My uncle worked in the pub business all his life. It’s all he really knew. I remember clearly one day as a young lad when he asked me what a pub needed to survive. I was young and innocent so I spoke of good food, passing trade, live music, a good pint of Guinness, a growing demographic in the area and some sponsorship of local teams and events. Yada, yada, ya.
He looked at me, shook his head and said:“No Ray. The secret to a good pub business is to have about 15 or 20 regulars who have a few quid and who’ll show up at that door every day. You’ll always survive if you have a few men who need a few scoops every day.”
Likewise a successful football team needs the same kind of consistency, only on the scoring front - a few men who will score regularly and deliver the goods on any given day for their team. Galway have them.
Men like Michael Meehan, Sean Armstrong, and Padraig Joyce will invariably notch up a few scores between them. Likewise Cormac Bane, Nicky Joyce, and Joe Bergin know how to pop over a few scores, and based on that fact, Galway should be able to hit 1-10 or 1-12 at a minimum next Sunday.
The key question is will that be sufficient to overcome the ever-growing challenge posed by Mayo this weekend?
Mayo and John O’Mahony will be coming to Pearse Stadium extremely psyched up to get some revenge for their defeats in 2007 and 2008 at the hands of this Galway squad.
O’Mahony in particular will be very keen to avoid a hat-trick of defeats to the maroon and white.
In 2007 Galway won 2-10 to 0-9 in Pearse Stadium with Cormac Bane doing the damage with a two-goal salvo. Last year in Castlebar it ended in a one-point win for the Tribesmen, 2-12 to 1-14.
Galway got off to a flyer last year. With Padraig Joyce scoring 1-03, and Michael Meehan and Cormac Bane notching up three points each, Galway snuck over the winning line.
So what of 2009? All we can look to is the evidence. Mayo looked very fit, focused, and in top gear in their facile win over Roscommon. On the flip side, while Galway shot out of the traps against Sligo, not for the first time, they seemed to run out of some steam in the third quarter before snatching victory through a late Joe Bergin point and a Sean Armstrong goal.
When the teams met in the league Mayo played a powerful second half to go on and win, and young Aidan O’Shea and Trevor Mortimer did awful damage to the Galway rearguard.
Tom Parsons came on for Mayo that day in Tuam and his mobility and ball-winning was a key factor in Mayo’s success.
Galway will need a combination of Joe Bergin and Paul Conroy, and perhaps Niall Coleman and Barry Cullinane, to work their socks off in the engine room to try to get enough primary possession for their forwards. The possible loss of Ronan McGarrity for Mayo does strengthen Galway’s hand as the Ballina man is a crucial player for Mayo.
Galway will need to stop the penetrating runs of Peadar Gardiner and Andy Moran from the wing-back berths where they did considearble damage against Roscommon. A key battleground will be the clash of the Mayo half forward line of Alan Dillon, Trevor Mortimer and Pat Harte against Gareth Bradshaw, Diarmuid Blake, and probably Declan Meehan.
If Galway dominate in those three positions, they can come through, but the Mayo trio are playing very well and look to be in fantastic shape.
There is usually very little between these sides and calling a winner is fraught with danger. As Sean Armstrong who was man-of-the-match and scored 1-03 against Sligo, pointed out: “Mayo will not want to be beaten by us for three years in a row. That will provide strong motivation for them. We know that. However in a Connacht final between Mayo and Galway, that goes out the window and there is never much between the sides. We don’t want to be beaten at home either and we are quietly confident that if we play to our potential, we can come through this test.”
There are 30 Connacht medals on offer this Sunday and the other major carrot for both teams is to be straight into the All-Ireland quarter-finals which is the easiest route for teams with bigger ambitions of playing football in late August or September.
I hope I am wrong,but based on what I saw in the flesh down in McHale Park in the Connacht semi-final and in Markievicz Park, I believe that Mayo merit their favourites tag for Sunday.
