John O’Mahony: Pádraic Joyce needs to find blend between defence and attack

TEAM TALK: Galway manager Padraic Joyce addressing his players after their AFL Division 1 South Round 1 defeat against Kerry at Austin Stack Park. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Galway football manager Pádraic Joyce must piece together a robust defensive strategy that does not stunt the “natural attacking ability” of his team, former Galway boss John O’Mahony has said.

The county’s 22-point hammering at the hands of Kerry on Saturday was the county’s heaviest beating since the 4-16 to 0-11 Connacht quarter-final annihilation by Mayo eight years ago.

The 4-21 to 0-11 result at Austin Stack Park also extended to 14 and a half months Galway’s wait for a competitive victory inside the whitewash.

From a position of four Division 1 League wins from five outings pre-pandemic, Galway have now lost each of their four games since the resumption of inter-county activity last October.

Moreover, the average margin of defeat across these four games — swelled by the aforementioned Tralee trouncing and the 15-point League drubbing by Mayo last October — stands at 11.

Joyce’s old team-mate Kevin Walsh, who preceded him in the Galway bainisteoir’s bib, was consistently criticised for the defensive approach he favoured during his time in charge.

But during his five years at the helm, Walsh only lost one League fixture by a double-digit margin, that the 2019 Round 2 defeat to Dublin on a 1-15 to 0-7 scoreline.

Asked if Saturday’s result went some way towards vindicating the system espoused by Walsh, Galway’s two-time All-Ireland winning manager John O’Mahony replied: “After a performance like that, you certainly can argue that. Kevin Walsh would look at last Saturday’s game and be entitled to say, we didn’t ship any defeats like that. But that is only just point taking, if you like.”

O’Mahony believes Galway are best suited to an attack-minded style of play and said the job for Joyce and his management team is to successfully marry this approach with a defensive system that is sufficiently sturdy to prevent any repeats of what played out in Tralee. “I think the natural type of football that Galway have been really good at over the years is where they play an attacking type of football, but you cannot do that at the expense of not having a defensive strategy.

“Kevin Walsh was being accused of the opposite, which was too much of a defensive strategy which actually stunted, if you like, the natural attacking ability. The answer is somewhere in between and that is the challenge for Pádraic Joyce and his management that they need to get to.

“Obviously Pádraic got the team to play some wonderful football at the start of the league last year and, as I said, what you want to do is play an attacking type of football, but you cannot do that at the expense of minding the defence and play as a group rather than as individuals.

Last Saturday, not only were Kerry winning the individual battles but there didn’t seem to be that group defence that you can get without necessarily playing a blanket defence.

Galway welcome Roscommon to Pearse Stadium this Sunday, the 1998 and 2001 All-Ireland winning manager predicting a sizeable reaction from the hosts.

“There is need for a big response. The biggest difficulty when something like last Saturday happens is not what happened but it is how you react to it.

“Galway certainly need to react on Sunday because they’ll likely have to go down to Hyde Park for the Connacht Championship. There is a lot more at stake than just two league points the next day. I can’t be too critical as last Saturday was their first game back, but they’ll know themselves they didn’t lay a glove on Kerry.

“It wasn’t just that Clifford played hell up front. Their defence was porous. They went man to man and I expect they might have another look at that.

“I would imagine Galway will have a little bit more physicality and be stronger in the tackle the next day. I believe they are way better than they looked on Saturday.

They need to believe that themselves. From their perspective, it would be great if they could get a result and then move on and put Tralee to bed.