It is most unusual in any game to have a situation where almost all of the 15 starting players are absolutely disgusted with their own personal performance. However that happened last Sunday when the Galway minors got a right trimming from their Mayo counterparts.
Galway were given a real lesson in football, work-rate, and team play, and Mayo were well worthy of their nine-point victory. No doubt Gerry Fahy and his management team were stunned and hugely disappointed by the inept performance of their charges and could not believe what was unfolding in front of their eyes.
Only Garry Sweeney from Mountbellew at left corner back, Manus Breathnach, who made a few good saves, and Patrick Sweeney, who hit 0-3 from play, played to any kind of standard.
Any time a team replaces its central diamond of six, eight, nine, and 11, they are unlikely to win. Hats off to Mayo, they have some very fine players and they cleaned Galway out at midfield, on the breaks, and hit 2-13, as well as shooting 14 or 15 wides. It was a cakewalk for them in the second half.
For Galway it was a really disappointing result after all the effort they put in over the past few months, but when you can only register 1-05 against Sligo and 1-07 against Mayo, you can’t expect to get close to any silverware.
On a different point it was very surprising to read in Monday’s Irish Independent that Kevin Walsh had been overlooked for the Galway minor job. That story came as a surprise to most people. None more so than Walsh himself, who confirmed to me yesterday that he did not attend any interview last year with the Galway Football Board for the minor manager's position.
