There won't be much time for licking of wounds in Galway after Sunday's defeat by Donegal in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
The county's under-21s, also managed by senior coach John O'Mahony, are in action tomorrow evening in Tuam defending their Connacht title in the final against Mayo.
Galway had looked for a postponement but it wasn't allowed, which has caused some unhappiness in the county, given that they facilitated Roscommon's request for a fixture change in the run-up to the latter's qualifier match against Kildare last month.
O'Mahony said he found recovering from the Donegal match "painful", but was philosophical: "That's it. The game could have been won. We had goal chances and didn't take them. I thought we battled, didn't die and had even one of the goals gone in, it might have jolted us back into contention."
He declined to comment on the future for the team, most of whom he has led to two All-Irelands but a couple of whom are expected to retire. Captain Kevin Walsh has been playing very well but is 34 this year and has been troubled with injuries throughout his career. Jarlath Fallon has struggled with fitness since a cruciate ligament injury three years ago.
Last year after defeat at the same stage, the panel didn't reconvene until October to discuss the season ahead. There will be no immediate hurry this year either, according to O'Mahony.
"We're not even thinking about that at the moment," he said. "We have to concentrate on Wednesday now."
There have been some high-profile departures from the team that won last year's under-21 title. Joe Bergin, who captained the team, Kieran Fitzgerald and Kieran Comer are all out of the age group but senior players Michael Comer, Matthew Clancy and Micheál Meehan remain.
O'Mahony himself has two years left of the three-year term he agreed last autumn. But he has been six years with Galway in a management career that stretches back 20 years to when he took over the Mayo under-21s.
It is all of 16 years since he graduated to manager of his own county's senior team before leading them to an All-Ireland final in 1989. Since that stint ended in 1991, he has been in constant demand and, apart from a one-year break between each subsequent appointment, has been in intercounty management ever since, first with Leitrim, 1992-96, and then Galway since 1997.
His achievements to date are two All-Ireland senior titles with Galway (1998 and 2001), two All-Ireland under-21s (with Mayo in 1983 and Galway last year) and seven Connacht championships (Mayo 1988 and '89, Leitrim '94, Galway '98, 2000, '02 and '03).
Meanwhile in Dublin yesterday, Armagh's Steven McDonnell and Wexford's Larry Murphy were named as the Vodafone GAA All Stars Players of the Month for July.
Murphy played a big part in Wexford's titanic All-Ireland semi-final against Cork at the weekend. But the award was for his performances last month against Waterford in the All-Ireland qualifier, and against Antrim in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
McDonnell was chosen for the football award for his performances against both Dublin and Limerick in the All-Ireland qualifier series. In the victory over Dublin at Croke Park he scored five points and against Limerick he scored 3-4, a season's record.
