Shane Walsh says Galway need to me more clinical up front
Wednesday 16 January 2019 16:33, UK
Shane Walsh has stressed the need for Galway to be able to take their chances in the big games.
After last summer's nine-point defeat to Dublin, it would have been easy for Galway fans to forget that an All-Ireland semi-final was new ground for Kevin Walsh's young side. After a positive Allianz National League campaign where they went through their seven Division 1 matches unbeaten, the Tribesmen reached the All-Ireland semi-final for the first time since 2001, with a Connacht title also thrown in.
However, such was their progress and the manner in which they played throughout the season, the 1-24 to 2-12 defeat seemed deflating. Nonetheless, Walsh feels that they had their chances, but ultimately the Westerners were left to rue missed opportunities.
"The big thing from last year's semi-final was being clinical in front of goal," he lamented. "Dublin, I think only had about 10 chances in the first half, they got 1-9. How many chances did we have? We maybe took one in three or one in four of a scoring ratio, which at the end of the day, when you're playing the All-Ireland champions, who are the team to beat the last couple of years, that's not going to be good enough.
"That's a big thing for us to learn from. The experience from it alone will bring us on a bit more. We often find on the big days, you do things you never did before that you shouldn't be doing. Looking back over that and looking back over the year gone by, there's lots to bring forward to this year. I think that's maybe one area when we get to the crucial stages of games to kill teams off is probably the big one."
"We often find on the big days, you do things you never did before that you shouldn't be doing."
While 2018 ended in disappointment with back-to-back defeats to Monaghan and Dublin, Walsh is eager to stress that it was a positive year for the men in maroon: "It was definitely progress. The year before we came from Division 2, great to get promoted because we were long enough down there.
"For us it was all about maintaining Division 1 status last year, and then trying to wrestle back the Connacht title and for us, we did both of those. We exceeded expectations in the league. For us to get back the Connacht title, seeing how competitive Connacht is, that was huge for us and it's progression for the team.
"You've a couple of lads there who were in their first year, came in and won a Connacht title. That's huge going forward. If you can get success in your first couple of years, all it does is make you hungrier for more."
As they face into a fresh National League campaign, the sharp-shooting forward knows that in the cut and thrust of Division 1, Galway aren't in the position to experiment.
"We wouldn't find ourselves lucky enough to be doing that," he commented. "The likes of Dublin can probably afford to with the strength of the panel they have, but for us we know we're only as good as our last game. The league last year went very well for us. A couple results that went our way, we won by a point or two.
"They could have gone the opposite way as well. So we just have to be on our guard again. All things going well, win a couple of games, you have a chance to blood players through. But if you don't, then you're really fighting it. So for us, it's taking the first game, trying to build as we go along through it."
