Gary it forward
O’DONNELL: BEATING MAYO WILL MEAN NOTHING IF WE DON’T MAINTAIN OUR FORM
GARY O’DONNELL says Galway must make their latest win over Mayo count after flattering to deceive in recent seasons.
Sunday’s 1-12 to 0-12 victory at Machale Park was Galway’s third in as many Championship campaigns – a feat they hadn’t achieved against their neighbours since 1984, and coming on the back of Mayo being unbeaten in the fixture from 2009-15.
“There was a couple of tough years where we couldn’t get the better of them,” said Tribe star O’donnell.
“That seems to have flipped on its head now but it counts for nothing really unless we make something of it for the rest of Championship.
“We’ll have Sligo next in a couple of weeks’ time. We’re breaking for club championship in the next week so once we’ve that done we’ll be all guns blazing again.”
While Galway went on to win the Connacht title after shocking Mayo two years ago, they flopped in the All-ireland quarter-final against Tipperary.
Last year they were well beaten by Roscommon in the Connacht final and, while they bounced back against Donegal, they didn’t trouble Kerry in the last eight.
O’donnell said: “We got criticised for that but at the same time, since Kevin [Walsh, inset] has come in, we’ve had huge consistency in our performances. We’ve lost games but very few. We’ve had a couple of blips in between but there’s been huge positives in the teams we’ve beaten and the progress we’ve made.
“We have to focus on that rather than being too critical of ourselves. This year we’ll be judged on how far we go in the Championship.
“It’s all on the next game.” Galway’s record in 2018 is bettered only by three-in-a-row All-ireland champions Dublin, who beat them in the League final to inflict their only loss in nine League and Championship matches so far this year.
O’donnell added: “The Division 1 final, we were very disappointed that we didn’t win it. We felt that we were there or thereabouts.
“Even before the game we were very confident going into it. We were in a position maybe towards the end to push on and we didn’t do that.
“We’re very critical and we push ourselves on and we look for areas that we can improve on.
“It’s starting to bear fruit.”