GAELIC GAMES/All-Ireland SFC Quarter-final replay/Focus on Galway: Not since Dublin exited the championship has a county been given to such a bout of introspection as Galway is undergoing this week. Are they in decline or are expectations too high? Keith Duggan assesses their state of health

Their torrid draw against Donegal at Croke Park last week has led to morose speculation that Galway is a dynasty on the brink.

Set against the blistering performances delivered by both Tyrone and Kerry last weekend, Galway was adjudged to be spluttering in comparison. Given that there persists a general cockamamie assumption that Donegal are only playing in the All-Ireland for the crack, a cold eye was cast upon Galway and they were unceremoniously labelled as a poor last in the race: the sick man of the big four.

The decline of their stock in the eyes of the pundits is indicative of a championship that has been given to a notorious level of knee-jerk responses: note how radical the revision was on Armagh after they upended Dublin last month.

The theories on the apparent decline of Galway are as widespread as they are predictable. Given the history of minor controversy between the O'Mahony management and le frere Donnellan, the retirement from the game of the Michael with minutes to go has led to rumours of an unhappy camp.

Burnout is a more popular charge. Micheál Meehan was the only Galway player in Croke Park who does not possess an All-Ireland senior medal. Champions in 1998, they got hit by a Mayo tsunami in the second half of the Connacht final a season later and recovered to contest the 2000 All-Ireland final before the 2001 campaign that began with an ignominious defeat to Roscommon and ended in a glorious All-Ireland title.

When people speak of Galway, it is the shimmering potency of that campaign that they still conjure up. When they exited the championship at last year's All-Ireland quarter-final stage to Kerry, judgment was withheld. Originally, it was decreed that the champions had been beaten in a truly grand game and that the teams had between them elevated the level of the game; that Galway's only failure was in not taking their goal chances.

Since then - possibly because Kerry failed to go on and land the All-Ireland - a more miserly opinion informs that game; that Galway lost because they had gone flat. On Monday they left the same impression.

For two successive years now they have won the Connacht championship. It doesn't take the boys from Boomtown to figure out the connection.

"What we actually had was a five-week lay-off preceded by a four-week lay-off," clarifies Jack Mahon, the former player and authority on the Galway game.

"That is a long period of inactivity. I think we really needed that game and I would hope that if Galway do come through in the replay that the series will stand to them."

Sunday evening is set up for Galway. Disorientating as the return to Connacht must be for the players, Castlebar is a venue that is familiar to the team and, as Mahon notes, "has been kind to us over the years". The game is bound to attract a lot of maroon support out of a mixture of puzzlement and loyalty.

Since 1998, Galway supporters could afford to be blasè about the fact that their team would be genuine contenders. Monday removed that comfort.

"The result of this game will be very significant for Galway football either way," says former captain Ray Silke.

"I think the reality at the moment lies somewhere between the fears that they have gone flat and the belief that they will just pick it up again. Possibly the form is poor and that is arguably because of the fact that this is a team that has won a lot. But the contradiction of that is Kevin Walsh. A guy of 33 years with four kids showing the way."

It is clear that several of Galway's marquee players are not operating at the astral heights they did in 2001 but, as he points out, the reasons for this can be more complex than just a sudden bout of ennui.

Naturally, the player whose relative paucity drew the most voluminous criticism was Donnellan. Silke's abiding memory of the Dunmore player is as a guy that would make you struggle just to match his ferocity in training. He was ultra-competitive.

"I think it is hard to keep that going. He has been struggling with injuries and that takes its toll. When you think of just what he was capable of at 19 or 20, the lightning way he covered ground and just what he was capable of doing on a field - when you have felt that, it must be hard to readjust. And it may be time for Michael to redefine his game; to maybe reconcile himself to the fact that there are certain things he cannot do at the moment and to play a slightly different role."

Others have also come under scrutiny, Padhraic Joyce and Derek Savage being two of the most obvious. The attempt to reinvigorate Joyce by engaging in a positional swap with Matthew Clancy did not work and made, as Silke notes, "something of a sacrificial lamb" of Clancy.

The worry for him is that there is not as much cohesion in the forward unit as there might be. As it was, it was newcomer Meehan that drew most of the garlands. So what then, if it is a case of burn-out. If you have a couple of All-Ireland medals and you are still in your 20s, how fervent can the desire for a third be?

"Well, I have seven county medals. How come I want an eighth?" reasons Silke. "There is always an edge, a goal you set yourself. But it is not as simple as the accumulation of medals. Like, Ja put it well there recently, it is the friendships you make and just the whole thing of being a team. The evidence for Galway is that the spark, the kick of energy has not been there for a while. How do you get it back? That is the question for them."

Jack Mahon admits he is always heavily pessimistic by nature in the run-up to a game but he believes that Galway will come good on Sunday. He believes that analysis of the quarter-final draw has been unreasonably negative and that the periods of bright play from both Donegal and Galway have been somehow cast aside.

"Expectations within Galway have been persistently high since 1998, probably too much so. The way it has been this year is that the team has done enough to win and win comfortably. Against Donegal that was not the case and yet we lifted our game when we needed to. The experience came through.

"I thought the introduction of Ja Fallon was crucial - twice he won possession under the Hogan stand at the close of the game and one of those came to Kevin Walsh's point."

That is another point of information - that it is the old heads - Gary Fahey, Walsh, Ja, that seem least stricken with the apparent fatigue, as if spurred by the realisation that their time is finite and also by the memory of how grim their early years were.

But as Silke emphasises, you can over-analyse games to death. True, Galway's front players were not on fire but the idea that they might have been stymied by - shock of shocks - good defensive play has been dismissed as a quack theory.

"There were a lot of periods in good play in that game that neither team has been given credit for," takes up Jack Mahon, " and I think we will see good football in the replay as well."

Faith has not been lost in the county; the feeling in Galway mirrors the analysts assumption that Galway will bounce back to take the replay in a manner that will go some way to assuring they have not lost their customary dash.

Whether this preference is due to genuine conviction in Galway or the prevailing dismissive attitude towards Donegal remains unclear. Tomorrow though will tell a tale.

"If Galway gets beaten, then all the talk will be of the break-up of the team, "says Silke.

"But if they win by four or five points, say, as I believe they will, then watch how they will suddenly be re-evaluated. Then, all bets are off again."