Love of the game takes McInerney on his journey to remember
FOR all the talk of new beginnings in Galway football, Gareth Bradshaw serves as a reminder that, for added value, nothing beats a second coming. Bradshaw is in his 31st year but is back playing with the verve of the teenager who was called into the Galway panel by Peter Forde in mid-summer 2006. Six managers and 13 seasons later, which have sent him through more thin times than thick, he is relishing Galway once more being contenders, rather than mere summer makeweights. He has been there for the modern disasters Galway football was subjected to. In that very first season, he watched from the bench as Westmeath ambushed them in a qualifier, Wexford would do the same to end Joe Kernan’s disastrous one-year reign, while in 2012 they could not even find a way past Antrim. Through it all, Bradshaw kept the faith — until the lowest blow of all when, as captain on the day, he was sent off as Galway suffered a 17-point humbling by Mayo in 2013. Bradshaw high-tailed it to New York even before the qualifiers began. It was the roughest time of his career — the player openly admitting at the time he was disillusioned with football — but he looks back at it now with no sense of regret. ‘It was a personal decision. I look at lads now making decisions to go to America and I wouldn’t begrudge them a trip whatsoever. ‘It’s your own life. You’ve got to have a good balance to it. I don’t regret the decision I made. ‘If anything, I came back a fresher and better footballer and life is for living. You’ve got to be enjoying what you’re doing,’ insists the Moycullen clubman. And that is exactly what he is doing now. Winning helps and the transformation in Galway’s fortunes — they are third favourites behind Dublin and Kerry to win the All-Ireland — is something he is embracing. The reason it has come to pass is not easy to identify, he concedes. ‘If I had the answer to that I may have a couple of AllIrelands over the past few years,’ he says. ‘I think the level of competition in the squad has helped us. Everybody has to be on their A-game when they go out on every given day. ‘We have 32 lads in our squad and trying to pick a 26 and a 15 out of that is proving a huge challenge,’ he suggests. A lot of those young
players have come off successful under-age teams, not least last year’s All-Ireland Under 21 winning team. But if young quality players — Galway have won four All-Ireland U21 titles since their last Sam Maguire success in 2001 — was the key, they would cracked it a long time ago. The appointment of Kevin Walsh as manager and the addition this year of Paddy Tally as coach has been critical. Tally has been hailed for introducing the defensive structure which has seen them concede just two goals in 10 games, but, according to Bradshaw, brings much more to the table. ‘That’s the perception but Paddy’s far from that. Paddy’s thinking is total football, everything involves the ball. ‘Kevin has been working on a defensive structure since he came in to get it to a level of consistency, which we are finally beginning to tick the box on.’