42 LONDON EARN FULL RESPECT
GALWAY selector John Concannon insists that London will be afforded full respect ahead of the holders’ Connacht Championship opener this weekend.
With the Allianz
Football League having just concluded, the Championship gets underway this weekend with provincial quarterfinals in Connacht and Munster and preliminary round ties in Leinster and Ulster.
The action starts in McGovern Park, Ruislip on Saturday afternoon.
“They have improved significantly, the London team now is so consistent as regards the personnel they have,” said Concannon.
“They beat a Mayo team in the Dome with two or three experienced Mayo players and a lot of squad members. We definitely won’t be taking them for granted.”
Galway had a testing League campaign as a lengthy injury list put their spot in Division
One in jeopardy, though they did enough to stay up in the end.
Concannon explained: “At one stage we had 21 injuries, when we had a training session, one evening. We could only play small six-, seven-aside games.
“You can look at it one way, it is great the younger lads got games.
“It mightn’t have been the best baptism for them in relation to Cillian [Ó Curraoin], Liam Ó Conghaile, Jack McCabe, Patrick Egan — a few of these lads coming on.
“You’d have preferred to integrate them in with Damien Comer, Shane Walsh, and Cillian McDaid, so they’d get a better experience.
“They were thrown in at the deep end.
“In fairness, they were phenomenal, because of those lads we are still in Division One.”
Concannon was asked if there was anything in Galway’s preparation that fed into their injuries and he suggested the footfall through their training facility may have contributed.
Factors
“There are a number of factors,” he said.
“Some of the players came back from their clubs with injuries, some of the players came back from Sigerson with injuries, a few happened on our own watch.
“In Loughgeorge, the amount of traffic that goes through that place, the pitch, and it is nothing to do with the ground staff or anything, it is just the traffic going through those pitches.
“They are so heavy at training, whether that has an effect.
“You have no lights in Galway so it is the only place we can train during the winter.
“If that has an impact or whether they have so many games with Sigerson, clubs, the split season, there are a number of factors,” said Concannon.