IN THE last three seasons Armagh and Galway have played each other four times, three times in championship and once in the league. Two draws, one decided by penalties, a one point win for Armagh last season and a two-point win in that league match for Galway illustrates how little is between the sides.
While the managers have history and a healthy respect for each other there is an edge to the rivalry between the players. There was that big blow up in the quarter-final two years ago but even in their most recent game in Sligo in June there was a bit of a flare-up straight after half-time, emphasising the intensity of the rivalry. Two groups clawing at each other to get to the summit.
Expect plenty of physicality Sunday as a result. I am expecting a tactical game. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t be a good match, I feel it will be. Below are five tactical considerations to watch out for.
Significantly Galway buck the conventional trend of bringing everyone behind the ball when out of possession and playing solely on the counter. For the most part they play with a minimum of two up and sometimes three. Other than on the Galway kickout, Damien Comer always stays high usually with Rob Finnerty riding shotgun. Shane Walsh goes deeper on occasion but also can play up. This shape lends itself to more of a kicking game and allows for quick attacks. Armagh will match up with this three and try and pull them out of shape by attacking off them as Barry McCambridge did to David Clifford in the semi-final. In the group game in Sligo in June, the boom mics pitch side picked up Conleith Gilligan shouting to Kieran Donaghy “Star, Star see when Barry (McCambridge) goes, Shane Walsh stays up?”. Walsh wasn’t suckered into following his marker. Armagh had to tweak. Again for the final, Pádraic Joyce will want his men to stay up and whoever wins this battle of wills can dictate the terms of engagement.
The teams attack set defences differently. Armagh like to overload an area of their attack and break into space from there. One of their set plays involves the player in possession out the field putting the ball over his head. When this happens they go into a spine formation straight up and down the middle of their attack. It leaves both wings totally open to break into. They can also do a similar setup on either wing and leave the other two thirds of the width of the pitch free. When they do this they often leave one player ultra-wide on the weak sideline, with Oisín Conaty usually tasked with this duty. Conaty may also be asked to negate Dylan McHugh when Galway are in possession. By stationing Conaty in positions like that as they attack it gives McHugh and Galway a problem. He likes to patrol the “D’ but if Conaty starts to get joy, as he can, McHugh may have to adjust.
Conversely, Galway like to keep space in the ‘D’ when faced with a set defence. They play with huge width and depth. In general, teams defend against this by cheating in from the weak side. Armagh prefer to drift their defence right and left in reaction to the balls movement. The Connacht champions are excellent at creating little pockets of space on the edge of the scoring zone to shoot from. Paul Conroy, Matthew Tierney and Cillian McDaid excel at taking these shots on. They are also excellent at attacking that space with strong running on good lines, good support play off the shoulder and by using their quick hands. McHugh is especially good at punching these holes and making the right pass at the right time. Liam Silke’s first point in the semi final was a great example of this. Both teams have stingy defences but how they attack the ‘D’ will be telling.
The kickout battle will be fascinating. Under Pádraic Joyce Galway have favoured long kickouts. They have a variety of big men (Conroy, Cein Darcy, Tierney, McDaid and Comer) to target with their restarts and thrive on the quick attacks that long kickouts generate, allowing them to get early ball to their inside forwards. They got some great scores via this method in the first half of their semi-final, until Donegal reacted by dropping off. Targeting Matthew Tierney was particularly effective.
They are happy to chip it out and keep possession when a team gives up the restart as they got four points from their short kickouts in the semi final. Interestingly against Armagh in that group game they lost lost two short and conceded 1-1 off it. It brought Armagh back into a game that Galway were controlling. Similarly in the semi-final, Armagh scored 1-2 off short Kerry restarts to once more wrest back control of a game that was getting away from them. Realising this one would think that Galway will once more go long more often than not which should make for a great midfield battle with Niall Grimley, Rian O’Neill and Ben Creally all well capable of disrupting in the air, as they did last day out with Armagh winning five out of 13 kicks that Connor Gleeson put long. When a team press Galway and when they elect to go short they tend to use the spine kickout which Armagh rumbled the last day so it will be interesting to see if they have innovated with something new for the final.
I have been impressed with Blaine Hughes all season. Against Kerry he really stepped up in extra-time when Kerry finally pressed up and he nailed his three long kickouts. He finished with 100% on his own restart. Armagh have an impressive variety of short kickouts which makes it difficult to press them. They vary between an orthodox spine, a spine where most players break in one direction and a kickout where they put four of their backs on the sideline, two at each side and open up massive space in the central channels for Hughes to chip into. They are also among the best teams at getting a shot off a short restart. They scored 0-9 against Kerry, 0-7 against Roscommon, 0-8 against Galway in the group game, 1-4 v Derry and 0-10 against Donegal in the Ulster final from their own restart underlining it’s importance to them. In Sligo in June, Hughes was also 100% on his kickout. Galway will have to find a way to steal some few of those precious restarts.
With both sides so equally matched it may take something different to break this match open and decide it. The curveball could be a move from the past, long direct balls to the full forward line. Both teams have the personnel to go direct. When Damien Comer is inside Galway are willing to put the odd long ball on top of him. Generally he causes havoc in these situations. Paul Conroy and Dylan McHugh are the main kickers that seek him out. As he has grown in confidence and importance, McHugh has been more willing to try these kicks, as he did in the semi-final against Donegal. In effect he has taken on John Daly’s role from a couple of seasons ago. While much didn’t come off it the last day it could be a potent weapon. Watching Comer the last day I think he is very close to one of those performances that make him unmarkable. In that form he spells serious danger for the Ulster men.
With Kieran Donaghy involved with Armagh we are all guilty of jumping to the conclusion that they will use a similar tactic. While they often rehearse it in their warmups they use it sparingly during games, more often than not trying a few early doors. Andrew Murnin is an obvious target but Niall Grimley and Rian O’Neill drift in there on occasion as well. There was mayhem around the Galway square in the 2022 quarter-final when in desperation late on (they were six down as the clock hit the red) Armagh started bombing the ball in. They got three goals that day from those direct deliveries. Seán Fitzgerald is well equipped to deal with a target man but if Armagh put two of those big target men in there together it could cause a mis-match for Galway and once more cause old problems to surface.
I expect Sunday’s decider to go down to the wire. Both squads have significant depth and those replacements can win the match for their counties. I expect Galway to react to some of the Armagh substitutions with counter-measures.
When Stefan Campbell enters the fray Kieran Molloy could be sprung to track him. Same story with Ross McQuillan and Johnny Heaney.
The match will be exciting and tense in the closing stages. Armagh always tend to leave a team in a game and in their last few matches against Donegal and Dublin Galway made silly mistakes in possession late on that gave opportunities to their opponents. Those tendencies mean it is unlikely one team will have the other buried coming down the stretch. In their most recent encounter in Markievicz Park the game became a flat out man-on-man contest in the game deciding minutes that made it thrilling to watch. Hopefully Sunday will be similar, but for a longer period.
Because of all of this, I am expecting a draw on full time and possibly after extra time. We may well need a replay and a 66th championship match of this summer to decide where Sam Maguire will winter in 2024.
