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Galway Football thread

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Replying To Belclare7:  "An excellent team but in fairness they were nearly caught by Claregalway after basically hammering everyone along the way..
Sean Og and Rabbit would have been ran a mile if the county final had another few minutes as the some of their decisions were headscratchers..
Underage winning is good but the absolute key is getting them through to senior..
Claregalway have struggled and I'd say Oranmore won't find it easy also.."
Agreed

Jellybaby (Dublin) - Posts: 357 - 04/11/2024 11:54:49    2578301

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Replying To TheBishop:  "Not enough talk about Conroy on here, winning player of the year as 35 year old midfielder is a phenomenal achievement. Those of us who say Conroy as a youngster knew he was capable of this.

A wonderful ambassador for the county."
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

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Replying To LottoPlus:  "Is underage football in trouble in Galway. Population base is where all A titles are going. You have Oranmore/Maree who have 12-15 k in there catchment area, adding to that they were 5-6 Clarinbridge players playing. Claregalway who probably have a similar catchment area with players from Turloughmore, Castlegar and Claregalway/Carnmore playing.. If you think of the Minors and there was at least players from 6 parishes playing. Is that fair? How many of them will fall back into playing hurling in their own parish. Years ago Corofin dominated but that was because they were better trained. At least the hurling is honest as the players who play are from their own parish. We won a minor A hurling a few years ago and they were all from Carnmore. No one from outside the parish. Don't rave about the under 19 and Dunmore getting to final, the only reason they got there, and they did have a nice team, but Claregalway were a lot stronger but they pulled the under 19s who play senior from playing the competition. Should the parish rule be enforced for under age anyway?"
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

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Replying To LottoPlus:  "Is underage football in trouble in Galway. Population base is where all A titles are going. You have Oranmore/Maree who have 12-15 k in there catchment area, adding to that they were 5-6 Clarinbridge players playing. Claregalway who probably have a similar catchment area with players from Turloughmore, Castlegar and Claregalway/Carnmore playing.. If you think of the Minors and there was at least players from 6 parishes playing. Is that fair? How many of them will fall back into playing hurling in their own parish. Years ago Corofin dominated but that was because they were better trained. At least the hurling is honest as the players who play are from their own parish. We won a minor A hurling a few years ago and they were all from Carnmore. No one from outside the parish. Don't rave about the under 19 and Dunmore getting to final, the only reason they got there, and they did have a nice team, but Claregalway were a lot stronger but they pulled the under 19s who play senior from playing the competition. Should the parish rule be enforced for under age anyway?"
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

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Replying To LottoPlus:  "Is underage football in trouble in Galway. Population base is where all A titles are going. You have Oranmore/Maree who have 12-15 k in there catchment area, adding to that they were 5-6 Clarinbridge players playing. Claregalway who probably have a similar catchment area with players from Turloughmore, Castlegar and Claregalway/Carnmore playing.. If you think of the Minors and there was at least players from 6 parishes playing. Is that fair? How many of them will fall back into playing hurling in their own parish. Years ago Corofin dominated but that was because they were better trained. At least the hurling is honest as the players who play are from their own parish. We won a minor A hurling a few years ago and they were all from Carnmore. No one from outside the parish. Don't rave about the under 19 and Dunmore getting to final, the only reason they got there, and they did have a nice team, but Claregalway were a lot stronger but they pulled the under 19s who play senior from playing the competition. Should the parish rule be enforced for under age anyway?"
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

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