Never gets old.
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Company representative mustâve been the Unijobs of its day. Presumably code for Sales Rep. Incredible to think that two All-Ireland finalists hadnât even met in the league in the previous 7 years. The qualifiers worked very well that season it must be said. I presumed Gary Fahey was early 20âs in 2001. Never realised he was 29. Amazing to think that he still has a sister playing for Ireland.
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Against the Grain?
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It is
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Joe Bergin and Nigel Nestor are cousins, iirc.
Hank Trayor looks very much like how Iâd expect a Hank to look.
Thatâs pints on Saturday night sorted so. Must remember to dust off the auld maroon and white straw hat for it.
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If you drink there all night youâll barely make the match 
Tip across to Ryanâs after two hours
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I thought they closed that place?
Ryanâs is a seriously young spot now.
Galway have experience and nous to take prize
Updated / Thursday, 25 Jul 2024 06:52
âThe first couple of finals, youâre nearly afraid to enjoy it and savour the momentâ
Gaelic football analyst
People might raise an eyebrow when I say Iâm really looking forward to this match, given that the idea of Galway winning an All-Ireland football final is the great nightmare for many Mayo people.
They have visions of us watching through our fingers in the way you might when England are involved in a major tournament final, though thereâs usually far less reason to be concerned in that particular scenario.
I canât speak for other Mayo folk but Iâm at the acceptance stage on this one. The truth of it is that Galway were always eventually going to be there and challenging again. I can rest easy knowing that at least Galway didnât win an All-Ireland on my watch as a player - albeit nor did we.
They were an irrelevance for the first half of my football career when we had them pegged as fancy dans. But they gradually got their house in order and have been knocking really hard on the door in the last couple of years, reaching the final in my last year involved - a game they could easily have won.
Certainly, itâs a brilliantly exciting, novel final. Neither of these teams looked like All-Ireland finalists for most of 2024.
Galway were the walking wounded in the spring and had more lads on the treatment table than on the pitch. Entering injury-time in the Connacht semi-final, it looked like they were about to lose to Sligo.
Armagh had great raw material but no real track record in winning big games. There was a sense that they were doomed to be forever nearly men, an idea which was strengthened again after they threw away a winning position in the Ulster final.
Johnny McGrath holds off Shane OâDonnell
Few would have foreseen them knocking out Dublin and then Kerry in Croke Park.
Despite it being a first-time final pairing, thereâs no shortage of recent evidence of how the pair match up against one another.
The three Championship games in 2022, 2023 and 2024 have been at times wild, thrilling and bizarre. Only a point separates them in general play across the three matches.
Oddly, I would have said that Galway looked the better team in all three of them - comfortably so, in two of them - and yet their only win was via a penalty shootout in '22. Even in Carrick-on-Shannon last year, where they lost by a point, I thought they shaded it on general play.
How Galway managed not to win in Markievicz Park in June was a mystery. They looked to be coasting to victory early in the second half and that six or seven points would be roughly the margin.
Then Connor Gleeson got caught on one of his few short kickouts and Tiernan Kelly fired home the only goal Galway have conceded all Championship. Even at the end, Tomo Culhane had a golden chance to seal it but missed at the near post and gave Armagh one chance to steal a draw and top spot.
Armaghâs decision to sit off Galway in the first half of that group game was massively counter-productive. As of now, there are few teams better at holding possession and working scores than Galway, their hand-passing in the final third is so slick and their decision-making is usually sound. Theyâll make you work seriously hard to get the ball back in defence.
Youâd imagine that Kieran McGeeney will look at that first half in particular as a cautionary tale in how they canât let Galway dictate the pace and rhythm of the game again.
Stefan âSoupyâ Campbell fists home the equalising point in Sligo
The Galway half-back line have been a very potent platform, with Dylan McHugh currently running favourite for Footballer of the Year. Armagh will have to construct a plan to combat their runs.
Barry McCambridge has emerged as the man-marker of the moment after shackling David Clifford and getting forward to slap a goal. Will he pick up Damien Comer or Shane Walsh? Or does he need to?
Comer and Walsh will play no doubt, even if they didnât look fully fit on the evidence of the semi-final. Comer, especially, didnât have look the same force as in the Connacht final. Two or three times against Donegal, he was stood up by Brendan McCole and didnât have the power in his legs to drive past him or cut inside.
In that context, I think Cillian McDaid is potentially a key man. He had a quiet enough semi-final, though weâve seen in the past that heâs a match-winner when he catches fire. He was sensational in the 2022 All-Ireland final and again in the second half against Dublin.
At the other end, Conor Turbitt is the danger man, though Galwayâs two corner backs have been superb. Iâd anticipate Johnny McGrath will pick up âTurboâ. Rian OâNeill delivered a majestic display against Kerry, floating around the middle third. Do Galway assign someone to tail him around the place?
OâNeill in heroic pose in the dying seconds of the semi-final
Galwayâs recent All-Ireland finals should be a slight advantage on the day. Finals have a different texture - and pressure - to any other championship game.
It can feel like an event as much as a game in the lead-up. The hype is all-pervasive - or at least it is in some counties - and there are all these extra trimmings. Measuring for suits, meeting the President. You have to work hard in your mind to bring it back to the nuts and bolts and re-frame it as a game of football.
The first couple of finals, youâre nearly afraid to enjoy it and savour the moment because the pressure is so intense.
In some respects, the short gap between the semi-finals and finals could be a blessing for players these days. The four or five-week gap back in our time was arguably a hindrance in that it allowed too much time to think, especially in Mayo where the tendency towards over-thinking is strong.
Early in my career, youâd try your best not to think about the game, which never works. Itâs in the back of your mind consistently and youâre nearly mentally drained because youâve tried to play out the match in your head beforehand. And then as soon as the game starts, after everything that played out in your head, the opposite then happens.
My first All-Ireland final was a bit of a baptism of fire to say the least. 10 minutes in and we were losing 2-01 to 0-00. So, things werenât going well.
I was saying to myself, âmy first All-Ireland final and this is what happens when you play with Mayo. Holy f**k.â
After a couple of minutes of being in shock, I just said it canât get any worse, and we actually played well for the remainder of the game but were unable to claw it back.
As I grew older and played in (several) more finals, I began to loosen up and enjoy them a bit more. Whereas during the parade, some lads would be staring at the ground, unwilling to look around the crowd in case it took them out of the zone, I would make a point of taking in the atmosphere and colour around the stadium.
I feel we fell down in the 2021 final because too many of our players became uptight. You could sense that. Perhaps the size of the opportunity that lay in front of us, having taken Dublin out of the running, played on ladsâ minds. And thereâs a similar dynamic this weekend.
For players in their first final, itâs crucial you get your second wind as soon as possible. Your legs will be like jelly for the first few minutes. Then, all of a sudden, youâll be able to make the run, the good decision, the decisive play at the right time.
Usually, it was goals that sunk us in All-Ireland finals - we conceded 12 and scored three in seven finals - a fair portion conceded in the first couple of minutes.
But these two teams are so well structured and finely tuned defensively, could we have a similar scenario to the semi-finals? Where a mis-hit point shot or a ball skied into the square leads to a goal that could prove decisive.
Instinct tells me that itâs Galwayâs time and theyâll win it narrowly. Their defence has been rock solid, their players look incredibly comfortable in the system. Theyâve shown an ability to manage games smartly and to break a teamâs momentum when they get a run on them, an important factor against Armagh.
Thereâs a steeliness we never associated with them in my early years, and theyâve developed a know-how in winning close games. Iâd plump for Galway by two - but after what we saw in the hurling, who knows anymore.
Lee Keegan 
weâre fucked
The fancy dans clipped his Mayo team on more than one occasion.
Iâd imagine a Galway win on Sunday would send the Mayoâs into a meltdown.
Meath got their medicine that day
A football final ticket is definitely 4 or 5 times harder to obtain than the hurling equivalent. Unless itâs Kerry.
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My pal was just across the border yesterday. Needing a bit of air for the tyre he called in to a station on the outskirts of ballinrobe, having travelled down the old road from headford, where arrays of Galway flags had suddenly ceased in 50 yards, replaced by, well, nothing.
The petrol station owner/manager was in fine form. After a bit of a greeting, âwhereâs your Galway flags?â
A shake of the head.
âHard to stand itâ
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They will go demented if we win
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Your friend is aware that Ballinrobe is in Mayo?