MARC Ó SÉ praised the work of Cian O’Neill in Galway after he helped mastermind their Connacht SFC semi-final victory over Mayo yesterday.
The former Kildare manager was brought into Padraic Joyce’s backroom team this season and was influential in shoring up a Galway defence that shipped 1-20 to Roscommon in the Division 2 final earlier this month.
Galway set-up with their wing-backs dropping off to clog up the middle channel, which disrupted Mayo’s running game and denied them a kick pass into the full-forward line.
Speaking on the latest episode of The42 GAA Weekly, Ó Sé said O’Neill would have played a key role in Galway training over the past few weeks as they created a gameplan for Mayo.
“You just have to create that in training, you have to raise the intensity and in fairness to Cian O’Neill that’s something he’d always have done. He’d have been very good in setting up trainings and making sure there was a competitive bite to it.
“Obviously the players lead that as well. Before the game you were saying if Galway are to win this they need the likes of (Paul) Conroy, (Damien) Comer and (Shane) Walsh hitting good form which they did. In training you can’t just press a switch and it’s going to happen, they were obviously geared up for their biggest rivals.
“You know there is going to be a competitive edge in training when you’re playing your biggest rivals.
“Down through the year we were very lucky in Kerry because we had good coaches who came in. From Pat Flanagan in 2004 to John Sugrue in 2007, then you had Cian O’Neill afterwards with Eamonn Fitzmaurice.
“He definitely raised the standards there’s no doubt about that. He’d call you out and question you if you weren’t delivering. You saw it as well when he went down to Cork, he was part of that Cork set-up that beat Kerry in Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
“He’s had success with the Tipperary hurlers, he was above with the Mayo footballers. Anywhere he’s gone in fairness to him he’s done very well. He’s on the ball. He’s an excellent coach in fairness to him.”
Ó Sé also felt Mayo’s over-reliance on a running game made it easier on Galway in Castlebar.
“If you’re playing against the Mayo team at the moment, okay with the exception of Ryan O’Donoghue and Cillian (O’Connor) is back obviously. But the marquee forwards aren’t really there.
“Defensively as an opposition it’s easier to set-up against them because when they’re playing that running game, you know the ball isn’t going to be kicked so it gives you an opportunity to get bodies back. It certainly helped Galway and Padraic Joyce yesterday.”
