No fears from young Tribe
After recent draw Galway have no scars ahead of final with Dubs
SHANE Walsh believes that Galway will need to be ruthless in front of goal if they are to stand any chance of pulling off a shock against Dublin in Croke Park this afternoon.
Kevin Walsh’s well-drilled young side have impressed over the course of the Allianz Football League campaign with their ceaseless work-rate and aggression, but the talented centre-forward accepts that they need to become more clinical in front of goal.
The Tribesmen spurned five goalscoring opportunities in their famous win over Kerry at Austin Stack Park, similar to a number of missed chances against the same opposition in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final. Walsh concedes that they can’t be as profligate in the Division 1 final.
‘The league game in Tralee was the very same as the game against Kerry in Croke Park last year. I don’t know how many goal chances we had in that game and didn’t take them,’ Walsh recalls.
‘Luckily enough in Tralee, Eamonn [Brannigan] got a nice one and that was a great relief. If you keep kicking at the door, you will eventually knock it down. We just needed one goal that day but against other teams, we mightn’t be so fortunate.
‘When those chances come in games, we need to be taking them. We probably haven’t been as efficient as we would like to be when it comes to goalscoring chances and it is an area that we are looking to improve, along with other areas in our game.’
Galway have proven to be quick learners amid the intensity of Division 1, but Walsh reckons the one lesson he has absorbed above all others is that teams need to take their scoring chances, when they get them.
‘The experience we have gained in this division means that we know we will have to take our chances. Obviously against Dublin, we know that we are not going to get as many chances as we would when we were in Division 2. Dublin are not the sort of team who are going to gift you chances. So we need to be ruthless and take them when they come, as well as keeping the score down again at the back.’
Given that only a small number of Galway players – Sean Armstrong, Gareth Bradshaw, Paul Conroy –
Bar the old-timers like Brads and Army we have never lost to Dublin
had experienced top-flight football before, it is remarkable how the Tribesmen have slipped so seamlessly into Division 1. But this afternoon might be a step-up in intensity again but Walsh says the team are ready. And he isn’t concerned that a trimming from the All-Ireland champions – similar to what Derry and Cork received in recent league finals – will bring their momentum to an abrupt stop.
‘It doesn’t even come into play what Dublin can do,’ Walsh insists. ‘We don’t think about that. Our whole thing is that we just focus on ourselves and what we can do. We could be playing Dublin or could be playing Monaghan or any other team, we don’t worry about them. We just concentrate on our own performance. We can’t control anyone other than ourselves.
‘We are long enough watching Dublin play and as a group, bar the old-timers like Brads [Bradshaw] and Army [Armstrong], we have only played this Dublin team once. And we have drawn with them. That is where we stand with them. We have never lost to Dublin.
‘So, we are not going into this game, thinking about what Dublin can do. We are only going into the game, thinking of what we can do, and getting the performance on the day. If we can perform to the best of our abilities, we will be there or thereabouts with Dublin. It is just about how we set up on the day and how we try to get the most out of ourselves.’
That attitude has served the Tribesmen well over the course of this spring but returning to Croke Park this afternoon does once again bring up Galway footballers’ poor record at headquarters since they last claimed the All-Ireland title in 2001. Although they did beat Kildare in last year’s Division 2 final, their flat performance in the AllIreland quarter-final against Kerry last summer suggested that they haven’t exorcised all the ghosts.
‘I think that record has been put to bed,’ Walsh counters. ‘There hasn’t been any mention of it, and normally the public would be the first ones to bring it up. I haven’t heard it anyway and I heard anything and everything at work [Walsh works in a bank in Tuam].
‘Maybe the distraction of Division 1 has taken from it. Obviously we will be looking to try and change that record. If we want to progress as a group and go on and win an AllIreland, we will have to win it at Croke Park unless it goes to a replay and they bring it somewhere else!’ he says.