Galway’s flagship GAA teams can leave their mark on 2017

2016 won’t go down as a year to cherish for Galway GAA teams. Between the senior, U-21 and minor hurlers, together with their football counterparts, no All-Ireland title came west. There was no joy either at club level with Sarsfields suffering a crushing defeat in the All-Ireland club hurling semi-final last February and Corofin failing to get even that far after losing to Castlebar Mitchels in the provincial campaign.

The minor footballers, who went under to a high-class Kerry outfit, and the county U-21 hurlers, heavily defeated by Waterford, did reach All-Ireland finals, but the over-riding impression was a season of under-achievement which also saw the senior hurlers lose their Division One league status and Galway’s flagship football team again unable to secure promotion from Division Two.

Taking all these results at face value, Galway GAA fans are hardly looking forward to 2017 with a great deal of optimism, but every year is different and it would be premature in the extreme to anticipate another barren campaign for teams from the county. For starters, Corofin footballers and St Thomas’ hurlers both look to have genuine chances of capturing All-Ireland titles at Croke Park next March.

Naturally, however, the big focus will be on the inter-county scene and having already got a strong mandate in the corridors of power, Galway senior managers, Kevin Walsh and Micheál Donoghue, can run the risk of being radical in advancing their respective team’s causes. Having regained the Connacht title after an eight-year gap, the Tribesmen’s football season ended in something of an embarrassing All-Ireland quarter-final defeat by Tipperary.

To be frank, that unexpected reversal removed much of the gloss off Galway’s provincial triumph which was highlighted by ending Mayo’s quest for a sixth provincial title at McHale Park last summer. Though Tipp were good on the day and had their homework done, the men in maroon looked very naïve in struggling to get to the pitch of the battle. Galway were second best all over the field and their display smacked of a complacent team.

However, they are better than that and with the likes of Johnny Duane, Micheál Lundy, Michael Farragher, Ronan Steede, Sean Armstrong and Fiontán Ó Curraoin returning to the fold, Galway will have a much stronger squad to go to war with in 2017. They must initially target league promotion from Division Two, but will need to be far more consistent and also must start turning Tuam Stadium into something of a fortress again.

Walsh and his players should have been steeled by their experience against Tipperary. It was a terrible result, but Galway can learn from it. Big things will again be expected from the likes of Paul Conroy and Damien Comer, but the form of Shane Walsh, who hardly did himself justice during 2016, will be of equal importance. Galway are the Connacht champions and that achievement didn’t happen by accident. They have no excuses for not driving on in 2017.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.