"We're not as big a footballing county as we think we are"

Former Galway footballers Finian Hanley and Michael Meehan shared their regrets at not having achieved with the county what they set out to do in the latest OTB Sports GAA Roadshow with SuperValu.

After Kerry and Dublin, no other county has won the Sam Maguire Cup with Galway's regularity.

Some way short of the top two, their nine All-Ireland wins has imbued many Galwegians with a sense of self-assurance about the county's place on the Gaelic football stage, nevertheless.

For some of those players who have come along after the county's latest triumph in 2001, however, the successful legacy does not tell the whole story.

"The perception is there of Galway being this great footballing county," former inter-county defender Finian Hanley mused on the latest OTB Sports GAA Roadshow with SuperValu, "and look, a lot of great footballers have come through.

"In 50 years though, we've won two All-Irelands, and that was one team from a similar bunch of players in 1998 and '01. Before that, you're going back to 1966.

"We underachieved with Galway, one-hundred percent. But when you tot up what's been done in the last 50 years, we're not as big a footballing county as we think we are."

Coming along after the likes of Pádraic Joyce, Michael Donnellan, Jarlath Fallon and a host of Galway stars drove the county to All-Ireland successes under John O'Mahony, Hanley and Meehan find it difficult to look beyond their own regrets at not having matched these achievements.

"Mike and myself were lucky enough to have won club All-Irelands," Hanley explained, "but that's not what we grew up dreaming about.

"No offence to the club, but when you're growing up kicking a ball against a wall there's only one thing on your mind. You want to win the All-Ireland with your county."

After long careers in the maroon of Galway, neither had the chance to experience what it would be like playing on All-Ireland final day. A far-fetched ambition for most inter-county players, it lingers with both men.

"There was a feeling there when we came in that we should be winning an All-Ireland again in 2005 or '06," Hanley recalled of the excitement surrounding the introduction of a successful U21 team into the senior set-up.

"But the game had started to evolve a bit on the defensive side then where you had Armagh and Mickey Harte's Tyrone coming through. That stuff wasn't welcome in Galway."

13 January 2008; Finian Hanley, Galway. Picture credit; Sportsfile

A star of the underage scene, Michael Meehan, whose brothers Tomás and Declan were members of the winning teams in '98 and '01, success always seemed something within reach.

"We desperately wanted to emulate that success," he said, "but we kept on stumbling at the quarter-final stage for a couple of years.

"But look, maybe we're crying here over spilled milk and these are just hard-luck stories. There were far too many one-point losses along the way and a lot of that comes back to us.

"We just didn't deliver enough of the time. When a game is there to be won, there have to be five or six lads there at least who refuse to be beaten. I think we lacked a little bit of that."

Some issues with personnel is something Hanley recalled also.

"Every team has one or two of the jack-the-lad in there," he allowed, "but we always had one or two really, really good footballers that stepped off the train at peak times in the season.

"The winning teams don't do that. Did we have that blistering tunnel vision with everyone on board that they say it takes to get over the line? It was questionable, at times.

"There was a bit of a party element to it at times with certain lads there."

Ultimately, both men have taken a great deal from what the journey gave them and the medals they did pick up along the way.

Of what happened - or didn't - on the pitch, a time comes when you must simply move on.

"We didn't get within ass's roar of it though and so be it," Meehan surmised. "You carry that with you and while it isn't a burden as such, you have to just make peace with it."

Finian Hanley and Michael Meehan joined OTB Sports for our latest SuperValu GAA Roadshow. Keep an eye on all our social channels for more from that show in the coming days

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