In the Galway dressing room after last year’s Connacht final win against Mayo in Castlebar, Paul Conroy’s three-year-old son Páidí took centre stage. Holding a small water bottle, the drum roll was building up behind him, the rapid succession of beats thumped out by his dad, his team-mates and some of the backroom staff before Páidí Conroy took his cue and delivered perfectly in the moment, shaking the bottle and spraying the water on the floor to a huge cheer.
In Keith Gordon’s six-and-a-half minute behind-the-scenes footage of the day, over two minutes cover the post-match celebrations, the film perfectly capturing a mood drenched in happiness, soaked in satisfaction and swaddled in good vibes.
Beating Mayo in a Connacht final in Castlebar was always going to ignite a blaze of emotion, all of which combusted into an inferno when the match went down to the last kick, a two-point attempt for an equaliser from Matthew Ruane that drifted wide. The reaction was even more intense for Galway when it secured the county their first four in a row for 59 years.
And yet, the emotion wasn’t as saturated with the same raw fervour and passion as the previous year, when Galway beat Mayo in Salthill to secure the third in a row. Trailing by two in additional time, Galway landed three successive points, the coup de grâce delivered by the goalkeeper Conor Gleeson’s immaculately struck long-distance free that sent the Galway hordes into raptures.
Two years on and Galway are on the cusp of winning five in a row. Galway only managed that feat once before, from 1956-60. That sequence has only been achieved twice in the history of the Connacht championship. Galway are fancied to do so again now. And yet, entry into the pantheon can only be really granted through a different route.
“To win five in a row would be massive achievement,” the former player Seán Armstrong says. “It would be savage. I’d love to have five Connacht medals, never mind possibly five in a row. I don’t want to take away what these players have already done, but, the bottom line is that they need to win an All-Ireland.
“There is pressure on them to do so, but the players put that pressure on themselves. I know from talking to them, they have their own expectations and they believe, rightly so, that they can go and win an All-Ireland. In their minds, winning the All-Ireland is the only gig in town. And I’d have to agree with them.”
Last year’s Connacht was special, but winning an All-Ireland is the priority for this Galway teamRyan Byrne/Inpho
For all the places that this team has gone, especially in Connacht, there is still only one destination for Galway to reach. Losing two All-Ireland finals in four years has been a load on their minds but last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Meath was another unexpected burden to carry.
“How they lost in the championship last year [to Meath] really irked the players and management,” Gary O’Donnell, a former player, says. “That is a ghost that has to be exorcised. To win five in a row in Connacht would be a huge achievement but the sights are firmly on an All-Ireland. Galway know that they are good enough, especially at the moment, when there is no real standout team.
“Does that add even more pressure? I don’t think so. I don’t think there is this sense that Galway have to win an All-Ireland. We haven’t won one in a long time. Even before we won it in 1998, we hadn’t won an All-Ireland since 1966. We’re third in the roll of honour, but it’s not as if we have a huge history of winning All-Irelands in the last 60 years. I don’t think it’s do-or-die. But their target is definitely to win an All-Ireland. Absolutely.”
It’s been 60 years since Galway last had the province in the kind of stranglehold that they do now. When Galway had their last great team, they won five Connacht titles in eight years from 1998-2005. But that team won two All-Irelands. And that’s still the only currency that matters.
“It’s always great to win Connacht titles but Galway are after more than Connacht titles at this stage,” the former player Seán Óg de Paor says. “They’d swap five Connacht titles in a heartbeat for one All-Ireland. I’ll be honest, there isn’t much talk about three, four or five in a row among the Galway football fraternity. It would be brilliant. I’m not saying it’s not valued — but it’s just that Galway have bigger targets.
Last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat by Meath was an unexpected setback for this Galway teamDaire Brennan/Sportsfile
“Pádraic [Joyce] said it from day one — they want to win an All-Ireland. Beating a good Roscommon team in Hyde Park would be sweet, but I think the most valuable thing about winning on Sunday would be the momentum it would give Galway going into the All-Ireland series. Right now, I would place more value on that than winning five in a row.”
Coming up short so often outside the province has crystalised the All-Ireland frustration. There comes a time when to be labelled “promising” is more of a curse than a compliment. In their development, this Galway team have reached that point. And yet, the way in which this group is constantly evolving and developing — Joyce handed debuts to ten players during the league — has diluted some of the stress of expectation.
“This team is doing so much right,” says O’Donnell. “It might sound like a contradiction when Galway people can be hard to please, but I also think the Galway public really appreciate this team and how they play. They have brought a real identity back to Galway football. The public have fully got behind them. And doing five in a row would only increase the affection for the group from the supporters.”
It’s been easier to row in behind this team when they provide such huge entertainment. Dating back to last year’s Connacht final, Galway have been involved in ten one-score games out of 11 league and championship matches. They broke the sequence when beating Leitrim in their most recent match, the Connacht semi-final, by five points.
Galway almost couldn’t help themselves from frightening the lives out of their supporters because they have become so accustomed to operating on the edge — nine of their past 14 games have come down to the last play. Galway haven’t won all of those matches but they’re still always up on the high-wire.
Joyce has been brave with his selections and has handed out ten debuts in the league this seasonStephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Sunday is another chance to show their sorcery to the masses, and cement this group’s place in history. There’s a safety net below them but there won’t be when Galway climb higher towards the end of the season. Today is business. The real glory lies further along the tightrope.
“In a county like Galway, you are judged on All-Ireland medals, not how many Connacht titles you have,” Armstrong says. “That’s not doing any disrespect to what these lads have achieved, and could yet achieve. If you have an All-Ireland medal, you don’t really care how many Connacht medals you have.”
When Galway last won the four in a row in the 1960s, those teams were captained by John Donnellan and Enda Colleran. Seán Kelly led Galway to the last four titles but Joyce changed the captaincy this year when transferring that duty to John Maher.
Kelly was a brilliant captain but so much about this year to date has smacked of a new approach and a fresh start. And getting to the end of the tightrope in late summer without falling off first.