“YOU BOTH PICKED Galway. Sweet mother of all the Brollys.”
Joe Brolly didn’t hesitate in delivering his post-match condemnation of his studio companions Spillane and O’Rourke back in May 2013.
They had witnessed a game in Pearse Stadium that screamed of a massive gulf out west between Galway and Mayo. The latter had travelled to Salthill to pummel the home side by 16 points.
Five years on and the shift in the Connacht landscape has been noticeable. Galway got closer to be seven points adrift in 2014 and four points in arrears in 2015.
In 2016 they got over the line in Castlebar, repeated the trick last summer and then on Sunday rubber-stamped their provincial superiority for the third successive year.
Lob a pair of 2018 league wins – the FBD and Allianz versions – into the mix and a clear pattern has now formed to the outcome of Galway and Mayo clashes.
“They were saying the last couple of years they sleepwalked into the game,” stated Galway defender Eoghan Kerins.
“I don’t think they can have any excuses this year. Fifteen on fifteen we went out and, look, there is no inch given out there and it is never an easy encounter against these lads.
“It is always a tight, tough encounter. We expected nothing else but, yeah, it was probably the sweetest of the three of them.”
Galway’s side is populated by young and emerging players. They have products of the U21 team that contested an All-Ireland final last year and those who have developed in the local arena like Ciaran Duggan, an Annaghdown club-mate of Kerins who was bestowed with the man-of-the-match award on Sunday.
“For a lad who was playing his first game it was some performance but he has been doing it for years with the club,” said Kerins.
“I know Ciaran pretty well and I am delighted he got his chance and that he put in a really good shift for himself.”
For Galway’s new players it has become natural to savour that winning feeling after seeing off Mayo.
Gary O’Donnell has witnessed the flipside though. He was one of seven players that featured on Sunday in Castlebar that lined out during the 2013 drubbing at the hands of Mayo.
“It’s not a secret there’s a big rivalry between Galway and Mayo, any time we meet there’s usually fireworks or it’s very tight. There was a couple of tough years where we couldn’t get the better of them. That seems to have flipped on its head now.”
And yet O’Donnell is conscious of the need for this to be a springboard for Galway after faltering in 2016 against Tipperary and in 2017 against Roscommon after they had conquered Mayo.
“It counts for nothing really unless we make something of it for the rest of championship. We’ll have Sligo next in a couple of weeks’ time, think we’re breaking for club championship in the next week so once we’ve that done we’ll be all guns blazing again.
“We probably got criticised but at the same time since Kevin’s come in, we’ve had huge consistency in our performances. We’ve lost games but very few games.
“We’ve had a couple of blips in between but at the same time there’s been huge positives in the teams we’ve beaten and the progress we’ve made. We have to focus on that rather than being too critical of ourselves.
“This year we’ll be judged on how far we go in the championship.”
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