So another year drifts by and the Galway senior footballers once again cannot make any real impression at the business end of the season on the inter-county championship.
The year 2001 – eight years ago now – was the last time that our senior county team had a triumph in Croke Park. And lest we forget, that is the pitch where the real dealing takes place.
It is fine looking good in March and April, but what happens then when the other counties that have burst their balls doing the slog in pre-season and in January to March get down to football business in July and August?
Do we have the fitness and mental fortitude to compete with them?
The compelling evidence is that we do not.
Too often in the past few years the county team has been flying in the league, only to fall away like soft snowflakes in the heat of the summer months.
As the Yanks say; “We have issues”.
The Galway minors were hammered by Mayo up in Markievicz Park this year and a more sombre development is the fact that Mayo have won the last four Connacht U-21 titles.
So which county will have the better supply line of footballers for the next few years?
The county board and whatever management teams are in place for 2010 must take a considered and strategic look at how county footballers are treated and developed when they come through the minor and U-21 ranks and indeed what happens them once they make the breakthrough to the senior squad.
There must be more joined up thinking and a more wide-ranging approach adopted to ensure that whatever talent comes through is cultivated to its maximum.
Three things that must happen for success in the future:
1. Players must be developed and coached properly and continually after they make their senior breakthrough.
How much improved players are Joe Bergin and Kieran Fitzgerald now, than they were in 2001?
Fitzie won an All-Star that year and Joe also won an All-Ireland U-21 medal as team captain in 2002.
Could any of us say, or would they themselves in all honesty say that they are much better players now than when they burst onto the scene in a haze of glory?
And if they are not, is that their fault? Or the system here in Galway that does not help and coach them on an ongoing basis to develop players to be the best that they could be in their sport of choice?
What of the other men who won All-Irelands with Galway at U-21 level? National titles were collected in 2002 and 2005, how many made the breakthrough?
Many have worn the maroon and white at senior level from those teams, however unfortunately many have not delivered on a consistent basis at senior level.
Players like Diarmuid Blake, Michael Comer, Matthew Clancy, Derry O’Brien, Nicky Joyce, Kieran Comer, Michael Meehan, Clive Monahan, Kevin Brady, and Cormac Bane (all 2002 ); Alan Burke, Finian Hanley, Darren Mullahy, Niall Coyne, Gary Sice, Barry Cullinane, Sean Armstrong, Michael Meehan, Fiachra Breathnach, Damien Dunleavy, and Niall Coleman (all 2005 ) have all played senior in the past five or six years under the guidance of O’Mahony, Forde, and now Liam Sammon, but the balance and the progression of the majority of those players has not been of the required level.
That is a key factor in why Galway are not in the top five counties in the country and are ranked behind the likes of Tyrone, Kerry, Dublin, Mayo, and Cork.
That needs to change and perhaps it is time for the county board to put a bit of thought into how players are looked after and improved in a proactive and progressive way after they come onto a Galway senior squad.
Taking the short term view on a perennial basis is not working and a long term strategy needs to be drawn up.
2. A few top midfielders must be found or the ones we have worked on.
Since Kevin Walsh retired five years ago, the Galway midfield area has been a massive problem.
Many have been tried, but nobody has made the required impact, clearly dominating the area and made the position his own. There have been more combinations tried than a Rubick’s Cube and when the chips were down Galway have always been outplayed there by the likes of Kerry’s Darragh Ó Sé in particular.
Likewise centre-back has been an issue with players such as Diarmuid Blake, Niall Coyne, Paul Clancy, Michael Donnellan, Declan Meehan, and Richie Fahy all having manned the centre-back position with varying degrees of success in the past eight years. However nobody has really dominated the position with the authority that Tomás Mannion did in the All-Ireland series of 2001.
No matter what tactics or strategies are employed a team needs to at least break even around midfield and number six, and Galway have struggled to do that.
When that happens, it means the likes of Michael Meehan and Seán Armstrong who has had a good season this year and was terrific against Donegal on Saturday night are trying to survive on a limited supply and even if it does arrive, it is often of a poor quality.
3. Hunger and desire of players and management to be the best has to improve.
Attitude is everything, and over the past few years we have been lacking in that department when it mattered most. Against Donegal last Saturday evening the game was there to be won. However it was John Joe Doherty’s men that drove on and took the next step.
Success is not easily achieved and we must get the work ethic, ferocious, almost fanatical, hunger to be the best that the Tyrone players have had under Micky Harte for the past eight years.
Likewise whatever management team is in place for 2010 must leave no stone unturned to make sure that the players are in the right physical and mental state to represent Galway to the maximum of their abilities.
Even to compete at the top level, never mind to win anything major, is not easy at inter-county level. And unless everybody from the kit-man for the county U-16 team up to the county chairman is working together in a logical, strategic and progressive way for the good of Galway football, we will remain in the doldrums.
Despite collecting four Connacht titles since the All-Ireland win of 2001, Galway have not won a single game in Croke Park or passed the All-Ireland quarter-final stage in the past eight years.
Defeats to Kerry (twice ), Donegal (twice ), Tyrone, Meath, Cork, and even Westmeath in Salthill have cast a gloomy cloud on Galway football.
Galway’s championship woes
Galway’s championship defeats since All-Ireland success in 2001:
2002: Beaten by Kerry in the All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park.
Kerry 2-17 Galway 1-12
2003: Beaten by Donegal in the All-Ireland quarter-final in Castlebar
Donegal 0-14 Galway 0-11 (Replay )
2004: Beaten by Tyrone in round 3 of the qualifiers at Croke Park
Tyrone 1-16 Galway 0-11
2005: Beaten by Cork in the All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park
Cork 2-14 Galway 2-11
2006: Beaten by Westmeath in round 4 of the qualifiers in Pearse Stadium
Westmeath 1-08 Galway 0-10
2007: Beaten by Meath in round 3 of the qualifiers in Portlaoise
Meath 2-14 Galway 1-14
2008: Beaten by Kerry in All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park
Kerry 1-21 Galway 1-16
2009: Beaten by Donegal in round 4 of the qualifiers in Markievicz Park
Donegal 0-14 Galway 0-13
