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Replying To Marooned: "Good lord we have a serious problem with kick outs. Actually didn't matter which keeper was in goal. Leitrim must have got half their scores from bad Galway kick outs. Nearly got a 3rd goal from another one." What about the 8 wides from Galway forwards in first half.Maybe look at that instead of always blaming the goalkeeper. Alwaysencourage (Galway) - Posts: 590 - 25/04/2026 18:09:11 2668581 Link
Replying To Drax_the_destroyer: "FT Leitrim 2-12 Galway 1-20 A far from convincing win for Galway although a match never looked like losing. Some amount of scoring chances Galway left behind them. Leitrim goals a penalty and gift from Gleeson gave them hope. On the evidence of today the winner in MacHale Park tomorrow should win the Connnacht title Main positive is Walsh,Comer got minutes and both looked sharp Under 5k at the match on a lovely sunny day time for the Connacht GAA to adjust their ticket prices." Were you at the match chief? ohwow (Leitrim) - Posts: 148 - 25/04/2026 18:14:52 2668583 Link
Galway are on the slide big time, but today was as poor a showing as we have seen since the days under Forde. Fair play to Leitrim, 80/1 , they were 9/1 to beat Sligo 2 weeks ago, and but for a few poor misses from play and frees early on, they would have pulled of the biggest shock, in terms of odds, since the founding of the GAA. We went into this game 3rd or 4th Favs for Sam, Leitrim 3rd from bottom of Division 4, and in spite of us having Conroy, Darcy and Maher they matched us in winning kickouts. They were well on top when it came to the rough and tumble stuff. Poacher deserves huge credit. It is easy to point to goalkeeping errors that were a huge problem, but sure every supporter is waiting for it to happen, from our painful past experience. Goalkeepers surely are under instruction game to game depending on the opposition. What were we doing going short V Leitrim? I know it can be hard for high ranked teams to play to their best v supposedly low level teams. Leitrim lost their Div 3 league games last year by an average of 25 points, yet held Mayo to 7 points in the Connacht game. That stat is the only crumb of comfort I can find. giveitlong (Galway) - Posts: 1313 - 25/04/2026 19:46:23 2668607 Link
Replying To ohwow: "Were you at the match chief?" I did however why are you concerned when you don't attend matches yourself? Drax_the_destroyer (UK) - Posts: 796 - 25/04/2026 20:00:45 2668613 Link
Replying To giveitlong: "Galway are on the slide big time, but today was as poor a showing as we have seen since the days under Forde. Fair play to Leitrim, 80/1 , they were 9/1 to beat Sligo 2 weeks ago, and but for a few poor misses from play and frees early on, they would have pulled of the biggest shock, in terms of odds, since the founding of the GAA. We went into this game 3rd or 4th Favs for Sam, Leitrim 3rd from bottom of Division 4, and in spite of us having Conroy, Darcy and Maher they matched us in winning kickouts. They were well on top when it came to the rough and tumble stuff. Poacher deserves huge credit. It is easy to point to goalkeeping errors that were a huge problem, but sure every supporter is waiting for it to happen, from our painful past experience. Goalkeepers surely are under instruction game to game depending on the opposition. What were we doing going short V Leitrim? I know it can be hard for high ranked teams to play to their best v supposedly low level teams. Leitrim lost their Div 3 league games last year by an average of 25 points, yet held Mayo to 7 points in the Connacht game. That stat is the only crumb of comfort I can find." We almost lost to Sligo two years ago and ended up in the All-Ireland final later that summer. I wouldn't be making complete judgements off the back of the first championship game of the year. There's a lot of football to be played. In saying that, we were poor across the board today. Kickouts a massive problem again. Backs were very loose at times and not switched on at crucial stages. Midfield certainly didn't dominate and we were also quite wasteful up front. So problems across all lines today. A lot which can be rectified, but kickouts remain my biggest worry. If you can't retain your own kickout in the new game, you can be taken to the cleaners. Losing 5 or 6 kickouts in a row can cause huge damage on the scoreboard. WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2771 - 25/04/2026 20:25:35 2668620 Link
Got the win but calamitous errors are going to cost us big games if we don't majorly sharpen up. What do we have to do in Galway to get our restarts sorted? Such a massive and repeated element of every game and can PJ and sideline and these players actually ever get it right, efficient, and effective?! I don't know. Also, so much lateral and ponderous build up is getting very predictable. Better teams will turn ball over again and again if we don't mix in serious strike runs, cuts etc togoutlads (Galway) - Posts: 1127 - 25/04/2026 20:29:25 2668621 Link
Replying To togoutlads: "Got the win but calamitous errors are going to cost us big games if we don't majorly sharpen up. What do we have to do in Galway to get our restarts sorted? Such a massive and repeated element of every game and can PJ and sideline and these players actually ever get it right, efficient, and effective?! I don't know. Also, so much lateral and ponderous build up is getting very predictable. Better teams will turn ball over again and again if we don't mix in serious strike runs, cuts etc" Ironically one of our best strike runs of the day was blocked by the ref and Leitrim carried ball away systematic (Galway) - Posts: 261 - 25/04/2026 20:51:01 2668629 Link
A big improvement needed in lots of areas I was at most league matches this year and today was the most sloppy performance over 70 mins I'd imagine for final be min 5 changes ,, goalie is between flaherty and McGrath at this stage ( my opinion) Hernon will surely start as will Jack Glynn Mulkerrins gives away 2 many frees Kelly come back in as will Tierney and I'd imagine if Thompson fit he play and if not I'd say Walsh will start In my opinion we have zero scoring threat from half back line I know mchugh got goal 2 day but in general very poor return from that line and they never kick ball in all hand passing , though Mcdaid very good 2 day Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 1148 - 25/04/2026 21:00:35 2668632 Link
Replying To WanPintWin: "We almost lost to Sligo two years ago and ended up in the All-Ireland final later that summer. I wouldn't be making complete judgements off the back of the first championship game of the year. There's a lot of football to be played. In saying that, we were poor across the board today. Kickouts a massive problem again. Backs were very loose at times and not switched on at crucial stages. Midfield certainly didn't dominate and we were also quite wasteful up front. So problems across all lines today. A lot which can be rectified, but kickouts remain my biggest worry. If you can't retain your own kickout in the new game, you can be taken to the cleaners. Losing 5 or 6 kickouts in a row can cause huge damage on the scoreboard." That's the main hope now to kick on after a poor Connacht semi final performance. The difference with the Sligo game was that was looking like a shock loss until that late goal from a turn over. Never looked like losing today or were forced to chase the game as was the case against Sligo. Poor across every line is fairly accurate and I'm sure some will probably use the complacency excuse Drax_the_destroyer (UK) - Posts: 796 - 25/04/2026 21:07:46 2668636 Link
Just weren't at the level required today mentally or intensity wise. Credit to Leitrim they really brought it today. Our restarts are killing us, time and time again, and has been that way for years. ahsure. (Galway) - Posts: 1764 - 25/04/2026 21:56:40 2668655 Link
Never seemed to get out of second gear today, a lot of missed pot shots in the first half and butchered goal chances throughout. Leitrim were spirited in fairness but you have to hope that match acts as a kick up the backside for the panel. You'll beat few teams from now onwards playing like that LárBáire (Galway) - Posts: 77 - 25/04/2026 22:07:45 2668660 Link
Poacher gave it his all on the line today, can he why his players buy into him, and why opponents wouldn't like him! In terms of Connacht final, going by PJ's comments J McGrath might be under pressure to make it. If he can't I'd go with something like Flaherty Silke Hernon Glynn McHugh Daly Kelly Conroy Maher McGrath McDaid Darcy Finnerty Comer Walsh Good argument too to bringing Comer and Walsh off the bench with 20 mins to go…. gaillimhboy (Galway) - Posts: 412 - 25/04/2026 23:18:13 2668679 Link
Replying To togoutlads: "Got the win but calamitous errors are going to cost us big games if we don't majorly sharpen up. What do we have to do in Galway to get our restarts sorted? Such a massive and repeated element of every game and can PJ and sideline and these players actually ever get it right, efficient, and effective?! I don't know. Also, so much lateral and ponderous build up is getting very predictable. Better teams will turn ball over again and again if we don't mix in serious strike runs, cuts etc" I know I'm replying to you but a number of posters have questioned our restarts. I thought Fla was excellent on the restarts. The modern game is the ball goes "long and contested" and yet Fla get the majority of his short to mid range kicks off with ease. Bar a couple at the end of the first half Galway retained their possession from kickouts for the first half. The penalty and black card were very harsh. The Leitrim player was falling into him the moment he got close and having been able to watch the reply on the way home it actually looks like Fla dislodged the ball in the tackle. But the whole penalty lead up and follow up showed the issue today. Lack of work rate and aggression. Ball hits the post, Leitrim react first, Penalty and black card. Penalty saved, Leitrim react first. Goal. Not sure what Gleeson was doing for those restarts for that 5 minute period but he kicked away 1-2 very quick. He'll have to own that. McDaid was brilliant. Shane and Damo minutes. Kelly lively when he came on. Glynn, Hernon, Tierney and the U20s to add back in....... SamandLiamSoon (Galway) - Posts: 628 - 26/04/2026 00:13:31 2668683 Link
Whoever wins on Sunday between Mayo and Roscommon will be favourites in the Connacht final. Despite Galway going for 5 in a row. PJ said he has a stick to beat them with now. And they'll need it as that performance won't beat many contenders. Marooned (Galway) - Posts: 2530 - 26/04/2026 01:08:28 2668689 Link
Replying To Kickitout: "A big improvement needed in lots of areas I was at most league matches this year and today was the most sloppy performance over 70 mins I'd imagine for final be min 5 changes ,, goalie is between flaherty and McGrath at this stage ( my opinion) Hernon will surely start as will Jack Glynn Mulkerrins gives away 2 many frees Kelly come back in as will Tierney and I'd imagine if Thompson fit he play and if not I'd say Walsh will start In my opinion we have zero scoring threat from half back line I know mchugh got goal 2 day but in general very poor return from that line and they never kick ball in all hand passing , though Mcdaid very good 2 day" Thompson broke his ankle I was told and has had the surgery on it already so we might not see him this summer at all. Tierney be touch and go for Connacht final done his quad Flemenstar200 (Galway) - Posts: 100 - 26/04/2026 08:30:55 2668696 Link
Replying To giveitlong: "Galway are on the slide big time, but today was as poor a showing as we have seen since the days under Forde. Fair play to Leitrim, 80/1 , they were 9/1 to beat Sligo 2 weeks ago, and but for a few poor misses from play and frees early on, they would have pulled of the biggest shock, in terms of odds, since the founding of the GAA. We went into this game 3rd or 4th Favs for Sam, Leitrim 3rd from bottom of Division 4, and in spite of us having Conroy, Darcy and Maher they matched us in winning kickouts. They were well on top when it came to the rough and tumble stuff. Poacher deserves huge credit. It is easy to point to goalkeeping errors that were a huge problem, but sure every supporter is waiting for it to happen, from our painful past experience. Goalkeepers surely are under instruction game to game depending on the opposition. What were we doing going short V Leitrim? I know it can be hard for high ranked teams to play to their best v supposedly low level teams. Leitrim lost their Div 3 league games last year by an average of 25 points, yet held Mayo to 7 points in the Connacht game. That stat is the only crumb of comfort I can find." Mayo effectively exited to Cavan in 2025, so Mayo '25 wasn't any sort of desirable benchmark either. Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 4678 - 26/04/2026 09:32:20 2668711 Link
Am i he only one who thought the penalry was very soft and definitely not a black card. The leitrim player barged in and it was a collision of bodies which arguably was a penalty but how the ref have seen that as a deliberate drag down? anotheralias (Galway) - Posts: 1065 - 26/04/2026 11:50:12 2668756 Link
Replying To gaillimhboy: "Poacher gave it his all on the line today, can he why his players buy into him, and why opponents wouldn't like him! In terms of Connacht final, going by PJ's comments J McGrath might be under pressure to make it. If he can't I'd go with something like Flaherty Silke Hernon Glynn McHugh Daly Kelly Conroy Maher McGrath McDaid Darcy Finnerty Comer Walsh Good argument too to bringing Comer and Walsh off the bench with 20 mins to go…." Thats my team except Gleeson in goal. Galway2001 (Galway) - Posts: 30 - 26/04/2026 14:07:22 2668786 Link
Replying To gaillimhboy: "Poacher gave it his all on the line today, can he why his players buy into him, and why opponents wouldn't like him! In terms of Connacht final, going by PJ's comments J McGrath might be under pressure to make it. If he can't I'd go with something like Flaherty Silke Hernon Glynn McHugh Daly Kelly Conroy Maher McGrath McDaid Darcy Finnerty Comer Walsh Good argument too to bringing Comer and Walsh off the bench with 20 mins to go…." Would you not consider it a step backwards to include both Comer and Walsh in the first 15 when they haven't been consistently fit for an awful long time. Should they be treated more of a bonus rather than build a team plan around them ? eoinog (Sligo) - Posts: 2390 - 26/04/2026 15:57:45 2668807 Link
Replying To Galway2001: "Thats my team except Gleeson in goal." What? Alwaysencourage (Galway) - Posts: 590 - 26/04/2026 17:26:02 2668843 Link