Search Results for 'Shane Walsh'

Ahead of last weekend’s All-Ireland Senior Football Championship quarter-final between Galway and Meath, my mind kept drifting — not to the famous 2001 final where Padraic Joyce’s shooting masterclass sealed victory — but to a far less memorable clash between the sides in a rain-soaked Pearse Stadium just three years ago.

The Greenhills Hotel on the Ennis Road was my destination of choice and the place was packed full of Tipperary and Galway supporters. You certainly would not have thought you were just 400 metres from the clubhouse of Na Piarsaigh – All-Ireland winners in 2016 - when the roof nearly came off the place after 14-man Dublin produced a monumental shock to unceremoniously dump the Treaty out.

Penalties. One-point wins. Late drama. Galway rarely allow their supporters a moment of comfort, the emotional swings of each game pulling fans from elation to despair and back again in a matter of minutes.

Pádraig Joyce's side travel to Breffni Park on Saturday with a host of permutations in play. Joyce will no doubt pass no heed to such possibilities. Take care of business, win the game and the rest takes care of itself.

On the balance of play, Padraic Joyce’s men probably should have lost. Somehow, they also could have won, with Derry needing a last-gasp point from Conor Doherty to keep their own season alive.

Agony and ecstasy. That well-worn sporting cliché. But sometimes, the classics are all we have to do justice to the emotions on either side of the divide. Oldies are goldies, after all.

Galway take on Mayo in the Connacht Senior Football Championship this Sunday at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.

If you happen to be mingling with Mayo folk in advance of Sunday’s Connacht Senior Football Championship final and they’re bowling you over with gushing praise for the quality of this Galway team - while also at the same time talking down their own prospects - my advice would be to smile, nod, and say the bare minimum.