IT WAS DURING the BBC iPlayer livestream on Saturday afternoon when Michael Murphy made a statement that all teams dread, if they haven’t started the league at optimum pace.
We’re paraphrasing here, but the comments went along the lines that the third game is ‘Moving week’, and, ‘Week three is when the table gets a shake-up. The table becomes a bit more distinguished.’
With last weekend free of a game, Murphy said the fortnight between games would be an opportunity for players who hadn’t had a chance to catch up on fitness to get a serious block of training done and force their way back into contention.
On top of that though, it was a chance to take a few deep breaths, away from the suffocating narratives of the win-loss columns.
You might think that Kildare had a chance to reset, but their season is entirely in tailspin.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that some similar questions were being asked of Galway around Sunday lunchtime.
Their opening day eight-point loss to Mayo is now set in the context of Kevin McStay unapologetically declaring that they would be seeking a hard and fast start. That has yielded wins over Dublin and Galway and a last-gasp loss to a David Clifford-inspired Kerry.
A draw against Roscommon was not a bad result but it still left some people cold.
It meant that Galway were facing into a trip to Omagh to face Tyrone and needing something out of the journey.
And this is where one of Pádraic Joyce’s specialist subjects lies. For years, he has managed to beat Ulster teams in league and championship.
The most high profile have been wins over Armagh and Derry in Croke Park, but even taking last year’s league as a sample, they beat Monaghan and Tyrone at home and Armagh away. They also drew with Donegal.
For Galway, the queue of vital players has been spilling out of the physio room and into the corridors. Shane Walsh, Damien Comer, Liam Silke and Cillian McDaid were all unavailable for duty. Sean Kelly started on the bench.
And yet, they pulled it off. Robert Finnerty made the most of an ill-matched marking job when Tyrone had the talented but inexperienced Aidan Clarke guarding him. After the first 15 minutes, Finnerty had three points.
After the final score, Pádraig Hampsey crouched down on his hunkers in front of the spot where Niall Morgan would take his kickout. The delay was one of those clever bits of gamesmanship where teams can get an extra couple of minutes to themselves and suck the air out of another’s momentum.
When Hampsey rose to his feet again, he was moved onto Finnerty. Despite not getting another single shot on goal from play for the rest of the game, the Salthill-Knocknacarra man still had a vital play left in the game.
On 64 minutes, Tyrone had introduced former Footballer Of The Year, Kieran McGeary. There was a loose ball between McGeary and Finnerty but McGeary’s mood was to put himself about. He went in illegally on Finnerty and conceded the free. Finnerty himself converted to stretch the Galway lead to two.
Kelly was only on the pitch for around a minute when his ball to Cathal Sweeney set up the critical goal.
He then produced a series of ball carries through the Tyrone defence that meant they could not settle into the second half at all. Towards the end, one such carry ended with an attempted fist-pass over the bar, but fell short into the net instead, and a free out.
“He’s our captain, he’s our leader,” said Joyce afterwards about Kelly.
“It’s just brilliant to have him back on the pitch. He has a lot of work done. He hasn’t kicked a ball in eight months, I know he has played a bit of club but you have to be careful with him as well. We’ll mind him the next day as well but it’s great to have him out there.”
Asked about the progress of Comer and Walsh, he said, “No, still recovering unfortunately and will be for a while. We have a squad now and we have to stick in a few more from the development squad to try to make it up.”
It’s a curiosity about Tyrone, that their home ground is not even remotely watertight. Since they came back up to Division One for 2017, they have a tradition of struggling at Omagh.
Look under the bonnet there too, and you will see a patched up engine.
So far this year, Dooher and Logan have now handed out nine league debuts to players.
Losing All-Stars Niall Sludden and Ronan McNamee has had an enormous effect. Also on the treatment tables are Conor Meyler, Frank Burns, Mattie Donnelly, Cathal McShane and Michael O’Neill.
A ready-made excuse in that was offered up to Dooher. He initially embraced it before pushing it far away.
“We have that and it is fairly obvious because we have a lot of men injured. Purely because they have been on the go for so many years and constantly. And it’s taken its’ toll on the body,” said Dooher.
“That’s where we are. But that’s an excuse at the same time. We should have gotten something out of that game today. I felt we should with the opportunities we had. We just didn’t convert what we should have had.”
Onto next Saturday for them, and hosting Mayo. The surprisingly low attendance here won’t be an issue next week. The worry is what Tyrone might produce.