Challenge Match vs Galway

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Lone Shark
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Challenge Match vs Galway

Post by Lone Shark »

Questions still unanswered as Navan looms large

Galway 3-9 Offaly 0-12

You don’t find too many fifteen piece jigsaws in shops, but most people would probably be confident of finishing one in less than two minutes were they to come across such an item. Certainly two weeks should appear to be time enough to complete it and take a holiday afterwards, but sometimes jigsaws can be trickier than one would imagine. This is the test Kevin Kilmurray and his selectors face now, as with little over a week left until Offaly’s championship opener in Navan, the team puzzle is far from complete, with a couple of gaping holes still apparent.
It may seem harsh to come to such extravagant conclusions based on what was after all a challenge match, but Peter Forde’s men ground out their six point win in Ballinasloe last Sunday on the strength of exploiting one or two key areas of the field, areas that have been crying out for remedial work throughout the Spring, and that will not have escaped the attention of the Louth management in advance of Sunday week’s championship opener.
In the first week in February, no doubt largely due to the hype and local derby factor, Offaly took on Westmeath and started at a high tempo, staying with their opponents early on before pulling away in the middle third of the game. In every competitive match since then Offaly found themselves behind at half time after a sluggish start, chasing the game. Yesterday saw this trend continuing, with Galway having three points on the board after only five minutes of play. Matt Clancy and Derek Savage were both in electric form, and combining to attack the left side of the Offaly rearguard, they ran riot early on, Derek Savage taking a couple of points and Clancy setting up Noel Meehan for another. To be fair to the management, the problem was spotted and Cathal Daly was moved across to marshal Savage, but with Nigel Grennan as always looking like an attacking fish very much out of familiar waters in the full back line, the number four shirt still appears to be firmly in the grasp of that journeyman player, AN other.
A couple of Colm Quinn frees either side of a fine right footed score from Paul Clancy kept Offaly within range by the end of the first ten minutes, and when Niall McNamee got the visitors’ first score from free play after fifteen minutes to leave just the minimum in it, it looked like the customary poor start had been endured and recovered from.
This notion was blown out of the water when Joe Bergin sauntered through the Offaly defence after the ball was lost in midfield and got the first goal of the game, that from a middling shot that Padraig Kelly will be disappointed not to have done better with. Offaly fought back well, and took the next three scores, including their best of the day - David Egan showing well and laying off a quick ball to Niall McNamee who split the posts. But the old failings resurfaced, and another score from Savage was followed by Michael Donnellan becoming the second Galway player to exploit the Offaly tendency to charge forward, charging through open space and finishing gloriously to leave Galway five up at the break.
If the goals were a reflection of the worst of Offaly football this year, the second half started by highlighting the best traits, as Mark Daly and Colm Quinn points were the reward for a period of sustained pressure and good passing football. Once again a Galway goal rocked Offaly back on their heels at this point, Savage looking much sharper than the Offaly corner backs pouncing on a loose ball broken by Conor Evans and scoring from close range. Another comeback was mounted, but although Offaly won a decent amount of possession around centrefield, they never looked like getting the goal needed to pull Galway back within range. Karol Slattery crowned a fine attacking display by handpassing a great individual point with ten minutes remaining to leave four between the teams, but closing scores from impressive Galway substitute Shay Walsh and Savage again crowing a man of the match display left the final score at Galway 3-9 to Offaly’s 0-12.
In mitigation, the absence of James Coughlan allowed Galway to focus most of their efforts on stopping Niall McNamee, and his corner forward play would have been a huge boost to an Offaly side that saw David Egan perform moderately and John Kenny and Thomas Deehan both struggle in this role. Neville Coughlan and John Reynolds were very impressive in the half forward line, though their roles in tracking the Meehans took them too far away from the danger area to be effective. The fine display from Joe Bergin and Paul Geraghty in the Galway midfield exposed our vulnerability to powerful aggressive fielders in the absence of any of our own, and while our half back line looks very impressive going forward, only Brady really gave the kind of cover necessary to a shaky looking full back line, exposed by the brilliance of Savage and the direct play of Noel Meehan.
That’s a lot of missing pieces of a jigsaw to find in a fortnight.

Scorers:
Galway: Derek Savage 1-5 (0-2 frees), Joe Bergin 1-0, Michael Donnellan 1-0, Shay Walsh 0-2, Noel Meehan 0-1, Paul Clancy 0-1.

Offaly: Niall McNamee 0-4, Colm Quinn 0-3 (0-2 frees), Ciaran McManus 0-3 (1 free, 1 ’45), Mark Daly 0-1, Karol Slattery 0-1


Teams:
Galway: Alan Keane; Kieran Fitzgerald, Barry Dooney, Richie Fahy; Declan Meehan, Keith Giblin, Thomas Meehan; Joe Bergin, Paul Geraghty; Paul Clancy, Michael Donnellan, Tommy Joyce; Derek Savage, Noel Meehan, Sean Armstrong.
Subs used: Val Feeney, Kevin Brady, Kieran Comer, Shay Walsh, Damien Burke, Tadgh Monaghan.

Offaly: Padraig Kelly; Cathal Daly, Conor Evans, Nigel Grennan; James Keane, Scott Brady, Karol Slattery; Ciaran McManus, Alan McNamee; John Reynolds, Mark Daly, Neville Coughlan; Colm Quinn, Niall McNamee, David Egan.
Subs used: James Grennan, John Kenny, Barry Malone, Thomas Deehan.


Referee: Gerry Kinneavy (Roscommon)

HairyHole
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Report

Post by HairyHole »

Great Report Lone Shark.

How did Ciaran McManus do overall , I don't think I saw his name mentioned below....

Alos how did Barry get on when he came on ?

:wink:

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Lone Shark
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Galway

Post by Lone Shark »

McManus had one of his more headless games yesterday I thought. His shooting was good, and I don't think he had a single wide from a point attempt to go with his three points, but some of his deliveries weren't as one the ball as they could be - though a lot of that could have been down to the fact that David Egan has a very different all-over-the-place way of running than Jimmy who follows a set pattern. On the other hand he had two cracks at goal from way out, neither of which came off - but he at least appeared to be trying to win the game, whereas a lot of players seemed less worried.

Barry didn't reassure me when he came on. He's still good when he's on the ball, but one of the late Galway points came when he was slow to track his man who had just given a pass, and was nowhere to be seen when the ball was returned. He'd have been a better option than anything else on display yesterday, but that wasn't saying much.

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the bare biffo
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Jimmy Grennan

Post by the bare biffo »

Shark, whats the story with Jimmy Grennan ?
I guess at this stage he won't be starting, but can he make any impact coming on ? Is he fit?

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Lone Shark
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Jimmy

Post by Lone Shark »

Not fit at all to be honest. He came on for the Super after about 15 mins when McNamee was rattled by a shoulder, and was swapped back again at half time. In that time, he caught a couple of good balls, but never looked like he was really up with the pace of the game.

I'd say it's a case of either start with him or finish with him, depending on how things are going. It's a pity, but it doesn't look like he's going to be able to have the kind of impact we need.

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