it when Damos goal put us 6 up with a few mins left. A big positive for me was Damo & Walsh showing they still have it although Walsh ran out of steam but understandable considering his fitness issues and dont blame PJ for leaving him on was the man we wanted to take late 2 pointer on. Hope McDaid is okay and losing him was a big blow. Dont understand PJ and some of his calls Roche barely played league and gets the nod ahead of likes of O Conghaile, Mcgrath & McDonnacha. Finnerty quiet does Walsh take from him as I dont remember both having a stand out game together. Our defence is a serious weakspot and Ros cut us open at will when they ran at us. McGrath McHugh Silke have gone back a lot. Kelly is an attacker not a defender. O Flaherty had a poor day. Conroy kicked 2 great 2 pointers but also had a few wides in 1st half. Maher unusually quiet by his lofty standards. Our kick outs a problem seems they have been forever under PJ. Not nice losing a connacht final by 2 but think it might galvanise us a bit and we should get past kildare at home.

Eire89 (Galway) - Posts: 486 - 12/05/2026 11:39:53    2672554

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Beyond a farce how many kick outs Roscommon got way short, on very few occasions O'Carroll was forced to go long. You'll struggle to beat a Div 3 side losing that many of them, I'm not blaming O'Flaherty either. He managed to get a good few short ones away when it was on but Roscommon certainly made it a lot more difficult then O'Carroll had it.

Starting Roche in there made zero sense, they'd seen something in training but hard to know what it was based on that. He struggled to press kickouts and offers no scoring threat in there. I think he has talent but and not writing him off but doesn't look ready and especially not playing there.

Is Oisin McDonnacha injured? We've not see Fionn McDonagh since the early stages of the league but didn't hear any injury update on him either!

Molloy had a better game then in any of his league games but still made too many mistakes on the ball.

As for O'Flaherty, he offers something but time and time again the last few years he's not had a good game when he starts whilst always does well in from the bench. I wasn't the biggest fan of O'Laoi a few years ago but the rules have changed and he was really impressive in the first few games playing from wing back and would like to see him starting. He's have done a better job of watching Heneghan then O'Flaherty did.

Its a lot too ask Comer to start games, more then happy to see him coming in around the 45 minute mark in every game but their going to have find someone who can bring the best out of both Walsh & Finnerty. Would like too have seen Mulryan get a chance but thats probably unlikely at this stage.

But if we don't start to do better on opposition kick outs then it will be a short summer, can't recall anything as bad as Sundays game.

TheBishop (Galway) - Posts: 320 - 12/05/2026 13:01:21    2672577

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There's definitely a worrying pattern developing with Galway. The blueprint is fairly straightforward.. go hard on the Galway kickout, compete aggressively for breaks around the middle and then attack with pace.

Galway still have enough quality up front to put big scores on the board, but that almost becomes irrelevant when teams can run through the middle so easily once the game opens up.

ahsure. (Galway) - Posts: 1769 - 12/05/2026 14:42:59    2672614

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The big issue with opposition kickouts is Galway mark zones and are not tuned in we lost all Ireland v Armagh by giving up kickouts no other team does it ,, In the league when the 2 Mcdonnagh were playing and o connaghile they put serious pressure on defenders coming out with ball it's a nightmare for a defender when no pressure put on ball going into forwards personally I think Galway need make 2 changes in defence and 2 in forwards the team is like see start next day
Flaherty
Glynn. Hernon. Silke / McGrath

Mchugh. Kelly. O Laoi
Maher / tierney
Mcdaid. Finnerty. Mcdaid
O connaghile. Walsh. Mcdonnagh
I'd put Finnerty centre forward he good vision but in the corner 2 easy to contain him o Laoi need pace in half back line Mchugh be lucky start but unfortunately management have not tried to find anyone in last 5 years with pace for both wing back position definitely need try something different and push up on all kickouts it's not rocket science ,,, or at least it should not be ,,,

Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 1155 - 12/05/2026 14:55:40    2672617

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Replying To Kickitout:  "The big issue with opposition kickouts is Galway mark zones and are not tuned in we lost all Ireland v Armagh by giving up kickouts no other team does it ,, In the league when the 2 Mcdonnagh were playing and o connaghile they put serious pressure on defenders coming out with ball it's a nightmare for a defender when no pressure put on ball going into forwards personally I think Galway need make 2 changes in defence and 2 in forwards the team is like see start next day
Flaherty
Glynn. Hernon. Silke / McGrath

Mchugh. Kelly. O Laoi
Maher / tierney
Mcdaid. Finnerty. Mcdaid
O connaghile. Walsh. Mcdonnagh
I'd put Finnerty centre forward he good vision but in the corner 2 easy to contain him o Laoi need pace in half back line Mchugh be lucky start but unfortunately management have not tried to find anyone in last 5 years with pace for both wing back position definitely need try something different and push up on all kickouts it's not rocket science ,,, or at least it should not be ,,,"
Meant Darcy wing forward with Mcdaid and Finnerty I put Mcdaid in twice if only we could ,,,

Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 1155 - 12/05/2026 16:07:51    2672632

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O'Conghaile scored 0-6 from play against Roscommon in the league. Was named to start the last day and was then benched for Roche before kick off. Roche started that same league game in Salthill and was subbed off after 20 minutes. No offence to the lad as he's young and out of position but it's a mystery how he was picked to start at the weekend. Maybe they wanted to rain high balls down on him? They did it once. Got a goal from it. But then didn't kick another high ball his way. Carroll and Roscommon figured out quickly that he had no pace so his man was constantly getting free for short kick outs. The Galway sideline looked at this for an entire half and did nothing.

Marooned (Galway) - Posts: 2546 - 12/05/2026 16:47:25    2672647

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Replying To Kickitout:  "The big issue with opposition kickouts is Galway mark zones and are not tuned in we lost all Ireland v Armagh by giving up kickouts no other team does it ,, In the league when the 2 Mcdonnagh were playing and o connaghile they put serious pressure on defenders coming out with ball it's a nightmare for a defender when no pressure put on ball going into forwards personally I think Galway need make 2 changes in defence and 2 in forwards the team is like see start next day
Flaherty
Glynn. Hernon. Silke / McGrath

Mchugh. Kelly. O Laoi
Maher / tierney
Mcdaid. Finnerty. Mcdaid
O connaghile. Walsh. Mcdonnagh
I'd put Finnerty centre forward he good vision but in the corner 2 easy to contain him o Laoi need pace in half back line Mchugh be lucky start but unfortunately management have not tried to find anyone in last 5 years with pace for both wing back position definitely need try something different and push up on all kickouts it's not rocket science ,,, or at least it should not be ,,,"
yikes

cavan.galway (Galway) - Posts: 262 - 12/05/2026 17:11:24    2672657

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Doesn't look like Thompson will be available anyway. Brosnan said on the Examiner that he's not due back any time soon due to that ankle injury he picked up in the States.

Marooned (Galway) - Posts: 2546 - 12/05/2026 19:32:47    2672683

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Replying To cavan.galway:  "yikes"
I know people are saying Barry mchugh was given his chance in 2019 but that was in the full forward line in the old rules, completely different game. He's perfectly suited to playing in goal in the new rules and then taking the frees and I believe his kickouts would be a huge improvement on what we have as well as being strong in the air. He's been brilliant for mb for years.

Galwayman67420 (Galway) - Posts: 47 - 12/05/2026 21:27:01    2672693

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Watched it back, there's always a tendency to get caried away with any defeat with the winners getting everything right.

Hard to believe how poor we were on their kickouts especially in the first half, management should be embarrassed with it! Pretty much the same strategy the whole first half, very few bodies inside their own 45 which made it easier to create the space for Carroll to kick the ball into the left corner back position. Roche unfortunately struggled most, he just didn't push hard enough and got punished but they were all culpable in there. As for O'Flaherty he won't have enjoyed watching that back, managed to make big mistakes for both goals.

But Galway scored 2-22 from 19 kickouts won whilst Roscommon scored 3-21 from 34 kickouts. Galway did a lot right, pretty much managed to get a shot away from every possession. There was some poor wides, Conroy scored 2 x 2 pointers from 6 shots with 2 of the misses been really poor by his standard.

TheBishop (Galway) - Posts: 320 - 13/05/2026 08:52:52    2672712

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Replying To Galwayman67420:  "I know people are saying Barry mchugh was given his chance in 2019 but that was in the full forward line in the old rules, completely different game. He's perfectly suited to playing in goal in the new rules and then taking the frees and I believe his kickouts would be a huge improvement on what we have as well as being strong in the air. He's been brilliant for mb for years."
Has he ever and I mean ever played in goals.
By the logic above, we should have had Gary Sice in goals for the last 5 years.

smallfrank (Galway) - Posts: 593 - 13/05/2026 09:00:57    2672715

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Replying To smallfrank:  "Has he ever and I mean ever played in goals.
By the logic above, we should have had Gary Sice in goals for the last 5 years."
Isn't one of the Armagh keepers and outfield player converted to goals, Also Westmeaths no.1 who got a bad injury against Meath is an outfield player who never played in goals until last year or two.

Not saying McHugh would work for Galway but it has happened before where outfielders move to goals.

sourmilk93 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1282 - 13/05/2026 10:48:14    2672743

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Replying To TheBishop:  "Watched it back, there's always a tendency to get caried away with any defeat with the winners getting everything right.

Hard to believe how poor we were on their kickouts especially in the first half, management should be embarrassed with it! Pretty much the same strategy the whole first half, very few bodies inside their own 45 which made it easier to create the space for Carroll to kick the ball into the left corner back position. Roche unfortunately struggled most, he just didn't push hard enough and got punished but they were all culpable in there. As for O'Flaherty he won't have enjoyed watching that back, managed to make big mistakes for both goals.

But Galway scored 2-22 from 19 kickouts won whilst Roscommon scored 3-21 from 34 kickouts. Galway did a lot right, pretty much managed to get a shot away from every possession. There was some poor wides, Conroy scored 2 x 2 pointers from 6 shots with 2 of the misses been really poor by his standard."
There were problems at the back for sure but we had 'top class' forwards with a strong wind in the first half not willing to take on their shot but fobbing it off backwards or sideways. Poor.

Crashingwaves (Galway) - Posts: 329 - 13/05/2026 11:38:10    2672760

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Replying To Marooned:  "Doesn't look like Thompson will be available anyway. Brosnan said on the Examiner that he's not due back any time soon due to that ankle injury he picked up in the States."
What extra insight would Brosnan have though that isn't in the public realm already?

Triffic (Galway) - Posts: 179 - 13/05/2026 12:23:53    2672767

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How much of a loss do you reckon Cian O'Neill is? Defensively Galway was so well set up with him involved and haven't looked the same since he departed. Or perhaps it's the new rules and Galway still adjusting defensively to them that's the main issue.

Gaa_lover (USA) - Posts: 3961 - 13/05/2026 12:28:22    2672768

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