Tyrone v Galway: Tribe always keep a spring in their step for an Ulster tangle

Allianz Football League Division One: Tyrone v Galway (Sunday, 1.45pm, Healy Park, live on TG4)

IT was perhaps Eamon McGee, in his own inimitable way, who summed up the difference in Galway over the past couple of seasons.

The former Donegal defender, speaking on the Joe.ie podcast, likened Pádraic Joyce’s change in approach from the beginning of 2022 to his own outlook on parenting.

“I had a philosophy for parenting that my kids were never gonna get a phone, they were never gonna watch YouTube, they’d get TV for half an hour a day.

“See when they’re in the mix and they’re shouting and crying, it’s just ‘do whatever you have to do at the time’. Joyce is learning that sometimes you’ve gotta sell whatever principles and go back to that defensive structure.”

“It was tough on my mum and dad. I knew I was self-destructing. And I also knew the next phase of that, if I had carried on, it was not being here. I was in a very dark place...” - the life and times of Caolan Mooney

Dungannon sweep Carrickmore aside to claim Tyrone league title

It wasn’t just Joyce though. Galway’s change in style and trajectory married up with the introduction of Cian O’Neill as their coach at the start of that year.

When they went to Castlebar as underdogs for their championship opener that year, Galway planted two sweepers in front of the full-back line and tested Mayo’s ability to run through them. They were six up in injury-time before a trademark Mayo surge cut it back to one.

Pragmatism became the order of their day. They reached that year’s All-Ireland final and gave Kerry their fill for an hour.

All was still going well until Armagh landed in Carrick-on-Shannon and Sean Kelly landed badly on his ankle.

Spinning through the wash when their conquerors Mayo flatlined in the second half themselves a week later against Dublin was the idea that reaching the league final hadn’t helped either of them in the long run.

Their philosophy on that appears to have changed again.

Lee Keegan’s RTÉ column called their opening round eight-point defeat by his former team ‘anaemic’ in its heading, even if he didn’t use that exact word himself.

It was a fair assessment in one sense. Things didn’t improve all that much against Roscommon but, just as with Tyrone, it all has to be balanced against what they’re currently missing.

Sean Kelly is their spiritual leader. Damien Comer, Shane Walsh, Cillian McDaid and Liam Silke were Allstars in 2022 and Jack Glynn was Young Footballer of the Year. It is no ordinary list of absentees.

The noises emerging from Galway are that they’re not all that bothered about spring this time.

They went hard enough after it last year to know. Losing that final to Mayo hasn’t left any hang-ups but last year’s championship meeting, where Kelly played on one leg and the loss of Comer at half-time was colossal, did.

Yet of any team outside of Ulster geographically, Galway are the team that the province could adopt where nobody would be any the wiser.

Since Joyce took over at the end of 2018, they’ve played 17 games against Ulster opposition in league and championship. Galway have won a remarkable 13 of those, and lost just three.

The Armagh defeat was costly last year, a game they most definitely had serious designs on winning.

Instead of Mayo a week later, they’d have had a weekend off and then Monaghan, who have admittedly inflicted a couple of sore blows on Galway, in the Super 8s in 2018 and to relegate them in the league three years later.

They’d still have much preferred that path.

The return of Corofin duo Liam Silke, who was travelling last year, and Kieran Molloy from his cruciate injury will give them a bit of extra punch and zip. Shane Walsh was a much greater likeness of himself with Kilmacud this winter than the year previous.

Seán Mulkerrin looked a full-back in waiting three years ago before injuries took hold but there should be football in him this year too.

Whatever about their February form, you can only assume that Galway will get incrementally better as the year goes on. Even if they lose in Omagh on Sunday afternoon, there ought to be no sense of panic over their summer credentials.

Tyrone will hope to bring a chunk of their own talent back in. Conn Kilpatrick’s one-match ban is served.

They will want to see some of Peter Harte, Kieran McGeary, Conor Meyler and Frank Burns back soon, with Mattie Donnelly and Cathal McShane also on the comeback trail.

Some of their younger players, Aodhan Donaghy and Ben Cullen in particular, were impressive against Derry on a day when little went their way in the second half. Shoots of light, enough to know that there’s more in them.

Tyrone have become difficult to read. It was at home to Kerry last year that they got the spark from nowhere which carried them to Division One safety when everyone was ready to give up on them.

This is a rare chance for an Ulster side to get under Galway’s skin.

But even in their current guise, Pádraic Joyce’s men have gotten used to the northern feel. They like it, even, and it suits them