West awake to new heroes
Community connection drives Galway
IT was Brendan Clarke who suggested towards the end of last season that the next fly-on-the-wall sports documentary made by Netflix should be inside the Galway United dressing-room. The veteran goalkeeper has seen a lot during his long League of Ireland career, but reckons the dynamic between John Caulfield and Ollie Horgan would make for some rich content.
Nobody took Clarke’s advice. The television cameras will be in Eamon Deacy Park this evening though, as Shamrock Rovers are welcomed to Terryland, the most tell-tale sign yet that the Tribesmen are back in the big-time. And even in a city where there are plenty of distractions on St Patrick’s weekend — including both the All-Ireland hurling and football champions visiting Salthill tomorrow — a lot of local chatter is around how United will handle the challenge of Stephen Bradley’s side.
Tonight’s game comes at the end of another busy week for chairman Jonathan Corbett. On Tuesday, he made his maiden visit to the Cheltenham Festival, the guest of the Comer brothers, whose substantial investment has helped lift the club back to the top flight. He met with Galway County Council yesterday, hoping to finalise plans for a muchneeded training facility in Athenry. They host Rovers tonight while the women’s team welcome Cork City tomorrow. Galway United have been one of the success stories in the league’s surge of popularity over the past few years, having developed a real local connection. League of Ireland football has had a chequered history in the city, but the United board has strived to cultivate good relationships with the local football scene. And that has had a knockon effect on attendances. Under club legend Johhny Glynn, who scored a famous Cup final winner, the academy has gone from strength to strength in recent years. ‘We have young players coming from all around Galway, from Mayo, as far down as Clare, and all of those families have a connection to the club now,’ Corbett points out. The club have experienced an upsurge in demand for family tickets, which is a new development. For years, there was an older age profile among regulars at Terryland, but that has certainly dropped in recent years, with Horgan even commenting on the new generation in a press conference earlier this week.
Given the up-and-down nature of League of Ireland football in the west — Galway United had two years out of the league in the 2010s with Salthill Devon and Mervue United representing the City of the Tribes — Corbett highlights the investment of the Comers as the key part in putting the club on a sustainable and stable footing.
‘Everyone at the club has done a lot of work, and the board are completely voluntary. John and Ollie have done great work with the team and Johnny with the academy, but the reason that the club is where it is down to the money that the Comers have invested. And they have done it because they want to see Galway United thrive.’
The development of local talent is an integral part of the club’s long-term plan — Alex Murphy’s rise through the ranks at Newcastle to make his Premier League debut this season underlines the potential in that area. And there is a local buzz around the club — you see people wearing Galway United gear on the streets which would have been unusual a few years ago — that United will hope to harness. Developing their own training facility in Athenry is essential to long-term ambitions.
The fact that Caulfield’s side will be beamed into living rooms across the country this evening underlines another area where Corbett feels the league is underselling itself.
‘I think we have to get a TV deal,’ the Galway chairman insists. ‘If you look at LOITV, the product is as good as a lot of other leagues who have substantial television rights deals. We have to trust our product and the quality of it.’
He feels that the entire league should work together to realise potential that has become more evident in the surge in attendances (a rise of 27 percent last year).
‘The league needs investment from a government level and I think it will come.
But we all need to work together, we need to work as one, because we have this excellent product that people are interested in. And if we do that, we can work together to make the improvements in facilities that are needed.’
On his first visit to Cheltenham on Tuesday, Corbett saw firsthand how Ireland has become a powerhouse in one sport – and that was helped by sustained Government support. Football now needs the same help, as the rise of clubs like Galway United have shown, there will be untold social, economic and sporting benefits.