Croker curse continues to torment Tribesmen

YOU could read in Micheal Donnellan’s eyes how much Galway wanted to win this match. As he stormed into the dressing-room, disappointment was etched into every contour of the inspirational centre-forward’s face.

Donnellan’s goal sparked the western revival in the final 10 minutes, and his free brought Galway to within one point of parity at the death. The Connacht champions thought they still had a few seconds left to drag a third game in successive weeks into extra-time, but Pat McEnaney blew his whistle soon afterwards.

“We think there could have been more injury time played,” said John O’Mahony. “There was an injury in injury-time, and two minutes were put up on the board. We thought there was a minute or two left. But we have to accept you can’t concede 3-11 in a game and hope to win a league title.”

This Galway side seem to be afflicted by two curses: their inability to beat Kerry in Croke Park and losing league finals by a point. This is the fourth time Galway have failed to defeat the Kingdom at headquarters over the past four years, all-with the exception of the 2002 All-Ireland quarter-final-being really close affairs.

“I thought if we could have got it to parity, we would go on and win it,” O’Mahony felt. “Fair play to the team, they have been in a lot of tough games in recent weeks and have showed their spirit.” Somebody wondered if the epic with Tyrone had its effects in the limbs of his team.

“Possibly, but we are not going to hold that up as an excuse. The league has been good to us. We have found out a lot of things about ourselves in the last few weeks, that will hopefully stand to us in the championship. We are going to take some time off now and when the sun shines, go out and kick some ball.

“It is strange now, we are going from a national final back into the local scene. We have to focus on the Connacht championship and that is always a tough one to come out of. But, we have seen what this team can do in some of the recent league games.”

Galway legs were a little more weary than in the previous two weeks, their passing not as crisp, but the final ten minutes illustrated that they still will be a summer force to be reckoned with.

And these teams are likely to meet again at some stage if, as expected, they will be contending for All-Ireland glory. No neutral will be complaining. Yesterday’s tussle was a superb game of ball, although O’Mahony good-naturedly disagreed.

“It was a terrible game of football, it always is when you lose,” he smiled. “No. Kerry are a good team, they showed that out there. I think the goals they got, particularly the first two, were key. Maybe, we didn’t get a couple of calls that we think we should have got, but that is the way it goes.”

While the best official in the business was on duty in Croker, there remained grievances. John O’Mahony expects the refereeing hot-line, when it is set up, to be burning up in the first couple weeks of its existence. Of course, if Galway continue on their upward trajectory, the manager may have other things to occupy his mind.