Galway battle to build up belief

For 100 years Galway’s senior footballers have only had four barren spells when they went more than five years without a Connacht title.

Lose next Sunday and you can make that five.

Those blank periods, 1927-32, 1946-53, 1977-81 and 1988-94, were followed by eras of dominance that defined them as the third most successful football county in Ireland. The 1934 side claimed the first of two All-Irelands that decade, while the 1950s team, backboned by Tuam Stars players, controlled the province before the famed three in-a-row in the ’60s. In 1981 they won one of their four league titles and 1995’s heavy defeat of Mayo in a Connacht final was followed three years later by an All-Ireland under John O’Mahony.