Walsh quietly confident as Sligo eye shock
Sligo deserved victory and they proved that evaluation by bringing eventual All-Ireland champions Armagh to a replay a few weeks later before losing narrowly.
Fast forward to June 2009 and most of the men listed above have a few All Stars at home, three All-Ireland medals in their pockets – a fourth en-route, many believe, and are considered the best team of their era.
What of Sligo’s Eamonn O’Hara, Johnny Davey, Mark Brehony and Seán Davey who feature in the championship tomorrow, as they did then? What have they to show for their time in the county jersey?
They collected a coveted Connacht championship medal in 2007, but apart from that they have been fed on slim pickings although O’Hara did collect an All Star for his excellence in 2002.
Their collective ambition has not dimmed and things are looking up.
Under the guidance of former Galway star Kevin Walsh they won their first national medal in April by claiming the NFL Division Four title. Their objective is to continue in that winning vein when they face provincial champions, Galway, on home turf with a place against Mayo in the Connacht final on offer.
Despite home advantage and having beaten Galway two years ago in the final, most pundits and indeed the bookies give them no chance of success, with the Tribesmen available at 2/11 and Sligo at 9/2.
The Sligo manager smiles when asked about such dismissive odds and replies: “those odds are about right”.
He explained: “Sligo played in Division Four all spring, whereas Galway held their own in Division One.
THERE IS a massive difference in standard between those divisions. We all saw what Mayo did to Roscommon, who are a Division Three team last weekend, so we know we face an extremely tough test tomorrow”.
That said, Walsh is delighted how things have gone in his first term.
“We were delighted to move up a division, and now my hope is that the lads do themselves justice against Galway. There are some very fine players on the squad and they have lots of work put in over the past few months, so hopefully they will show what they can do. If we get beaten, so be it. Once the players and team as a whole can walk off the field and say they gave it everything they had, that is the main thing for me. You cannot ask for any more than that. I know that if we perform as we can, we won’t be too far away”.
He continued: “They proved that two years ago and the panel should have no fear as nine or 10 of them played in their win over Galway two years ago. That should give them confidence that they can produce another shock.”
But Walsh admits the timing of the game in late June has impacted on preparations.
“We have not played real competitive football for 11 weeks and that makes it difficult to judge how a team is going. Galway have the advantage of their run out against London and they will have learnt something from that game.
“We know we will have to increase the intensity enormously from the standard that we played at in the spring, but that is the challenge. And one we are looking forward to”.
His opposite number, Galway manager Liam Sammon, has been around too long to fall into any kind of complacency trap and recalls his own playing days to reinforce his thinking.
“It is never easy down in Sligo. We have been turned over there before and they beat us down there back in 1975 and went on to win the Connacht championship, so I am well aware of the risk they pose this weekend.
“You see it every weekend in championship that any team that goes out and plays with hunger, fight, ability and passion are exceptionally difficult to beat. Unless we approach this game in the right frame of mind and with our attitude 100% right, we will be in trouble. I know that, and the players know it too.”
All has not been rosy in the Galway garden coming up to this tie with Nicky Joyce’s departure from the panel garnering most headlines, although there is speculation he will be on the bench tomorrow. And there have been injuries to key players.
“We are missing a few players like Damien Dunleavy and Fiachra Breathnach through injury and they are big losses. We know that tomorrow will be very difficult. We will have to be on red alert tomorrow or we will be out of the Connacht championship.”
BOTH TEAMS have different managers and some new personnel since they last met in 2007 when Sligo won (1-10 to 0-12). Michael Meehan was substituted in that game, but since then he has become Galway’s most important player, and their best scoring forward. Sligo may assign Ross Donovan to pick him up and crowd things at the back to stop his influence, while Neil Ewing has a key job of work to do in nullifying Padraig Joyce at centre-forward.
Assuming that the 2007 defeat will fire up Galway to get some revenge and come home with a ticket for the Connacht final they should prevail.
