Connacht Football/ Leinster Hurl Championship 2012

after yesterdays games the draw looked after itself and the rebels now await galway in semi. Based on yesterdays performance galway should win but this cork team can go for 70+ mins which makes them a threat to any team. Galway will need to be clinical when on top because cork will keep going to the end as waterford found out yesterday!

What odds now on a galway v cats final? it must be every galway mans worst nightmare!

Well Galway are back at Croke Park on the big hurling day for the first time since 2005. Very patchy performance from Galway today, with bad wides, loose play, poor shape in forward line and not reacting to multiple short Cork puckouts amongst other things but credit where its due this Galway team are prepared to put in the hard work and dog out a hard earned victory. The backline deserves immense credit for carrying Galway through today, great to see Galway display hunger and putting bodies on the line to deny Cork a sniff of getting back in towards the end.

Galway have a lot to work on ahead of the final, todays performance would be nowhere near acceptable on the big day but pulling through any which way today was all that mattered and the manner of the performance should keep the hype in check.

The hunt will now be on for tickets (good Galway crowd today but marked absent for most of the year) with the ususal bandwagon jumpers getting first in the queue for tickets. I'm regretting not buying a GAA season ticket now but any which way I'll have to find a way of getting to the final in case we were to end the long wait for Liam.

It'll be great to have a real interest in Tipp v KK next weekend which should be a great game.

So the semis are out of the way and there are two left standing. Both Galway and Kilkenny qualify on the back of strong 2nd half performances. kilkennys 2nd half performance matched galways 1st half performance in Leinster final so it makes for a very interesting final.

So impressive were kilkenny yesterday they will now be unbackable favourites to win final. This should suit Galway if they can clear their head or doubts/frustration of having to do it all again( beat cats twice). It definately should keep the galway hurling public off their back which is a blessing as they were getting very giddy and that is the biggest pressure a player faces in build up, the expectation and egos of his neighbours, family and workmates etc.
kilkenny players are used to this but most other teams arent which is a significant advantage to Kilkenny. i remember build up to 2007 final when my own county played and how any player could live and function in the craziness of those few weeks is beyond me. they cant have wanted to leave their homes let alone work etc such was the hype and expectation.

I think that galway have the players to do it again if they can keep focused. For 45 min v Cork they werent focused and were lucky to be able to get away with that. if they start poorly( either half) they will be beaten and probably badly.
The potential weak spots for Galway are 3 and 6. They have survived rather than excelled in these positions to date, particularly at 6 where regan looks weak physically and indecisive mentally. Tj reid will almost certainly start at 11 for cats aft yesterdays performance and his running game will cause regan huge problems.
Having said that people expected Bonnar maher to cuse similar damage yesterday and his threat never materialised. Every game is different and i expect final to be a very close affair. Kilkenny arent used to tight games so if Galway are neck in neck with 5 to go id fancy them to win it.

Congrats to Mayo, made hard work of it but now we have Galway in the hurling final and Mayo in the football final. Both are outsiders but who knows on final day.

well done to mayo for beating the dirty dubs.
as im a friendly, come on donegal in the final

only a mather of hours to the all ireland final hurling, you wouldnt notice that if you walked around town apart from 1 banner at city hall.
there is a flag here and there outside pubs but you would expect that all year round. still more usa flags around the the galway one. i bet it will be a different story sunday when the pubs will be trying to pull every penny off us.

as for the match itself i think it will be a classic and a galway win

Really looking forward to Sundays game. I've been re-watching the Leinster Final on youtube over lunch for the past few days

Come on Galway (and Donegal)

Another day out for Galway and Kilkenny. Don't know whether to be pleased or dissapointed. Hurled well in the first half, should have had another few points to show for it. Were well out of it in the 2nd half, only some good defending and Iarlath Tannian kept us in it. Soft enough free at the end but KK got a point awarded that was wide so guess it evens itself out. Either way Canning did well to get the point after a few poor misses and earn us a replay our 2nd half performance probably didn't deserve.

Galway have a lot to work on, played into KK's hands in the 2nd half and will need to use ball a lot more intelligently the next day. 2 or 3 big players for Galway capable of a lot more didn't fire but apart from Shefflin the KK forwards didn't fire either.

Both teams will improve and hopefully Galway can get over the line the next day. They know they have the beating of this KK team if they play to their strengths.

With Mayo on the 23rd and Galway on the 30th, lots of trips to be made from the west to Croke Park. Glad the replay didn't clash with the Connacht game next Saturday, both personally and from a Connacht viewpoint. A clash with the hurling would have only one winner. It would have ensured an attendance of no more than a few hundred at the Sportsground.

i was at the game on sunday and the atmosphere was electric. both teams will at this stage be happy with the draw and if gavin gets replay as expected it will be a more free flowing game hopefully.

it was still avery good game and if Galway can get more out of david burke, damien hayes, cyril donnellan and find someone worthy of the other corner forward position(players listed all excellent players) they should win. I think they underperformed rather than were outhurled whereas the cats forwards did damage when they had ball, Tj, fogarty and larkin 2pts each if recall but galway defence outplayed them for most of the game.
My big worry for Galway is at centre back. Tony looks indecisive, a bit weak physically for the position and struggles to catch the ball in the air. The catching thing wouldnt be as big a problem if he realised it himself and batted ball out when under pressure but he persisted in trying to catch it in 2nd half and dropped most which cats hoovered up. He really struggled on Henry which cody will have noticed. if the forwards mentioned above perform to their ability that will help protect him tho and he should never hit a free again.He just belted the two he took down the field aimlessly and they were neither shots nor passes.
I think Galway should win the replay and i dont think at this stage of the season that they should change anything either strategy or player wise except for settling on a corner forward and positioning someone near the keeper to help him (decision and technique wise) on his puck outs. He made a great save but when the pressure came on him his puck outs suffered. he started to float them so they dropped rather than drive them in straight lines as he had been doing. This helped bring the Cats half backs and hogan particularly into the game. I appreciate that his targets were fewer at this time also but the strike or projectary of the ball suited a team of cats ability in air and took breaking ball(which galway had dominated) out of the equation. Id love to see the stats on galways puckouts in 2nd have and compare them to 1st half. Id say kilkenny won 80% of them in 2nd half and the majority cleanly.

Hard luck to Mayo, came back well after a nightmare start but really the better (more balanced team) won. The wait will extend until at least 62 years.

Let's hope for a better outcome for Galway next Sunday.

agreed borders. feel sorry for the fans who more than did their bit.
horan guilty of same mistake as 2004 management. didnt go man for man from start or else got their man for man match ups wrong. keane no match for murphy physically. always going to be difficult chasing game v that system.

apart from joes media boo boo the build up to this replay has been quite low key media wise. Whats the interest like on the ground? Is there a huge demand for tickets in galway again? i know i picked up 2 here in roscommon without effort.

Its low key enough as far as I see but there's a few days yet. The whole atmosphere is a bit surreal having a replayed final and so late in the year.

Still waiting to get word on a ticket, hopeful over the next couple of days, if not then I'd expect to get one up there on the day. County board have apparently been inundated with requests as more people want to go to this along with the vast majority of those there the last day and it seems a lot of other counties are holding the majority of their allocations with more neutrals wanting to see the replay.

Really while the county board did a good job the last day there needs to be a more equitable ticket system for the final when you hear of some fans who missed out last Sunday while others left as soon as the net billowed for Donegal's 2nd goal.

Both teams can perform better than they did the last day. Galway have every chance if they can once again avoid KK getting a Donegal like start. I'd expect a decisive victory one way or the other though. Hopefully to Galway.

James Skehill injured himself in training tonight and is out for sunday. Big blow both as a goalie but also his ability on the puckouts.
Does anyone know anything about the reserve keepers, who they are and are they any good?

Big blow if he is out. Flannery 1st sub goalkeeper is the u21 goalkeeper a bit small for this level and as in terms of puckouts as you mention. I don't know if Jamie Ryan is still on the panel. He'd have been next choice earlier in the year. Not a county goalkeeper from what I've seen of him. Hopefully Skehill will be fit. KK have Walter Walsh (ROUTE 1) and Cillian Buckley brought in so obviously wan't happy with his forwards the last day.


RTE going with the story but saying he's still likely to play

Galway goalkeeper James Skehill suffered a dislocated shoulder in his county's final training session before Sunday’s All Ireland Hurling final replay with Kilkenny, but still looks set to play in the final.

The Tribesmen's goalkeeper, who made a stunning save in the first final from Colin Fennelly, sustained the injury while diving for the ball in training.

Skehill was been taken to hospital for where doctors put the shoulder back into place and he is now considered likely to feature in Sunday's showpiece final.

this should be a good game again, couldnt get a ticket this time. i guess cheaper tickets = more demand.
what ever way you look at it galway have the upper hand. played 2games and lost none.
if the same thing happens like the second half then they need to shoot from midfield rather than hitting them in and being swallowed up by kilkenny,. cody was also on the rocks 3weeks ago, stress.
ill go for a galway win, after all, weirder things has happened this weekend