Galway advance with precious momentum as Mayo left to lick their wounds

Irish Times

05-05-2025

As a final affront, the
Galway
team bus snaked away from MacHale Park on Sunday evening to a loud celebratory soundtrack of beeping and hollering and yelping. The neighbours chastened once again.
The Tribesmen had just won a record 51st Connacht title, pulling three clear of
Mayo
. In doing so they had also claimed a first four in-a-row since 1963-66.
They managed it without two of their key players – Shane Walsh and Damien Comer – and even as the fans spilled down to the pitch at the end of the game it was clear the difference between victory and defeat fell somewhere between colossal and immense.
In the tunnel afterwards, Pádraic Joyce was asked about the momentum they have now for a crack at Sam Maguire. The big time awaits. Down the way Kevin McStay was left rummaging around the wreckage for some scraps of hope. Nobody is quite sure what the future holds now for this Mayo team.
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Their season isn't over, but it felt like a lot of green and red eggs had been placed in the Nestor Cup basket. In wrestling it back. So where to now? Few Mayo fans are eyeing a day out in the capital on the last weekend of July but even if his body language suggested otherwise, McStay insisted the dream remains alive.
'That's my job, that's what I was appointed for so I can't just perform on the good days and walk away from the tough days,' said McStay when asked if Mayo can regroup for the All-Ireland group stages.
'We have great leaders in the group so we will react because we have done, that's our nature, we will react to it. By Wednesday, the soreness, the edge will have gone off it maybe to a certain degree and we will go again.
'Our recent history with this group is that we have been able to navigate the group series generally, sometimes better, sometimes not as well. But there is certainly no sense that anybody is going to walk on top of us.'
They will have Cavan, Tyrone, and the eventual Ulster champions for company in their All-Ireland group.
'Unless I believe in what we are doing I can hardly sell that to the players but I don't have to because I know they will react,' continued McStay.
Galway's Matthew Tierney and Matthew Ruane of Mayo in action during the Connacht final at Hastings McHale Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
'But they are so sore now and disappointed and it is a tough dressingroom right now. We have only ourselves to blame about how this is, we got into a position to win it, we didn't win it and we need to reflect on that now and see can we improve.
'And we need to improve fairly quickly at seeing out these games. Galway have the cup now, we had one shot to draw it, that is how close this bloody thing is, but close is no good.'
And yet close they were. Still, Galway made the big plays at the pivotal times – Connor Gleeson's fingertips, Dylan McHugh's diving block, Rob Finnerty winning Colm Reape's short kick-out.
Gleeson, who kicked the winning free in last year's final, showed brilliant awareness when tipping over Ryan O'Donoghue's two-pointer, his touch took the sting out of the score and out of Mayo's rally.
McHugh's block on Paul Towey was exceptional, coaches will be showing it at tutorials for years.
'It's probably a bit of a blur,' said the Galway defender when asked about it afterwards. 'I just remember seeing Paul Towey lining up and I was close enough to apply some pressure, that was it.
'If you're not going to put your head on the line with two minutes to go in a Connacht final, you're never going to do it.'
Before the game, it appeared all the local stewards on duty had been handed the same note and told to remain on message throughout because when asked about what might be about to unfold, to a high-vis bib each replied: 'Mayo won't win the All-Ireland but we'll win today'.
In a sense, rightly or wrongly, Mayo folk believed this might be their only shot at championship silverware in 2025. For Galway, having reasserted their dominance locally, the challenge now is to stamp their authority on the national stage.
Galway manager Pádraic Joyce celebrates with his daughter Jodie and son Charlie in Castlebar. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
'For us to come out of Connacht as number one seeds, it's great to win it,' said Joyce. 'To try and regroup and play again in two weeks after a defeat, it's just a different mindset so we're delighted to come out of it.'
Galway will be in arguably the toughest group of all alongside Dublin, Derry, and the eventual Ulster runners-up. But they will arrive to that stage brimming with confidence.
'We've been in them [toughest groups] the last few years, it's nothing new to us,' added Joyce. 'We will enjoy tonight and probably enjoy tomorrow as well I'd say.'
Up the road in Mayo, the mood will be heavier. It feels a long way back for them now.
'In the prematch commentary I said we'd have no excuses and we don't,' added McStay.
'The cup is presented, there's nobody going to say, 'hang on a minute now we'll play another five minutes'. It's done and dusted, Galway are the champions and we're not, we have to suck that up now and get on with it.'
It might prove easier said than done.