Jim McGuinness: In the blink of an eye, my dark horse Galway became a shade darker

On Friday evening, Galway Bay FM was telling us Pádraic Joyce would be making two changes for their clash against Armagh, with Dylan McHugh and Damien Comer both returning to the starting team.

It was positive news for the Galway faithful ahead of a significant weekend for their team’s All-Ireland ambitions. I too had a keen interest in the news feed because for several weeks Galway had been on my mind as the dark horse to win Sam Maguire.

When I sat down to consider Joyce’s Galway reign, there is almost two phases to the team – pre-Covid Galway and post-Covid Galway. Pre-Covid Galway really shook the game up for a short period, there was a return to a very traditional, dynamic, attacking style. Indeed, it looked for a moment Galway might even redefine where football was going.

Then Covid hit and the Tribesmen struggled initially when games returned. During that period, I think an element of pragmatism came through the door for the Galway management and they seemed to fall in line with the game’s dominant trends – defensive structures, possession style and established attack.

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They were not as dynamic or swashbuckling as version one under Joyce, but over time version two Galway certainly became very effective.

They could have beaten Kerry in the All-Ireland final last year and their trajectory had continued to trend upwards this season.

The same could not have been said about Armagh, necessarily. The sides played out an epic game in last year’s championship but Armagh had probably moved away a bit from the swashbuckling style that garnered them praise in 2022.

There has been a lot of commentary around that change of style and, on the back of the Ulster final defeat, perhaps some negativity knocking about as well. Weighing all of that up, the big question swirling around my head prior to throw-in last Sunday was would Galway have five or six points on Armagh?

I felt that would be a line in the sand in terms of the trajectory of both teams and it might see Galway move to a new level in terms of their Sam Maguire ambitions. The underlying question was – is this group ready to win an All-Ireland?

The architecture of the team is so strong. Historically, most teams that win an All-Ireland have had a very strong central plank. If you look at Galway at the minute, Sean Kelly at three, John Daly at six, Paul Conroy, Cillian McDaid, Shane Walsh, Damien Comer, it’s an incredibly strong spine.

Then you add in the size and physicality of the supporting cast – I’m thinking predominately of the half forwards who can win their own ball and take pressure off because when a team does squeeze Galway high they have those outlet options, players like Matthew Tierney, Johnny Heaney and Peter Cooke. The balance has looked good.

Galway were playing against a fairly stiff breeze in the first half on Sunday but you could still see that calm, composed, cerebral approach to their attacking play. It was 0-4 apiece in the 24th minute when Seán Kelly got dragged down for a penalty after a marauding run forward.

It felt like a definitive moment in the game for me. Had they gone three points ahead, playing against the breeze, they would have been on a very solid footing at the break.

But the penalty was saved, Armagh transitioned down the park and a few moments later they won a free to nudge ahead. It was a four-point swing. Game on.

The contest started to become a real scrap then and those couple of moments made me sit up in my seat and think, ‘we are going to know a lot more about Galway after today’.

From that moment on, Armagh asked Joyce’s side a lot of questions, they ran at them aggressively, were more expansive and their kicking game started to come to the fore, really testing the Galway full-back line.

Armagh went long with their kick-outs and if they won possession they would immediately go long again. They also continued to squeeze Conor Gleeson’s kick-outs and that was an area Armagh did exceptionally well in all afternoon, getting that press on early.

There was a real honesty about Armagh in that second period of the game, they hunted in packs and as a result the game became chaotic.

To be fair to Galway, they rolled with the punches and some of their big players stepped up. Kelly led by example, scoring 1-1 and winning a penalty.

The last quarter was a game of chance. And in a game of chance, the outcome will come down to chance moments.

Rory Grugan banished the yips from the Ulster final and slotted the ball over late on to edge Armagh in front. I was pleased for Grugan, those personal journeys are all part of the championship as well.

It had been a huge blow for Armagh to lose the Ulster final and Grugan was the player who had the chance to win it late on, so it was good to see him stand over that kick on Sunday and score.

But, as was the case in the 2022 edition between the sides, there was still time for more late drama when a reckless tackle presented Shane Wash and Galway with a chance to level matters. The significance of the moment was not lost on anybody. Galway stood at a crossroads, the route they would take towards Croke Park came down to that kick.

When the final whistle went, one of the first things I thought of was the void left by Comer. If he was on the pitch I believe Galway would have won because there would have been enough individual moments and events emanating from him to have tilted the balance.

Armagh’s style suits Comer, he is not afraid of the physicality or people hanging out of him, he can handle the mental aspect of it too. So, his loss was huge. There was obviously a medical malfunction and the details around that are still unclear but what is clear is this – the ramifications of his absence were huge last Sunday. As they would be if he was to miss any of the All-Ireland series from here on out. Dylan McHugh was also a significant loss.

Galway must avoid getting bogged down in a week of what ifs and maybes, because they have to immediately change focus for Mayo. Instead of resting up next weekend, Galway are now facing the long road to All-Ireland final day.

And despite so much football in recent weeks, it came down to that last chance against Armagh. In the blink of an eye, the kick of a ball, my dark horse became a shade darker.

It’s not that Galway can’t win the All-Ireland from here, if they get Comer back and harness many of the positive aspects I referenced earlier, they remain strong contenders. But last weekend’s defeat means they now have a considerable number of daunting hurdles to overcome if they are to be in the winner’s enclosure next month.