Brannigan delivers as Galway stun Kerry on home turf

Galway 1-14

THERE was a 70-odd-year-old supporter from footballing heartlands of East Kerry wearing a Healy-Rae style flat cap sitting in front of the press box in the stand at Austin Stack Park on Sunday. Disillusioned wasn’t the word for him.

He was apoplectic at the sight of Galway goalkeeper, Ruairí Lavelle, soloing unopposed half-way up the field during the second half of this entertaining National Football League Division One encounter. Back in his day, goalkeepers would be hauled ashore for such profligacy, or at the very least they’d be hit with such an almighty shoulder they’d not consider venturing out of the square again.

Luckily from Galway’s perspective, Lavelle didn’t get the curly finger because he was called upon late on to pull-off a brilliant double save that denied Kerry a share of the spoils. But what seemed to irk the traditional football fanatic even more than Kerry’s lateral, lethargic approach was Galway’s style of play.

Directing his ire at a reporter from The Kerryman, he said Galway aren’t the ‘nice’ team they used to be. Another green and gold fan agreed: “They’ve discovered the dark arts.”

It wasn’t meant as a compliment but it should be taken as one. Leaving aside the irony of Kerry, home of the cute-hoor, crying foul about ‘dark arts’, everyone at the Tralee venue could agree Galway have developed a steely backbone and toughness.

There was many an ‘old-timer’ from both counties, lamenting the demise of ‘traditional’, direct football who had been expecting a free-flowing, high-scoring game. Those guys are living in the past, longing for a game that no longer exists. Galway have finally caught up. They’d take ‘winning’ over ‘nice’ football any day.

Full report in this week's Connacht Tribune.