{"id":516258,"date":"2026-06-24T16:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T16:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/516258\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T16:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T16:10:19","slug":"darragh-o-se-dublin-are-on-a-high-but-galway-have-been-building-quietly-and-fear-nobody-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/516258\/","title":{"rendered":"Darragh \u00d3 S\u00e9: Dublin are on a high, but Galway have been building quietly and fear nobody \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was very sad to hear about the death of Paul Clancy<\/a>. He was as decent a fella as you\u2019d come across, popular with everybody he met and just one of those people who was naturally great company. <\/p>\n

He\u2019d have been there at the final in a few weeks when the 2001 Galway<\/a> jubilee team gets their moment in the sun. It\u2019s an awful thing that he\u2019s gone so young.<\/p>\n

He played the best pass you\u2019ll ever see in an All-Ireland final and we were on the receiving end of it. <\/p>\n

Declan Meehan\u2019s goal in the 2000 final is a famous one because Galway went the length of the pitch after John Divilly took the rebound down off the crossbar from a Kerry<\/a> 45. <\/p>\n

Meehan\u2019s finish was brilliant, but the key to it was Clancy\u2019s kick pass, hooked over his shoulder right into Meehan\u2019s chest, with Noel Kennelly chasing after him.<\/p>\n

The comical thing about that goal was we had had a meeting the night before the replay about targeting Meehan in the air. He was an excellent player and pacy, but he was no giant. And he\u2019d be playing on Kennelly, who had plenty of size. We thought we\u2019d have an advantage there.<\/p>\n

Now when I say we had a meeting it was basically the backs and midfielders sitting in a room without the management and listening to Declan O\u2019Keeffe between drags on his cigarette. <\/p>\n

We were all nervous before these big finals and O\u2019Keeffe wasn\u2019t above admitting it. \u201cI don\u2019t smoke at all,\u201d he said, standing up by the window and puffing a fag out of it. \u201cJust when the nerves would be at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Why is Leo Cullen leaving Leinster?<\/p>\n

Anyway, once he called the meeting to order, he laid out his master plan. \u201cLook,\u201d he says, \u201cDeclan Meehan is about five-foot-one or two or whatever he is. And Noel Kennelly is six-foot-one or two or three … I don\u2019t know exactly what he is, but he\u2019s bigger than Meehan anyway. I\u2019ll pipe high ones down there on top of them and we\u2019ll be away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six minutes into the game, Galway are working the ball out down the left wing. P\u00e1draic Joyce hits a bullet of a pass into Clancy, who had already looked over his left shoulder before collecting it. And this high, looping pass over his right shoulder to pick out Meehan on the run. The height difference didn\u2019t matter a damn when the pass was that perfect. <\/p>\n

Ar dheis D\u00e9 go raibh a anam.<\/p>\n

\"Galway’sGalway\u2019s Shane Walsh celebrates scoring a two-pointer against Roscommon in the Connacht SFC final. Photograph: James Crombie\/INPHO <\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be remembered in Croke Park on Sunday when Galway take on the Dubs. I fancy them to win, even though Dublin<\/a> are on a high after the Donegal game. Galway have been building quietly all year. They had a good league where six of their seven games were good, close battles. The other one was against Monaghan, which they won handy enough.<\/p>\n

Galway have a few factors in their favour this year. First and foremost, they have everybody fit and on the grass. For their past three matches in a row, they\u2019ve had Se\u00e1n Kelly, Damien Comer and Shane Walsh all on the pitch together for at least the last 20 minutes and sometimes longer. I would guess you\u2019d have to go back a few seasons for the last time that happened.<\/p>\n

Another thing in their favour is they\u2019ve had to do little travelling in this championship. Their last two games have been in Salthill. Before that, they only had to go to Roscommon and Carrick-On-Shannon. Four games and they haven\u2019t left Connacht. Compare it to last year when they were in New York, Derry, Cavan and Newry before they got to Croke Park. It was tiredness, as much as anything else, that killed them against Meath.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a small thing. I totally agreed with Jim McGuinness<\/a> when he spoke after the Dublin game about fellas not having time to train and turn around between games. Donegal<\/a> and Armagh<\/a> both looked wrecked last weekend. They both had to go out and play with their season on the line just a week after getting beaten in their last game. That\u2019s a big barrier to overcome.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m blue in the face saying that the schedule is putting too much of a strain on the people who matter most. You wouldn\u2019t send a racehorse or a greyhound out again the following week after it got beaten in a hard race, yet we seem to think it\u2019s fine and fair to send lads who\u2019ve been at work all week out to play again with a tight turnaround.<\/p>\n

These players are filling stadiums week after week. Everyone says it\u2019s the best championship in years. The GAA is making money on all these games, yet they\u2019re still rushing to get through them so they can put concerts on in Croke Park in August. It\u2019s not right. And it will never be right.<\/p>\n

Rant over, back to Galway. <\/p>\n

I think they\u2019re coming to the boil nicely. As well as having their main men back, they\u2019re mixing up the subs they\u2019re bringing in as well. Joyce is smart enough \u2013 not only does that spread the load around the place, it also makes everybody feel like they\u2019re contributing.<\/p>\n

\"Dublin'sDublin’s Con O’Callaghan in action against Donegal on Sunday. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo\/INPHO <\/p>\n

This is how a year catches fire. The buy-in becomes universal. It doesn\u2019t just apply to the players on the pitch: the physios get really into it, the logistics people, the stats people. All come to training and match day each time with the attitude of \u201cWe have a real chance here \u2013 no way am I going to be the one who lets us down\u201d. Nobody is going through the motions.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Galway look like to me from the outside. Kerry are obviously favourites now<\/a> after taking out Armagh last weekend. But Galway must be looking around them and thinking they\u2019ll fancy themselves against any other team that\u2019s left. No Armagh or Donegal and now they have Dublin who might be missing Con O\u2019Callaghan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kerry took a big step forward last weekend. Galway can do the same this Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was very sad to hear about the death of Paul Clancy. He was as decent a fella…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[30883,6937,20803,32476,1485,2179,110979,4183,42,13018,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-516258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-galway-gaa","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-armagh-gaa","tag-con-o-callaghan","tag-donegal","tag-dublin-gaa","tag-football-championship","tag-gaa","tag-headlines","tag-jim-mcguinness","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}