Foley had a fairly solid year at centre back last year but you canāt quibble with a chap taking a year out from his hobby. Think heās in his final year in college so he might have a summer abroad lined up and he made the call early on too in fairness. Is Shane OāGorman capable of playing at this level?
Fanning made his way forward to around our 45 before going back. McDonald seemed intent on hitting it. He was straight over to gather the ball and the highlights there showed him pointing at himself as if to say āIām taking it! Iām taking it!ā
Yes Foley did finals afaik. Would like to have him around though.
Thatās ridiculous if McDonald was allowed to make that decision. Itās be one thing if he was a TJ Reid like penalty taker but he clearly isnāt. Was a soft penalty but psychologically wouldāve been a massive lift.
It was ridiculous. You wouldnāt get it in an U12 game. Morris handed the ball to Guiney. McDonald told Fanning to go back in goal, and then took the ball off Guiney. It summed up his day.
I remember watching Naomh Eanna playing Clane in some Leinster Junior or Intermediate game a few years back. C Mac was the main man but Justin Kenny was their free taker. He was fairly terrible but everyone said he was better than C Mac. His lift is awful inconsistent and heāll regularly lift it further away from himself so heās already stretching for it.
Lads whatās that craic with Liam og and his injury? I was under the impression he was having an op on Tuesday? So why did he do all the warm up? I read he couldnāt turn but could run in a straight line but in that warm up he did a lot more than running in a straight line? ? He even warmed up with the subs during the match.
Heās definitely having the operation on Tuesday according to the interview he gave in the Irish Independent yesterday. He was saying in it that itās settled down a bit and he was able to run in straight lines recently so I too was surprised to see him jumping and stuff pre-game.
I think itās rubbish and he isnāt as bad as there making out, I thought that last week too but didnāt want to say anything on here about it. He even warmed up with about 20mins to go. I could be completely wrong here but weāll probably hear in due course.
No idea I just find the whole thing very confusing. If he was there as a forwards coach and to give the lads a boost why was he warming up at all? It was strange.
He had a bandage just under his knee and was wearing a number 30 jersey. Was in the middle of the huddle just before players left to join the parade I think. Thought it a bit strange at the time.
A few points. I saw some stats from the game earlier (canāt find them now, why is it so hard to find stats from a GAA game online?). The amount of ball Galway won in the air was phenomenal, some fantastic fielding from them. We won a huge amount of our puck outs, but thatās obviously because they were short to Murphy. I know him playing as a sweeper has given our half and in some cases corner back free range to go driving up the field and we do well when we run at teams. But Murphyās distribution is suspect, he wasted a lot of them yesterday (from memory). There was one in the first half right into the Galway right half back in the worlds amount of space who took his time and pointed from his own half. The pass back to Fanning was awful and needless too.
We seriously need to have a look at our spot ball takers. Fanning should have taken the pelanty, not someone who was having a decidedly average day with frees. McDonald doesnāt look like a free taker, he looks like heās shitting himself everytime stands in front of a dead ball. We cannot give away these chances at this level.
We looked good in the first 25 or so minutes, but Galway seemed to decide that was enough play acting and just moved through the gears, without ever looking under pressure. I know I said Joe Canning was barely there, but he took out a lot of Wexfordās attention and was zen like despatching the frees, before he came off he was winning a fair bit of ball too. Everytime a Galway player got the sliothar and any amount of space, they looked like scoring, from anywhere. Panic stations from us at times, Galway looked like the team we want to be. A definitive plan, good players across the board sticking to it, no fuss, no panic. Get the ball, look up, make the decision, point it or pass it. In the second half we fell back into some old well worn Wexford ways of aimless balls and panic snap hits. Galway, the two Cooneyās in particular, looked like they had already made their minds up what they were going to do with a ball long before they caught it.
They are a huge team, but a team full of hurlers. They could well destroy anyone on their way to winning the AI. I canāt see how anyone, barring possibly Tipp or maybe Waterford, can compete physically with them, especially in the air. The amount of points they score is unbelievable, like they have no interest in debasing themselves with trivialities like goals. Purists. Theyāre not even dirty the likeable fuckers.
For us, a salient lesson. Weāve come a long long way in a very short space of time with Davy. Yesterday was another stop on the journey. Beating the Limerickās and Kilkennyās of this world is all very well and good, but Galway right now are the level you have to be at. Weāve moved up to being a second tier county again. Iāve no doubt they will learn a lot from yesterday.
The support was fantastic and fair play to all Wexford people who attended, I was in bits watching it, the atmosphere must have been unreal.
We go again, donāt know who Iād like to get, donāt care, we donāt fear anyone now.
Tremendous post pal, displaying great inner fortitude after defeat. Wexford have nothing to feel bad about, they whipped the cats and kept them out of their beloved Leinster final. No disgrace losing to Galway the way they are playing, they are at a high level no doubt.
Iād imagine the general reaction in Wexford will not be back to crying about our deficiencies and wailing about another 10 years in the wilderness. There will be a realistic appraisal of what we need to work on and a steely determination to continue our upward trajectory.
Onwards and upwards fitzy.
Determination amongst the players is there. That seems to me to be the sea change in Galway over the past few years. Determination and unity.
Galway are probably the most complete team Wexford will meet this year. There is no overstating what the missed frees and penalties does to the mindset of a team. It went from being possibly a tied game to Galway knocking over 5 points in as many minutes to stretching the gap to 8 points. That was a huge momentum shift and Wexford players started to panic and make mistakes.
Tipp did the same to them in league semi when they loaded on a heap of scores in rapid succession when game was somewhat in the mixer. Someone needed to take the sting out of Galway yesterday when they got on that roll and start a row or go down dead in the middle of the field and just take a minute to regroup. Experience i suppose