DEFLATED GALWAY MANAGER Kevin Walsh believes there were a number of factors at play as his Connacht champions fell to a nine-point defeat against Tipperary in yesterday’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final at Croke Park.
Galway’s footballers haven’t won a game at GAA HQ since 2001 and that record continued as they were dumped out of the 2016 championship by what Walsh described as a “powerful” and “aggressive” Tipp team.
And yet Galway got off to a bright start, leading by 0-4 to 0-1 before the tide turned firmly in the Premier County’s favour.
Walsh was struggling to put a finger on his side’s below-par display but he believes that two energy-sapping Connacht finals against Roscommon may have played a part.
“Tough. We didn’t seem to be at the pitch of it for long periods. We went up four points to one and it wasn’t a bad place to be. Maybe in that period we shouldn’t have been 4-1 up. We missed two goal chances and they seemed to get down the field and get a goal and we struggled after that.
We seemed to be chasing all over the field. We looked to be chasing and we looked to be flat. Having said that I’m not here to take away from Tipp’s achievements. They were a powerful unit today and fair play to them.”
One of Tipperary’s key tactics was to attack Galway goalkeeper Bernard Power’s kick-outs – and it worked a treat.
“They were aggressive,” Walsh noted.
“I haven’t got the stats you have but it was evident that we weren’t getting our hands on the ball as much as we should have been. We seemed to be second best to a lot of the breaking ball and that’s one of the reasons we were probably flat.”
A rookie full-back line excelled in the provincial championship as Galway ruled the West for the first time in eight years.
But the inside line struggled against a potent Tipp attack as Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney bagged 3-5 from play between them.
“I would say a lot of the pressure probably came out of the areas we were talking about there (midfield),” Walsh said.
“We tended to lose too many balls there which meant that we didn’t have enough bodies to protect us at times.
“I thought Declan Kyne was still immense, he did an awful lot of work. Tipp have quality players. Looking at the stats back to 2005 in minor and U21, they’re not just a team put together overnight.”
Galway were looking at a six-point interval deficit before Damien Comer crashed home a cracking goal in stoppage time.
But Galway didn’t appear for the second half, leaving Walsh searching for answers.
“That goal came at a good time because we had been out of the game for long periods.
The most disappointing aspect to that is that we would have been hoping to come out in the second half rejuvenated but it didn’t happen. We just seemed to be flat. Maybe it was the three games in Connacht and a team being clapped on the back the last three times may have taken a bit of energy out of the team.”
And so Galway’s struggles in Croke Park continued, as Walsh continued: “It was before today as well (an issue) because it was mentioned a lot.
“But look it, history is there, it shows. It certainly wasn’t something we were going after this week, it was about ourselves. I always use the word process – we were looking to carry out our own performance and see where it took us but it wasn’t good enough on the day.
“We’ll assess the year as it was rather than one match. To be fair to these guys, they’ve done a lot of stuff this year.
“We’ll assess that over the next number of weeks but it’s been a positive year as well – first time winning the Nestor cup in eight years and having to do it the hard way, going to Castlebar and beat Roscommon the second time.
That probably took a lot out of the lads. As someone mentioned earlier on, maybe playing someone that you’re expected to beat, by the media, and by ourselves probably, maybe the bit of extra pressure seeped into the legs today.”
And Walsh believes that Tipp can trouble their semi-final opponents Mayo or Tyrone on 21 August.
“I do of course. I’d like to see it again but I do think we probably made it a little bit easy for them, being second to the ball quite a bit.
“Having said that, they’re averaging 21 points a game, which is a lot. Playing ourselves, Derry, Kerry and Cork, that’s a lot of scoring power. I’m sure they’ll be shut out a little bit more than they were today but they’re a good side.”
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