Galway fail to get a handle on Mayo giant but still have grounds for optimism
By Sean Rice
IT was sufficiently close to send Mayo searching for answers. The hunger was there and the burning commitment . . . but not the experience. In the end outsiders Galway discovered that poor tackling technique and the concession of too many frees outweighed the advantages some of their fast eager forwards enjoyed.
It is not the end of the line for Kevin Walsh’s charges. If they draw on what they have learnt from their three championship outings they will provide stiff opposition for any side, including the likes of Tyrone and Armagh in the Qualifiers.
Galway had Mayo on the ropes at half time on Sunday having picked holes in a defence that has been the most reliable sector of the team those past four years. And in Gary Sice’s blistering goal, they will have found inspiration for contests to come. Even at this early stage in the championship that goal is surely a contender for the score of the year.
Their defence, however, did not measure up, mainly because they had no one to curb the threat that Aidan O’Shea posed. Indeed the Breaffy man was the essential difference between the sides.
He led Mayo as if inspired. He wrenched frees from Finian Hanley in the first half, and when his colleagues began to flag, he drove them with a combination of muscle and imagination.
Mayo had the upper hand in the opening quarter, but were sluggish for the want of games. It was their first serious challenge since drawing with Donegal in the spring. Up to the 18th minute, three of their five points were won from frees conceded by a defence not quite adept in the skill of dispossessing opponents.
But in firing high ball into Danny Cummins and Damien Comer, Galway found an unexpected weakness in the Mayo full back line and they grew visibly in confidence as Paul Conroy, Cummins and Comer reeled in three points without reply to level the scores for the first time.
They were now competing as equals and looked ready to dethrone the champions when Sice cut through the defence to unleash his searing shot past David Clarke in the Mayo net. It was an exciting moment for the challengers and a genuine test of the mental rigour of the opposition.
Maybe in the response of Cillian O’Connor’s equalising points before the break there was couched the coolness of experience, but it was not evident among those who watched and it sent Galway to the dressing room the happier side.
And then it all unravelled for the challengers seconds after the restart. And Aidan O’Shea was at the centre of it from the throw-in which he grabbed, setting up O’Connor to win another free from Finian Hanley and the lead they never relinquished.
The bizarre goal followed, and the luckless Manus Breathnach will never again need a lesson in how to deal with a ball spilled close to his feet.
But it’s easy to be wise after the event and when you had a behemoth in the form of Aidan O’Shea hustling towards you a first-time clearance seemed the safest route. Unfortunately, Hanley’s body got in the way and fortuitously for Mayo the ball bounced back into the net.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.