1.The amount of ball lost in the tackle: On far too many occasions ball was turned over by Galway players. They allowed Mayo players to stop them and just physically rip the ball out of their hands. Mayo have obviously worked on their tackling, but from a Galway perspective it was most disappointing to see the likes of Finian Hanley, Paul Conroy, and others losing the ball in contact. Likewise we were blocked down on numerous occasions and that gives a great lift to the opposition. We must not allow that to happen this weekend.
2.Lack of urgency by Galway players: Galway came out at the start of the second half five points down and we expected them to tear into Mayo. Instead they seemed to stand off and they really only tore into the game in the last 10 minutes. That is not good enough at this level and they will need to lift their intensity both on the ball and off the ball if they are to harbour any ambitions of facing the likes of Dublin, Cork, or Tyrone. The dirty ball has to be won and a few dogs of war will have to show their teeth next Saturday if the team is not to be shown the egress.
3.Galway management team made mistakes: When Niall Coyne went down injured, the logical and sensible move was to introduce Kieran Fitzgerald in a straight swop. His height, power, and experience would have been the ideal foil for either Barry Moran or young O’Shea. Instead Liam Sammon changed three lines on his team, Breathnach on, Sice to wing-back and Bradshaw to corner back.Three positional moves were made, where one should have sufficed. None of those switches worked. Bradshaw is more effective attacking from the half-backs or midfield, Gary Sice had a poor game, and Fiachra Breathnach made no impact on proceedings.I have huge time for Fiachra as he is a marvellous young man full of honest endeavour and integrity, but let us be honest here, he has been given far more game time and opportunities to impress than a lot of players who have warmed the bench all year. Sean Armstrong too was played far too deep. He is one of the best scorers and he shot 1-03 from play against Sligo, so what the heck was he doing back scavenging for ball behind the midfield? Unless there is a big improvement both inside and outside the white lines in Markievicz Park this Saturday, the footballers’ year will be over for 2009.
