Michael Duignan
The Tribesmen have the talent, but do they still have the determination?
No shortage of talent but Tribesmen have an attitude problem
Where are Galway at?
I’m amazed by the amount of people that have been asking me the same question since the drawn Leinster final against Kilkenny.
Before last Sunday, the defending champions were everybody’s favourites for the All-Ireland. Well, almost everybody. A good friend of mine texted me last Sunday along the lines of: ‘I think Kilkenny are going to win today. This Galway team are over-hyped. What they have done since last year has been over-played.’
That was before the ball was thrown in. He was about the only one that was right. Without giving too much away, he has Kilkenny roots. His point is that they didn’t deserve the hype or to be such hot favourites.
And it put me thinking of the AllIrelands I played in with Offaly. We went all the way in 1994, were beaten in the final the following year. Won a second one in 1998 and were there or thereabouts nearly every year right up to being beaten in the final in 2000. You’d look back and wonder what was the difference from year-to-year, particularly for any team trying to win All-Irelands back-to-back, like Galway are trying to do at this moment in time.
It’s the small things that trip you up. Have you the same hunger, ambition and drive? Watching Galway at Croke Park, I just felt they were very complacent. Waiting for things to happen rather than making them happen.
The amount of balls Padraig Walsh caught over bigger men – it was remarkable. Niall Burke, Conor Cooney, Joseph Cooney, they all have five or six inches on him. Rewind 12 months and it’s hard to see him cleaning up the way he did at full-back. Galway simply wouldn’t have allowed it. But that same steely determination, I didn’t see it in them.
Do you write them off? I don’t think so. Maybe they were just meandering along, felt they were better than they were.
That can get into your psyche. If you go out in a particular mindset, it can be very hard to try and change things mid-game.
How many Galway players did really well? Daithí Burke at full-back? Goalkeeper James Skehill handled the ball well, even if he looked under pressure in possession at times. When we praise the Galway team, it’s usually about their strength down the middle. Burke did very well but after that? Gearóid McInerney was just okay, the midfield was anonymous enough – David Burke didn’t get forward enough to offer a threat – and Joe Canning and whoever rotated in to full-forward were cleaned out. Padraig Walsh was outstanding and Cillian Buckley at centre-back for Kilkenny won Man of the Match. That’s just not good enough.
Joe Canning was going around giving out at times, not concentrating on doing his own job. All of Galway’s starting forwards scored but while Niall Burke hit four, he didn’t really do too much else. Joseph Cooney was anonymous, Conor Cooney not in it and the quality of ball to Conor Whelan was poor.
Compare that to Kilkenny where practically all the team played well, especially at the back, including goalkeeper Eoin Murphy. Apart from a number of missed chances you could see why Brian Cody was so pleased.
On The Sunday Game, Brendan Cummins and myself did a piece of previous analysis looking at the way Galway bombarded ball down on the Wexford full-back line in the round-robin game. Brendan described it as the dead zone.
I was surprised that Galway tried the very same tactic with Kilkenny, and didn’t look to mix things up at all for a Leinster final. It all fed into that sense of complacency. You can’t just keep trying the same tactic – that’s not the way it works at the top level.
I said earlier in the year that I didn’t think Brian Cody would win an All-Ireland with this team – it just heightens your respect for him that he guided them to the League and nearly toppled the All-Ireland champions.
He didn’t have the greatest squad at the start of the year so he went about building their confidence, which included playing lads in Walsh Cup and National League matches. They know this is the way they serve their time.
Start one day, left off the next. Billy Ryan came in from nowhere against Galway and scored a few points. Martin Keoghan has been in and out of the team, was left off against Galway.
The last three points Kilkenny
Watching them in Croke Park, I felt they were very complacent
When you’re at the top level, you can’t just keep trying the same tactic
scored against Galway said it all about them. John Donnelly caught a puck out and fired it over the bar; Richie Hogan had the vision to play a crossfield ball to Enda Morrissey for another score; then TJ Reid had the composure to nail the equaliser.
Whether they are the best 20 players or not in the country, Cody now has 20 lads who are battle-hardened.
This is the first real challenge for Micheál Donoghue. Tipperary went with much the same squad this summer – where were the Under-21 players that were lighting up the place? – and there’s the same sense about Galway.
Sean Loftus and Brian Concannon are there on the subs bench but I think it needs more of a shake-up. Niall Burke, Jason Flynn, Johnny Glynn – it’s the same lads all the time.
There needs to be a bit of pressure put on the spine of the team.
Look at the amount of U21s that have played or came on for Kilkenny’s seniors already this year. The Galway U21s out-hurled them completely in the Leinster U21 competition yet so few of them are getting a look-in in Micheál Donoghue’s squad.
The attitude last Sunday wasn’t good enough and it won’t be tolerated a second time.
You don’t become a bad team overnight. I still think Galway are the best team left in the All-Ireland race. A bit of a shake-up is all that’s needed.
I think they can be forgiven one lapse.
They have the power, the physicality – it’s a different attitude that’s required at Thurles.