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

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

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

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: 1156 - 12/05/2026 14:55:40    2672617

Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 1156 - 12/05/2026 16:07:51    2672632

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crashingwaves (Galway) - Posts: 332 - 13/05/2026 11:38:10    2672760

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

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

JimB1991 (Donegal) - Posts: 167 - 13/05/2026 13:04:49    2672777

CGalway26 (Galway) - Posts: 2 - 13/05/2026 13:13:58    2672781

Seán Fitzgerald played for Bearna on Friday. You would wonder how a starter for the last two seasons can drop out of the 26 altogether for a Connacht final.

gaillimhboy (Galway) - Posts: 413 - 13/05/2026 13:43:58    2672788

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 4712 - 13/05/2026 15:25:09    2672808

I've always thought it a myth that Galway have top class forwards in reality in last 10 years Shane Walsh has being top class comer when available after that it's hit and miss Finnerty at times but not consistent it's a good while since we had a scoring half forward line it's rare they score no matter who plays there , I still think in game now ur half back line is ur engine of team Armagh. Half back line prib average 5/8 points a game Kerry have good half back line also win pace u go back to the good mayo team that's where they built from with pace and unless Galway find players with real pace for that line they will in my opinion never win big prize and unfortunately we have found no one in last 5 years that has that , they all good players in there on right but not got the X factor to drive on attacks plus they actually don't kick the ball hand pass forward which is slow ball ,, I'd play o Laoi there next match he can run and in fairness he does actually kick the ball ,,

Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 1156 - 13/05/2026 15:44:41    2672813