Attacking approach is paying dividends for Galway
GALWAY U20 boss Donal Ó Fátharta says, no more than Galway senior footballers at present, the philosophy of his team heading into this Saturday’s Connacht final showdown against Roscommon at Tuam Stadium (2pm) is to move the ball quickly and attack.
Much of the talk surrounding the U20 championship has been the crazy timing of the competition in February and March, with Ó Fátharta among those to question the validity of running a competition that cuts across second-level and third-level colleges fixtures and offers young players very little time to develop their careers in an inter-county set-up.
Yet, for all that, Ó Fátharta’s charges has managed to put a run together by defeating Mayo and Leitrim in the Connacht quarter-final and semi-final respectively while the atrocious weather and the postponement of the semi-final has also afforded the management more time to work with their players.
“Yeah, you are trying to develop them a little bit, but the window is short. At least, we have got a good few weeks, especially with the (Leitrim) game being pushed back a week. With the final on Saturday, we are trying to keep it alive as best we can.”
Although Galway go into the final as defending champions, having defeated Mayo in last year’s decider, Ó Fátharta says the message he has been putting across to his players is that this fixture will not make or break their career in a Galway jersey.
“It is difficult to gauge players at this time of the year, so you don’t really know how good you are. Look it, if we go out (of the championship) the next day against Roscommon, it doesn’t mean these are bad players or anything like that. That was the same message we gave to the guys against Mayo.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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