Galway footballers need to bite harder in the tackle

IF ONE was to base the championship prospects of Galway footballers on the current downbeat mood of many supporters, new manager Joe Kernan is in for a short summer. An indifferent National League campaign followed by a laboured effort against New York in Gaelic Park last Sunday week has left major question marks about the men in maroon.

Undoubtedly, the individual with most the sweaty hands in New York when the exiles were making a mockery of their rank outsiders tag was Football Board Chairman, John Joe Holleran. He is the man who brought Kernan west in the first place and had Galway crashed out of the Connacht championship, the repercussions would have been severe.

There would have been no backdoor for the men in maroon either and while the absence of star forwards, new captain Michael Meehan and Sean Armstrong, left them considerably weakened up front and the unavailability of Paul Conroy further reduced the mentors’ options, no one anticipated that the Tribesmen would have to rely on a late scoring burst to finally see off physical opponents.

Holleran, like Kernan, will have breathed a huge sigh of relief at Galway getting out of jail. He had targeted the former Armagh manager and the Clonbur native’s persuasive powers ensured a big managerial catch. Holleran isn’t all things to all football people, but he is a worker. He gets things done and also has unshakable faith in his own judgement.

About a dozen years ago, his predecessor as Football Board Chairman, Pat Egan, also went out on something of a limb in enticing John O’Mahony to Galway. The net result was the county’s first All-Ireland triumph in 32 years, a second title followed in 2001 and Egan, deservedly, was rightly acclaimed for his foresight. Without O’Mahony at the helm, it’s doubtful if that Galway team would have achieved the long-awaited breakthrough.

But there were shaky moments along the way. It took extra time for Galway to finally shake off Roscommon – they were competitive back then – in the Connacht championship at Hyde Park and their progress to the All-Ireland final almost slipped under the radar such was the hype about their September opponents, Mick O’Dwyer’s Kildare. That was a great occasion which produced a great match with Michael Donnellan – I still consider his length of the field run in setting up Sean Og de Paor’s first point as one of great GAA moments of modern times – Jarlath Fallon and goal-scorer Padraic Joyce eventually overpowering the Lilywhites defence.

Joyce is still going strong and it was just as well that he had recovered from that protracted Achilles injury in time to board the flight to New York. The Killereran man was probably the difference between victory and defeat with his contribution of 1-3 from play. When you have team selector, Sean O Domhnaill, admitting afterwards that New York (reduced to 13 players before the end) were unlucky not to win, it highlights how close Galway came to as sensational championship exit.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.