A foot in both camps: Former Galway player and Dub selector wants native county to raise intensity
In the large room upstairs in Galway football’s training centre in Loughgeorge, there used to be a plaque of Leonardo Da Vinci’s hung up on the wall. It could still be there now but the joke was it was a dig at Dublin’s 12 Apostles of 1983.
Thirty-five years on, the game reverberates as much as the likes of Brian Talty prefer to keep in the past, Talty having been unable to line out in the second half following an incident in the tunnel at half-time. Earlier, Brian Mullins had been dismissed for swinging a hand at him.
It’s roughly 35 years since Talty made the move to Dublin and having been a selector under Paul Caffrey for four seasons, there might be a question over his loyalties going into Saturday but he politely stops you there. “I’m a Galway man. I’m fully behind the lads.”
But where does the humbling loss to Monaghan in Salthill last Saturday leave his fellow natives? “I was worried after it in the sense that there was such a lack of intensity and they have brought great intensity since the start of the league.
“At the start of the year, people were saying they were candidates for relegation and then they were giving out about their system and that but when you recall what happened against Tipperary two years ago and Kerry last year they had to put something in place.
They haven’t got it 100%, as the man says, but when they play with an intensity they are hard to break down, and I think they will bring that intensity on Saturday because they simply have to.
“Before last Sunday, everybody was talking about Galway as the team to trouble Dublin but one bad performance and it’s all changed. They had already qualified for an All-Ireland semi-final and there is a psychological factor there.
“No matter what Kevin Walsh said to him before the Monaghan game, they knew that in their heart of hearts and Monaghan had to win so they were more up for it. I’d say a few of the Galway lads were at the Galway Races during the week! But Galway will, I’m sure, come with a huge challenge for Dublin.”
Talty is a PE teacher but he follows logic to establish Galway have a fighting chance of upsetting the odds although they would have put more focus on the early part of the season than Dublin.
Remember this — Galway have beaten Mayo three years in a row and Mayo have ran Dublin very close. I wouldn’t think the guys are tired. Even if you are, when you come into Croke Park for an All-Ireland semi-final it should rise you up.
“There is no good time to play Dublin, not when you see what Eoghan O’Gara was doing to Roscommon last weekend.
“That this Dublin have three All-Irelands in a row behind them means nothing to them. Still, I wouldn’t rule Galway out.”
Both of their Division 1 games were spiky affairs and Talty isn’t expecting either team to stand off again this weekend.
“It’s going to be intense and I’m sure you’ll have a few heated moments. Galway have been in great matches against Kerry where there has been beautiful football played but they needed physicality and they have it now.
“Philly (McMahon) will probably go on (Damien) Comer, and Comer is a big, strong guy. He’s been a little quiet because he’s been double-teamed and there is so much talk about him. He’ll have Ian Burke alongside him and (Eoin) Murchan could be asked to pick him up.”
Paul Clarke, who returned as Dublin selector this year, worked alongside Talty with Caffrey in the mid to late 2000s and he’s well aware of what he brings to the table. “He’s such a passionate Dublin man and so passionate about people who play for Dublin. He does anything he can for them and he’s a real motivator. Whatever job he has in there, they’ll go through walls for him.”
