[QUOTE=“Gman, post: 1152792, member: 112”]Galway are poor enough for attending county teams, in my opinion too. not sure why or anything, but I’ve been to a lot of Galway games over the years due to relations from there, and it was always poorly followed in comparison to other counties. I remember the U21 final in 96 in Semple. It was packed, an absolute shitload from wexford and Cavan there, and fuck all from Kerry and Galway. Just proved the point though that having a big support means fuck all in the scheme of things as Kerry and Galway won that day.
if it makes you feel any better @maroonandwhite the Wexford football following is ten times worse. would be lucky to have a few hundred at big championship games.[/QUOTE]
All counties have shit followings when not going well. Galways is poor enough but is underestimated i think as very few galway people i know who go to matches, including myself, wear jerseys. I might wear a polo if a big game in croker but jerseys are generally only worn by kids among galway supporters i find, maroon doesn’t stand out much anyway and bear in mind that galway is a football county primarily so not a huge hurling population. as i stated above we bring plenty when going well, bandwagoners like all other counties bar mayo perhaps. Other counties, limerick, mayo, cork etc always wear the colours well and dublin scum wear the jersey daily as a stylish accompaniment to the tracksuit/pyjamas ensemble as the amble around on their permanent breaks from work.
I’ve been going to Galway games since the mid 80s too when they were successful, and was even at the infamous John Denton game, which at the time I hadnt a clue about, but got plenty of stick over the cunt. Even games in the 90’s were sparsely attended in comparison to others, especially at the time when hurling was attended by lots more than it is now. I did find the football had a more vocal and larger following alright. I was in the canal end in 98 when they beat Kildare, and my uncle going cracked and telling me there was no way he wasnt going onto the field after it.
I was first on the field. Watched the last five minutes on the galway bench after i managed to climb in. My theory is this, the footballers have always had a provincial championship and the county has united against mayo or roscommon usually or whoever. The hurlers never had that, were in the doldrums for decades too, but never had the one or two regular rivals. Allied to this galway is essentially two counties, and the smaller less populated hurling side happens to have some of the thickest and cliqu-iest rednecks in the country. Club is king and the county team are derided often as being useless because x from club y is on it, and he’s fucking shite etc etc. Now sputh and east galway also has the soundest people in the country too as far as im concerned, no airs or graces and no egos in general but there’s a mix. There’s never been the tradition of supporting the county team that exists in other counties. This club first mentality also leads to a lot of giving up when the going gets tough in the county team, lads throw the towel in who wouldn’t dare do so in a club game.
Also funny how you say the footballers had more support in the 80s, i was always told it dropped dramatically after what happened in 83 and only recovered in 98, that had as much to do with watching mayo get to finals as anything. Very hard for a lot of hurling people to watch all the shite that went on in 89 and have any interest in driving to dublin or the truly painful drive from galway to thurles after
should have clarified, I would have seen fuck all, if any, of the footballers in the 80’s, and would agree with you that it seemed to come to life after 98. I would have been at most if not all Galways games in Croke park for years, so would mainly have only been latter stages of championship. and as you say, with Mayo dominating then and galway doing fuck all in the football, I saw little of them years back. I would be just comparing the levels of support for the hurling mid 80s to early 90s and the football late 90s to early 00’s, and would have thought the football support was bigger for the team at its peak.
Thats partly why they keep beating tipp.
The tipp lads have it in the back of their head that a team with steven walsh and declan hannon in it wouldnt beat kerry and then when limerick start burying them into the dirt their brains shut down and they collapse.[/QUOTE]
Don’t understand comments like this. The Tipp hurling people by and large aren’t going to be won over because they don’t enjoy football as a sport. I myself, don’t really enjoy football but I do like to see Tipp do well. What I don’t understand is why very few people from football towns such as Clonmel(and Moyle Rovers), Cahir, Tipp Town and even Templemore which is a kind of dual club go to Tipp football games. Also a lot of rural areas of south and west Tipp are mad into football but they mustn’t care much about the county team
Galway team same as the last day. We always go well when underdogs as we were last Sunday, now that there’s an assumption we’ll improve a bit and win easily, I expect us to get hammered.
As an aside I can’t wait to see Kildare v laois, passion, class, meeting mbb in the flesh. A feast for the senses.