Galway GAA - Gaelic Football

Gaelic Football

Several families have seen successive member compete. . Jimmy Duggan was on Galway football teams that lost three-in-a-row in the 1940s, his son Jimmy was on teams that lost three finals in four years between 1971 and 1974. Michael Donnellan was on the 1925 team that won an All Ireland by default, and the 1934 team which won it without question. His sons, John Donnellan and Pat Donnellan were on the three-in-a-row teams of the 1960s and grandson Michael sent the pass to Padraig Joyce for a breakthrough goal to win the first of two All Irelands in a four-year period in 1998.

1966 was perhaps Galway's most successful year ever in Gaelic football. The winning of the Connacht crown began in Castlebar versus Roscommon on the score 1–11 to 0–5. The final versus Mayo in Castlebar was an absolute thriller and Galway were lucky to edge ahead in the end by 0–12 to 1–8. This was one of the best Connacht finals since the great battles between the same counties in the 30's. The semi-final win over Cork was a close affair as Johnny Geraghty made two wondrous saves from Niall Fitzgerald in the second half. Galway eked out a win 1–11 to 1–9 with Jimmy Duggan again outstanding and Coleen McDonagh fitting in well and Cyril Dunne (1–7) best in attack. Meath defeated Down in the other semi-final and were firm favourites to beat Galway in the final. Galway travelled as a united front to the final and pulverized Meath to win comfortably by 1–10 to 0–7. That victory sealed a memorable "3 In A Row" of All-Ireland titles.

Despite some perceptions of the seventies as Roscommon's decade in Connacht football, the statistics show that they were matched by Galway. Both appeared in seven of the ten Connacht Senior Football finals, Galway having five victories and Roscommon four. Galway lost in three All Ireland Finals and two Semi-Finals.

Football in Galway was set back by the defeat of the 1983 team by the depleted Dublin team, down to 12 men after three were sent off. Galway struggled. That team had led the eventual All Ireland champions Offaly for most of the 1982 All Ireland semi-final, succumbing to a point from goalscorer Brendan Lowry. Depleted by four injuries and a fifth to free-taker Gay MacManus, Galway were well beaten in 1984, but near-misses in semi-finals against Tyrone in 1986 and Cork in 1987 (when Larry Tompkins forced a replay) left the county out of the reckoning until another three-point defeat at the hands of Tyrone in 1995. However, that return to the semi final stage after an eight year break was to be the catalyst for further breakthroughs. Led by Mayo-born manager John O'Mahoney, and with outstanding performances from Ja Fallon and Michael Donnellan and a superbly taken goal from Padraig Joyce, Galway succeeded in 1998 and came back for an astonishing demolition of Meath in 2001 after losing the 2000 final in a replay to Kerry. In 2005, Galway won the Connacht Finals by beating Mayo 0–10 to 0–8. They then lost to qualifiers, Cork 2–14 to 2–11 in the All-Ireland Quarter Finals. In 2008, they again won the Connacht finals over Mayo 2–12 to 1–14. Then Galway fell to the eventual All-Ireland Runners-Up, Kerry, by a score of 1–21 to 1–16. In 2009, Galway opened the Championship in London where they won 1–18 to 1–7. In the semi-final, Galway took on Sligo. With a tied match in injury time, Joe Bergin added his only point of the match followed by a Sean Armstrong goal. Galway was off to their 5th straight Connacht Final where they would face Mayo. Mayo was coming off a blow-out of Roscommon (3–18 to 0–7). Mayo was walking through the Final leading 2–11 to 0–10 with little time left. Galway then began a comeback that started with a Micheal Meehan free. Meehan nearly scored a goal but Kenneth O'Malley of Mayo batted the ball over the bar. In the 72nd minute, Galway trailed by 3 points when Michael Meehan got a high kick pass and struck the net to tie the match. But, Peadar Gardiner of Mayo put over the winning point in the 73rd minute ending Galway's comeback(2–12 to 1–14). Galway was sent off to the final round of the qualifiers where they lost to Donegal 0–14 to 0–13 ending their 2009 campaign that started very promising. After the resignation of Liam Sammon former Armagh manager Joe Kernan stepped in as the new Galway GAA Manager. The Galway Senior Footballers' had a disappointing 2010. From a National League campaign that was close to relegation to losing to Wexford by a single point in the 2nd round of the qualifiers. Galway won 3 and lost 4 of their 7 National League games. They defeated Monaghan 1-20 to 1-14, Tyrone 1-15 to 0-14 and Dublin 1-14 to 0-14. They lost to Mayo 1-10 to 2-14, Cork 1-17 to 1-19, Kerry 1-9 to 2-16 and Derry 1-12 to 2-13. They had a disastrous start to the Connacht Championship, just scraping past New York 2-13 to 0-12. The Connacht Semi final against Sligo showed very little improvement. At halftime, Galway trailed Sligo 1-8 to 0-2. However, Galway managed to grab an undeserved draw against Sligo, an Eoin Concannon goal and a Gareth Bradshaw point levelled the match at 1-10 each at fulltime. Sligo beat Galway in the replay, 1-14 to 0-16. As a result, Galway went into the qualifiers. They faced Wexford in the 2nd round in Pearse Stadium, a week after the Sligo defeat. They suffered their second consecutive one point defeat in the 2010 Championship, 1-11 to 0-13, against Wexford and in the process were dumped out of the Championship.Kernan resigned as Galway Senior Football manager on 4 August 2010, after only one year in charge. He felt his position as manager was being 'undermined'. In October 2010 former Westmeath boss Tomás Ó Flatharta was appointed as the new Galway Manager to replace Joe Kernan. In 2011 Galway became the first county to display the name of a charity on their county jersey rather than a corporate sponsor. In 2011 proved to be a disappointing League for The Galway Senior Footballers' as they were unfortunate to be relegated to Division 2 despite making improvements against Cork, Armagh & Dublin. The Connacht championship started very poorly despite Galway taken the lead in the first half but were beaten by rivals Mayo,1-12 to 1-6 which sent Galway to the qualifiers.Galway suffered their 2nd championship defeat to Meath 0-11 to 0-10.As a result Tomás Ó Flatharta was axed as manager only after spending one year in charge.In October 2011 Alan Mulholland former U21 manager was appointed as Senior manager as replacement after success in charge of the U21's. The 2012 season saw a vast improvement for The Galway Senior Footballers' from the FBD League right through to The League Quarter final which saw wins over Derry, Meath, Monaghan & two defeats by Westmeath & Tyrone & two draws from Louth & Kildare after extra-time. They had an impressive start to the Connacht Championship trouncing Roscommon 3-15 to 0-10. For the 2011 and 2012 season the maroon jersey of Galway will carry the emblem of the charity Cancer Care West. Christy Cooney, President of the GAA officially launched the announcement and said, "Congratulations to the Galway GAA Football Board and Cancer Care West on the Partnership put in place, which shows in a very strong way, the whole community ethos that exists between the GAA to support worthy and worthwhile projects such as this." Galway were knocked out of the 2012 championship by Antrim which has raised many questions around the structures within football in the county and how far the county has fallen back in the last 10 years.