The journey home typically follows a familiar cycle of grief. First, frustration with the players. Then the management, who inevitably get dissected in post-mortems. By Enfield, the County Board is often next in line. Everyone has something to get off their chest, and the bus or car becomes a mobile therapy session.
Eventually, as exhaustion sets in, the emotions soften to resignation. Another defeat to Kilkenny. Another Monday of enduring it all again, this time with work colleagues.
Thankfully, I was spared the purgatory of the M6 this time around (I still remember the old tortuous route pre-motorway ). A trip planned last December to the UK - complete with a proposal to my then-partner (now-fiancée ) - meant I touched down at Knock just ten minutes before throw-in.
False dawns and familiar failings
For ten fleeting minutes, Galway seemed to stir. But rousing yourself from the dead is meaningless when you are already six feet under and nailed inside the coffin. And even if we did reach the surface, Derek Lyng’s men were waiting with a shovel.
In many ways, moral victories are worse than hammerings. At least a thrashing gives you clarity. This was just murky, muddled, and familiar. Why could we not replicate the revival period sooner?
I watched the game back later that evening. It did not help. Knowing the result only made it worse, like watching a slow-motion car crash that you are powerless to stop. Galway looked abject, disjointed, and completely unrecognisable from the side that had put together four straight wins in the provincial championship. A false dawn, perhaps?
What stood out most were the same recurring issues from earlier rounds and previous eras: a lack of goal threat and direct ball-winners; poor delivery into attack and static forward movement; no clear game plan or tactical identity; an overreliance on Cathal Mannion; and perhaps most worrying, a visible lack of leadership across the pitch.
To give some credit, Galway’s work rate was marginally better than the Round 1 clash - at least through the lens of the television. But that is where the optimism ends. The attacking performance was dire. Galway went almost 35 minutes without a score from play which sums it up entirely.
To make matters worse, Kilkenny were nowhere near full tilt. They did not need to be, even without their best forward, Eoin Cody, and still strolled to a 13-point lead and ultimately a clear-cut win in front of 37,503 people. This was not some heroic Cats masterclass, it was simply efficient, unchallenged dominance. Kilkenny always show up. It is ingrained in their DNA.
Galway fans can handle being underdogs. What is harder to accept is how easy Kilkenny made it look, summed up by Huw Lawlor claiming man of the match honours. High, hanging ball after high, hanging ball. His bread and butter. And we fattened him as if we were getting him ready for the mart. Making a full-back man of the match in a hammering is inexcusable.
That is now eight straight championship games without a win in Croke Park for Galway, dating back to 2017. Six Bob O’Keeffe Cup wins for Kilkenny in that same period. This is not about a tactical misstep or a bad day. It is a trend. A systemic problem.
Season on the brink
Donoghue and his backroom team have earned time and patience, and there have been signs of progress in 2025. But this most recent evidence suggests that improvement may be more marginal than previously believed.
The Kilkenny result was both disappointing and frustrating in equal measure but as a group and a county, we are left with little choice but to park it because the season is not over. Tipperary will await in an All-Ireland quarter-final and Galway must produce a season-best performance, or their season will be over.
The footballers find themselves in a similar predicament against Armagh in Cavan on Saturday evening. There is no margin for error against a team, who have already topped the group. Padraic Joyce’s side need some kind of spark to relight their potential. And the hurt of last year’s All-Ireland final loss will surely be an adequate fuel to light their fire.
It will be very interesting to see how Kieran McGeeney and Armagh approach this encounter. On one hand there is nothing tangible to play for. But on the other, a defeat over the men in maroon could potentially eliminate a serious Sam Maguire rival from contention.
