Galway end Croke Park agony with deserved league final win over Kildare
SOMETHING is stirring in Galway football. RTE pundit Joe Brolly may not have been impressed by what he saw in last Sunday’s Division Two League Final, but the way the match evolved smacked of a season-changer for the Tribesmen.
Brolly’s rant about the lateral type of football Galway indulged in was over the top, but for a proud county which has struggled to get to grips with the way the game has evolved, their increased on-field pragmatism has been serving the squad well so far in 2017.
Bringing home some silverware and laying their Croke Park hoodoo in the process represents a productive day’s work by any standards, while there is obvious potential for better to come. There’s a harder edge to this Galway team and, significantly, the players were grounded after their merited two-point win over Kildare.
It wasn’t a footballing spectacular, but Galway carved out a result after their character had been seriously tested midway through the second-half. They didn’t flinch and with the likes of Paul Conroy and Tom Flynn typifying the team’s industry, the Tribesmen finished the stronger to carry the day.
When the game was there to be won, Galway were the more purposeful and there were certainly no Croke Park ghosts spooking their efforts down the home stretch when substitutes Michael Daly and Gareth Bradshaw made telling contributions.
Kildare boss Cian O’Neill was naturally disappointed that his youthful side didn’t always get the basics right, but he was still impressed by Galway. “They are formidable and have a lot of good footballers. Galway got great value from their bench and Kevin (Walsh) has them well drilled.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.