Paul Conroy: Galway ready for big boys

Paul Conroy believes Galway “weren’t ready” to make the step up to Division 1 until now but says they will be competitive in the top flight if they secure promotion on Sunday.

The Tribesmen face a straight promotion shoot-out against Cavan in Kingspan Breffni Park, with both teams desperate to seize the opportunity with developing young sides.

After being relegated in 2011, Galway narrowly missed the chance to bounce straight back up in 2012 when an injury-time goal from Johnny Doyle denied them promotion, and stagnated for a few seasons after that disappointment.

“We were here in the same position a few years ago and it was a pity we didn’t take that chance, but time moves on,” said Conroy.

“Looking back on it, maybe we weren’t ready to move up because we haven’t set the world alight by any means in the championship. I’d like to think we are ready to move up now.”

Conroy has watched Roscommon’s heroics in Division 1 this season with interest. Having secured back-to-back promotions, they’ve mixed it with the best and beat Kerry, Cork and Donegal all away from home.

It’s given him belief Galway too will be able to hold their own, if and when they get there.

“At the start of the year, people would have been saying Roscommon would be one of the favourites to go down but in fairness to them they have proved everybody wrong.

“Roscommon have been very impressive, but there are a lot of teams that went up to Division 1 in recent years and lost six out of seven games.

“That isn’t good for confidence going towards championship in my opinion.

“The games would stand to you, but at the same time you don’t want to get into the habit of losing seven or eight games on the trot.”

Having conceded eight-point leads against Cavan and Laois in last year’s league, Galway have shown new backbone this spring, twice clawing their way back from eight points down to salvage draws against Meath at home and Armagh away.

Displaying that sort of character shows they’re now ready for Division 1 football, suggests Conroy, admitting they might have struggled in that environment earlier in their development.

“We didn’t expect to come back straight back up but we have been here (Division 2) for the past four or five years and this is a chance on Sunday that doesn’t come around very often.

“We want to grab it with two hands.”

Conroy joined the Galway senior squad in 2008 after captaining the minors to the All-Ireland in 2007.

He won a Connacht championship in his first year but they haven’t won one since, a slump in championship form coinciding with frustrating years in the second tier. With an average age in the squad of around 23, Conroy is one of only a handful of Galway players who has played Division 1 football.

And after a few years when frustration at a lack of success accounted for several managers’ heads, he’s convinced having a settled manager in Kevin Walsh is a massive step forward.

He added: “I think it’s important you don’t change your manager every year, that you allow structures be put in place It’s very hard to do that if you are chopping and changing your manager every year.”