Tribe should stay up despite playing without core group

GALWAY shou Ld be judged At full strength

YOU can never get enough reminders that League form should come with a health warning.

There we were assuming that Dublin had slipped back close to the chasing pack.

We figured that themselves and Kerry were still out in front, but not by that much.

Then the Dubs put Kerry and Derry to the sword so comfortably that they reminded me of the six-in-a-row team.

They look to have awakened something in themselves and that means trouble for the rest of us.

It does seem that we went into a type of false security regarding the Dubs and now they’ve gone Super Saiyan.

I just had to get a Dragonball Z reference in this week. Akira Toriyama, the creator of Manga series ‘Dragon ball Z’, died last week.

It was a pretty big deal, internationally. Even the Chinese government released a statement to acknowledge his passing but it probably went under the radar in our circles because the crossover between Dragon Ball Z fans and GAA fans is probably around, er, one. RIP, Akira, my friend.

Race

Looking across the League, Laois are going up in Division Four and the race for second is hard to call with four other teams sitting on six points.

Down and probably Westmeath go up in Division Three and Donegal and Armagh look likeliest in the second tier.

In Division One, Kevin Mcstay of Mayo - the manager of the reigning champions - has stated he doesn’t want to reach the league final. I couldn’t disagree with him more.

Winning back-to-back league titles means you aren’t far away from the biggest prize and Mayo could do worse than getting into the habit of winning finals in Croker.

Maybe Mcstay doesn’t mean it and it’s just part of the theatrics of GAA managers in front of microphones.

Monaghan and Roscommon are likely to go down but don’t discount the possibility of the former pulling out a big result against Tyrone.

And we can then begin the cycle again of calling them the plucky underdogs playing above themselves and Monaghan GAA people for some unknown reason will get insulted as we do.

I’m looking around and seeing where the cards are falling and a team that really interests me are Galway.

I watched the All-ireland final of 2022 again and learned two things. Galway weren’t that far away from an All-ireland and rewatching the game made me wonder about Shane Walsh why isn’t he at that level more often?

Galway lost out to a good Mayo side in last year’s Championship so they shouldn’t be too far away this year. But, looking at 2024, where are Galway at? They seem to be going under the radar this year.

Bar a total disaster for them in other games Galway, will have stayed up in Division One without Matthew Tierney (muscle), Paul Conroy (dead leg) Liam Silke (toe), Shane Walsh (hip), Damien Comer (hamstring) and Cillian Mcdaid (groin).

They make up a group of their best players and the core of their team.

Galway went into Healy Park in a must win game and won. Sure, Tyrone have thrown together bipolar performances this season but Mayo didn’t win there and Roscommon couldn’t beat a Tyrone team with seven debutants.

Galway also went into Clones and pulled out a result against Monagahan, so whatever Padraic Joyce does in the summer, keeping the Tribesmen in the top flight is significant.

Not what someone with Joyce’s ambition would call success but it is success and it definitely deserves to be called that - in the same way we respect what Monaghan have done for a few years now.

I’ve watched Galway progress under Joyce and, looking at them in Clones the last day, I like the way they move the ball and I loved how the manager talked about Kieran Molloy after the Tyrone game when he shipped him ashore early in the second half. “Kieran Molloy knows, and we said it at half-time, he has to get more urgency in his game,’’ said Joyce.

“He didn’t do it; we gave him five minutes to try and do it. He didn’t do it.”

I’ve seen managers getting annoyed about missed tackles or lack of effort but it’s rare you hear a manager getting publicly annoyed about how the ball is moved. Those few sentences told us a lot about what Joyce thinks and wants.

I think he’s worked hard to find the balance between his probably naïve aspirations to play a purer style of football when he first arrived and the claustrophobic style that most teams play now.

A large part of that is down to Sean Kelly - and he’s a brilliant footballer, but he’s also tough enough to make him the type of player that Tomás Ó Sé described when he said“every team needs a dog”.

I’m not sure if Galway are as strong in the goalkeeping department as other top teams, and Joyce needs his big attacking weapons back soon.

We can be tempted to fall into the trap that Galway will move up a level once they return but it doesn’t always work like that, either.

Rhythm

When they return, other fellas will have to drop out. When that happens, in my experience, it affects the rhythm of a squad.

I have a feeling that this is Joyce’s last year with Galway. Dublin will move through the gears against them today and I think they’ll win — that will be disheartening for Joyce.

I get why Joyce is frustrated and he has pinpointed the split season as a reason for a spike in injuries.

I don’t know if that is the case but, purely on an anecdotal level, I’m hearing of more injuries than ever before.

This is happening when players have never had more guidance from medical, sports science and S&C experts. I’d like to see detailed data on injuries. It does seem as if there is a problem that needs further investigating.

As for Galway in the summer, I don’t think they’re good enough to win the All-ireland but I hope Joyce has a full hand to deal with. I’d like him to be able to throw his best hand at the Championship and see where it takes them.

BRILLIANT: sean Kelly of Galway has both style and steel