LAST SUNDAY MARKED their biggest championship defeat to Mayo since 1907.
To lose out at home to their Connacht rivals by 17 points – just a fortnight after the county was toasting All Ireland U21 glory – was a disastrous start to the 2013 summer for the Galway footballers.
For defender Finian Hanley, the miserable afternoon was compounded by the fact that he was sidelined unable to influence the game.
A shoulder injury – that will continue to sideline him for club action this weekend but is hoped to heal in time for the qualifiers – left him helplessly watching on in Pearse Stadium.
Asked whether they can take anything from the game, Hanley’s answer is emphatic.
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“No definitely not. It was fairly obvious to everyone watching that basic errors killed us. The first 10-15 minutes we were poor, we were lethargic and everything we did was wrong. The soft goals we gave away was disappointing.
“Mayo are a good team, they are definitely contenders and they’re more advanced than we are. Coming into the week, we had trained well and lads were quite optimistic. I can really explain it but it did happen on the biggest day in the summer and that’s disappointing.”
The manner in which the county has flourished in the U21 grade over the past decade had lead to expectations being heightened before the game. Eight members of last Sunday’s starting side had won All-Ireland U21 titles in the last three years but they endured a brutal afternoon.
“We’re all the time saying about U21 teams and we’ve won four U21s (in last 11 years) but that doesn’t necessarily mean senior success,” insist Hanley. “It did, 10 or 15 years ago, because an U21 could come into a senior team.
“If you look at the top teams in the country now, there’s not many of them coming through because of the physical demands and obviously you need the head for it a bit more now. The fact that the U21s won so brilliantly, I think the supporters, local media, got a lot of optimism out of that.
“They were saying that this is going to be great. It doesn’t always work like that. The few U21′s found it tough on Sunday that were thrown into it.”
Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy
Now Galway must try to salvage something from their season in the qualifiers, a competition where they have not won a game in since 2004. There have been calls for root and branch reform of the game in the county but Hanley stresses the players will be focusing on what they can control.
“I’m a player and all I can do is look at playing, I can’t look at root and branch change of structures. That’s not my department, our department is getting back and seeing if we can get things right in the qualifiers, and maybe change our own view on the game.
“I think we’re probably the most traditionalist county with Kerry with regards to our free-flowing football. Our supporters and local media alike would always say that Galway play the nice football and that’s why they won All-Ireland’s in the past.
“The game has changed big time and I think that’s something that has to be looked at. Donegal and Mayo have shown that, that you can turn it around. We know that things can change.”
all galway can hope for is to meet Kilkenny IN FOOTBALL they might even beat them ? ? Second biggest county a large city big population and cant find 20 young men that can at least compete then Galway have a serious problem and please no comments putting blame on manager ! he was not playing but if he picks a new team and tells them to just go out and do their best HE WILL HAVE MY BACKING a parish team would do better
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Its no secret, Galway just weren’t (aren’t) good enough.
all galway can hope for is to meet Kilkenny IN FOOTBALL they might even beat them ? ? Second biggest county a large city big population and cant find 20 young men that can at least compete then Galway have a serious problem and please no comments putting blame on manager ! he was not playing but if he picks a new team and tells them to just go out and do their best HE WILL HAVE MY BACKING a parish team would do better