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Agreed
Jellybaby (Dublin) - Posts: 357 - 04/11/2024 11:54:49 2578301 Link 0 |
Paul Conroy has been a class act for a long time but he has particularly flourished since he came back from that horrific injury. I remember before the injury he was getting a lot of criticism however he was like a man re born when he came back. Delighted for him. I have no particular allegiance to Corofin or Moycullen but am happy Sean Kelly will get a further break to get the body right. He looked to be moving ok by the end of the club championship but I didn't see it up close so can't be sure. We need him at full throttle for 2025. Same applies to Comer. A fully fit Comer won't be held under the old rules and if the 3 v 3 comes in he will make hay. We just need him to get his body right. Looking forward to next year. Learnings from 2024....... *Don't panic about the early rounds of the league *There is nothing between the top 6-8 on any given day *While it was ultimately to end in disappointment, the scenes after the Connacht Final, the win over Dublin and the win over Donegal will stay with me for a long time *Go to New York .......London was great craic:-) Mayonman (Galway) - Posts: 1889 - 04/11/2024 16:15:35 2578358 Link 0 |
Why would population bases winning titles be a signal of trouble? I actually think the opposite i.e. if small population bases are winning it generally is a sign that the work isnt being done by the population bases. With my North Galway/rural bias I would love to see the titles flowing in that direction and hopefully they will continue to win the odd one, but in reality we need the quality that quantity breeds for our county teams. At least 10 of the Armagh extended panel ( I think ) are from the urban sprawl of the Craigavon/Lurgan area. Oranmore won Connacht beating a Westport team who blitzed the Mayo championship and an excellent Leitrim team who had previously accounted for the Sligo and Ros champs with ease. Claregalway could have beaten Oranmore so I dont think we are in that much trouble at all. Of course the trick will be for Oranmore and Claregalway as to how to continue to develop this talent with competing sports/distractions. anotheralias (Galway) - Posts: 953 - 04/11/2024 17:00:45 2578368 Link 0 |
To be fair and I've no allegiance to either club but both Claregalway and Oranmore Maree have put in a serious amount of work into it. One of them can't come up from Intermediate and the other have never really made any impression in senior and that's just the reality. The likes of Tim Rabbitt and Sean Og Depaor have done serious work both at club and academy level in recent years. They are building no doubt and there facilities out in Maree are very impressive and getting better each year, first fully floodlit 4G pitch in the county opening early next year.
smallfrank (Galway) - Posts: 440 - 04/11/2024 17:05:16 2578370 Link 0 |
I don't think underage football is in trouble at all in Galway. I'd be pretty familiar with the juvenile setup across the county and there's quality football being played and very good teams coming through at different ages across a big spread of clubs, not all of them based on population alone - Dunmore McHales at a couple of age groups, Micheal Breathnachs super team at u15, for example. Yes, of course population counts: Claregalway are obviously very strong, Oranmore-Maree are rising fast (5,500 possibly 6,000 catchment, not your 15,000 figure, and they've one Clarinbridge man in minor, not your 5 or 6 figure. In fact at younger ages, I understand that no Clarinbridge lads play with O-M at all as they're now effectively prohibited from doing so by C'bridge club - which seems daft and a bit old school to me.) Claregalway do get a nice bit of participation from Turloughmore, Carnmore and a few from Castlegar - so it's a big catchment but brings its own challenges in unifying as a 'Claregalway' team. Salthill-Knocknacarra has a 25,000+ catchment area and yet seem to be waning a little bit at underage, so it's not all about numbers. Corofin, Tuam Stars, Barna-Furbo, Moycullen all have big catchment areas too. The quality work has to go in though, and the interest from players and parents has to be there or you could have a 50,000 catchment and still produce nothing. I think you'll struggle to see some of the mid and small traditional clubs in North Galway, for example, win A underage titles in future but does it matter that much if they can win a B or a C title and bring through 2 or 3 or more lads every year into their adult grades and build from there? togoutlads (Galway) - Posts: 970 - 04/11/2024 18:37:57 2578389 Link 0 |