Galway Ladies Football is on the rise again

THESE are exciting times for Galway Ladies Football. Two weeks ago, the county senior team followed up their Connacht Championship success with a 5-19 to 2-16 win over Clare in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. Now they're preparing for their semi-final clash with Kerry at Birr next Saturday (4.00 o'clock), and this week Galway also has the morale-boost of the All-Ireland U-16 Championship title won last Saturday. It's not that long ago Galway were in turmoil, with an unhappy camp left reeling from the 4-17 to 2-7 defeat by Cora Staunton (2-11) and Mayo in the Division 2 National League final at Parnell Park, Dublin. Fast-forward to the Connacht Championship final against Mayo at Castlebar: Galway, under new management, shock winners of the CBE Cup, 4-10 to 1-17, from 1-15 to 1-5 down at the three-quarter stage. The luck of the draw has twice favoured Galway since, with Clare not quite in our class last time out and of the three counties Galway could have drawn in the semi-finals, Kerry are not as strong as Cork and Monaghan, last year's All-Ireland finalists. Cork are hot favourites to go all the way again. Last September they won their sixth title in seven years, denied only by Dublin in 2010. From what I saw at Birr last Saturday week (Galway vs Clare, Kerry vs Dublin), I think Galway are capable of beating Kerry but even allowing for their high score against Clare (5-19) and the many things they did impressively, I don't think it was a performance that would get the same result against the likes of Cork and Monaghan. What Galway have to do now is improve in attack, with sharper, slicker team play and less turning and twisting on the ball; they must also win more kick-out possession at midfield and, in general, work harder in the middle third of the pitch. The full-back line, to their immense credit, worked really hard against the brilliant Clare full-forward Niamh O'Dea and her corner-forwards, and in the tough, unglamorous and mostly thankless task of shadowing, marking and tackling the Galway Nos. 2, 3 and 4, Mairéad Coyne, Sarah Conneally and Rebecca McPhilbin, stood up to be counted and were outstanding. That's massively encouraging for the next day, when they'll almost certainly face a different kind of problem. Unlike the quick-thinking, fast-moving Niamh O'Dea of Clare, Kerry used a basketball player as a full-forward 'target' in their 0-11 to 0-10 win over Dublin. Lorraine Scanlon from Knocknagoshel is a 20-year-old six-footer who usually plays at midfield and indeed she wore No. 8 in Birr but played an old-fashioned Bomber Liston role from the start and it unsettled the Dubs defence. But it didn't always work; not every dropping ball she jumped for was turned into a score, and I would back Sarah Conneally of the Dunmore MacHales club to have the football skills and the mental strength to win this key duel on Saturday, with her team-mates in defence alert to the breaking ball and to the need for constant support play. Galway are an hour away from playing in the All-Ireland final, an exciting prospect, but neighbours Mayo are out of the Championship; they lost to Monaghan last weekend, 4-15 to 2-14, at Hyde Park, Roscommon.