Galway not getting carried away, insists O’Donnell

For Galway footballer Gary O’Donnell, Pádraic Joyce is his sixth manager at intercounty level.

The Team Stars man has played under Liam Sammon, Tomás Ó Flatharta, Joe Kernan, Alan Mulholland, Kevin Walsh, and now Joyce, so he’s seen his share of turnover on the sideline.

The 32-year old is upbeat about his side’s early-season form, however.

“It’s quite positive. There’s a pep in a lot of people’s steps, but we’re keeping our feet firmly on the ground. We’re always looking at areas we need to improve on regardless of the result and what we’re doing well,” he said.

“There are big numbers on the panel, there’s huge competition for places. Very few injuries, actually, at the moment, which is great, so getting on the 26 is a challenge, never mind make the starting line-up.

“We’re reminding ourselves too that we’re only four league games into the campaign and it’s still only February, so there’s a long way to go yet.”

Galway’s opening games — wins over Monaghan and Donegal and a loss to Kerry — were all decided by a point, but they cut loose against 13-man Tyrone last weekend to score a record 2-25 to 0-12 win.

“You definitely couldn’t have seen that leading into the game. Nobody would have predicted that,” said O’Donnell.

“We were saying in the lead-up to this game that our three previous games before that we could have easily come out with nothing as well as winning all three of them.

“But we realised we were creating a lot of chances in games. We probably felt we weren’t putting on the scores that merited that.

“Training and our video analysis leading into this game was all about being a bit more clinical, better concentration, focusing on the game for the 70+ minutes and so on. It’s encouraging and it’s rewarding too when things come right from you on the day.

“Previous games, like we mentioned, we could easily have come out with nothing and that was the talk leading into this game that the margins in Division 1, if you’re off any day, you’re going to be punished.”

Galway head to Navan on Sunday to take on a Meath side still looking for their first win, but O’Donnell is taking nothing for granted.

“Any time we played Meath, to be fair to them I know results haven’t been going well for them, it’s been tit-for-tat with a point or two between us any of the games. We played them in Division 2 for a number of years.

“They’re going to be fighting for their lives up there. We know that. We’ve a target on our back, I suppose, after the first three or four games now as well, so we need to respond to that now.”

“So far so good but, like I said, everyone is keeping their feet firmly on the ground,” he added.