Gaelic Games

The Schemozzle: Galway’s class of ‘98 continue to inspire and motivate

Iconic Tribesmen of 1998; Mayo unimpressed; Ulster on the rise; form holding up; and more

Michael Donnellan of Galway celebrates scoring a point in the memorable All-Ireland football final of 1998. Photograph: Patrick Bolger/Inpho
Paul Fitzpatrick
Mon Jul 29 2024 - 06:00

Who fears to speak of ‘98? Not Galway’s class of 2024 anyway.

The factfiles before a county or All-Ireland final are always fun to read and Galway’s squad didn’t let the side down in the Connacht Tribune this week. The big takeaway was that the Tribesmen’s iconic 1998 success continues to inspire, even if it ultimately didn’t pay off.

Of the 39 players profiled, seven opted for A Year Till Sunday (the story of that 1998 season) as their favourite movie while, under “sporting heroes”, ‘98 stars Ray Silke, Sean Óg De Paor, Pádraic Joyce and Michael Donnellan (repeatedly), all got mentions.

Unusually, each player’s date of birth was also listed, a gold mine for anoraks. Again, ‘98 led the way (jointly with 2003) with 12 of the players born in those years. Interestingly, only six of the panel were born before 1996, with Paul Conroy solo flying the flag for the ‘80s.

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Continuing in the common trend, given the January 1st cut-off for underage football, six players were born in January and none in December.

Mayo ultras pass on ‘good luck’ to Galway

Predictably, Twitter/X was aflame before the match as the official Mayo GAA account, not unreasonably in our view, wished Galway good luck.

Okay, so while there were typos (“While our fierce rivals Galway means many will be hoping Sam Maguire comes across the Shannon once again this year”) the sentiment was nice, but some Mayo ultras, possibly tongue-in-cheek, weren’t impressed.

“Delete this please. You still have time,” implored one Mayo fan. Other users accused the county of “a loser mentality”.

“You don’t see Celtic wishing Rangers well in Europe,” commented another while someone else promised to bring a proposal to the Mayo convention to avoid a repeat!

For context, at the last count, the number of Ulster counties who tweeted a good luck message to Armagh from their official accounts was … zero.

Ulster in the ascendancy

Ulster has dominated men’s football this year, winning virtually every big title (senior, minor, under-20, Hogan Cup, Sigerson and all three club titles) and in ladies’ football, the northern province has also excelled.

Armagh won the Division 1 League for the first time and Fermanagh and Tyrone have qualified for the Junior and Intermediate All-Ireland finals, although the senior will be contested by Kerry and Galway.

On Saturday last, a little bit of history was made when Cavan won the All-Ireland Minor A title for the first time when beating the Kingdom, becoming the 13th county on the roll of honour.

Notably, Cavan also retained the under-16 A All-Ireland this season and were beaten in extra time in the under-14 A All-Ireland final by Galway.

National League Division 2 form line
Armagh's Oisín Conaty and Stefan Campbell celebrate victory over rivals Galway in the All-Ireland final. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho

Was this year’s National League Division 2 section the strongest ever? It must surely be up there.

Armagh, who finished second, are the All-Ireland champions. Division 2 champions Donegal won the Ulster title and went to the last four of the All-Ireland.

Louth, who finished sixth, made the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals while, Cavan, who were third, tailed off in the championship but had knocked Division 1 Monaghan out of the Ulster Championship.

Quote, unquote

“Hoping to use the MBA as a pivot piece to merge my professional experience to date, as well as all I learned in football, which is not to be underestimated in terms of soft skills and leadership, and come with a very comprehensive background of education in terms of hard skills, soft skills, and then bringing that to the consulting strategy world to try break in that way.” — Former Galway footballer Ian Burke in a pre-final interview with the Irish Examiner.

By the Numbers: 4

All-Ireland finals Sean Hurson has refereed following the minor (2018), under-20 (2021), Senior club (2022) and SFC (2022) deciders. A full set.