PAUL OR NOTHING

Even in Galway’s darkest days, Conroy knew Tribesmen would reclaim the throne in west

MAYBE it’s a reflection of the innate confidence of the Galway football psyche, but as Mayo routinely gathered Connacht titles, Paul Conroy never doubted that good times would come around again.

After winning an Allireland minor title in 2007 (below), Conroy was immediately promoted to the senior panel the following year as they won Connacht and looked a team with real prospects after taking part in an epic All-ireland quarter-final against threein-a-row chasing Kerry.

But they nosedived from there as Mayo took control of the province and Galway never got so close as to suggest they were about to turn things around like they have in the last two years in 2013 they were 17 points adrift of them.

“I was always confident that I would,” said Conroy when asked if he feared that he wouldn’t add to his 2008 provincial medal.

“I don’t know if tradition counts for much but I knew that lads were working hard and there were good players coming through.

“Once Kevin [Walsh] took over in fairness, he has brought it to another level. It was a big relief last year regaining the Connacht title. We had been watching do it for the last five or six years they were a serious team and they still are. We need to make hay while the sun shines.”

While last year’s win in Castlebar was a shock result, backing it up last month in Salthill against them franked that victory.

“A lot of people were saying that it was a bit of fluke last year. But the last day we put a bit of pressure on ourselves to prove that we deserved to win last year and we deserved to win again this year. That was big for the team.”

For all the excitement generated by their wins over Mayo and Roscommon last year, the All-ireland quarter-final loss to Tipperary left a sour taste which still lingers for the Galway captain.

“It was such a great year. Then to end it like that, everybody looks back thinking about that, they don’t look at the good days, beating Mayo and winning a Connacht title for the first time in eight years.

“It was more so, ‘What happened ye against Tipp?’ That is what people think about the year so we had to deal with it as a team.

“We reached highs as a team during the year that we failed to reach against Tipp. We were very flat, it was very disappointing.

“I think the second day against Roscommon probmayo ably made us out to be better than we actually were.

“Had we came through the first day by a point or two I think we would have been a lot better off. But obviously we can’t do anything about that.

“Little things like tackling, doing the simple things right, we got beaten that day, we got well beaten.

“There is no sugarcoating it and we have to ensure that we drive things on again this year starting by retaining our Connacht title. That is the next aim.”

Having also won promotion back to Division One this spring and finally won a game at Croke Park, Conroy is confident that the team is maturing nicely.

“We’re a different team but there is a lot of the same individuals. I think we have moved forward as a team.

“We’d like to think we are ahead of where we were at last year, but Roscommon are a bit of an unknown.

“They put all their eggs in the one basket this year – their Championship and their League results indicate that.

“Roscommon in fairness to them have some serious forwards, and some serious players that would push to get on any team in the country,” he stressed.

“If they are on form the next day a lot of them will be very hard stopped.”