Pádraic Joyce couldn’t hold back any further with only 42 minutes of game time elapsed against Sligo. After ten months of absence from Galway’s football team, Damien Comer was at risk of extending his inactive period to 11 months unless he brought some vitality into the game. Sligo, leading by four points since the game’s second minute, was starting to control the match, thus demanding a rejuvenated response from Galway.
Coming off the bench, Comer was every bit the eager debutant, scoring two points instantly and assisting in securing another one in a free. When Galway made their second substitution, they had already narrowed the lead to a single point, making the situation far more navigable.
[Robert Finnerty’s late strike prevents Galway’s unexpected defeat to Sligo.]
The subsequent substitution was equally influential. Joyce directed Cillian Ó Curraoin onto the field, which provoked some jeering from the Sligo supporters when it was revealed that Shane Walsh would be replaced. This meant that Walsh and Comer had shared minimal time together on the field, just four minutes and 45 seconds, neither connecting a pass nor Walsh being significantly involved.
However, those four minutes and 45 seconds represented the first time this year that Joyce’s two key forwards had been together on the field. In discussions about Galway’s personnel injury plight this season, Walsh and Comer were the first names mentioned. Their shared presence and form on the field are essential for Galway’s prospects of a successful season. Without them, the chances appear dismal.
The prospects of the next six weeks seem daunting for all concerned. This is Joyce’s fifth year at the helm, putting him second longest in tenure only to Kieran McGeeney nationwide. Comer turned 30 this January, with Walsh set to turn 31 next month. No one has raised the subject of this being their farewell season, partly due to the silence – Galway announced in a press release on Monday that no press interviews would be conducted before the Connacht final.
The statistics tell their own story. Throughout the year, Walsh has only participated in one complete match for Galway. Not since 20th May 2023, during the All-Ireland group stage against Tyrone, has Comer played a full match lasting 70 minutes. From the 2022 All-Ireland finale, Galway has completed 23 league and championship matches, with Walsh and Comer only managing to cross the 70-minute mark in a mere two of these games.
Evidently, injuries have plagued key players beyond Walsh and Comer. Cillian McDaid has not seen a minute of game play this year. Seán Kelly and Liam Silke, on the other hand, have been forced to observe most of the league from the sidelines. Along with them, Matthew Tierney, Tomo Culhane and Rob Finnerty have all had to take time off due to injuries. Nevertheless, the spotlight is on Walsh and Comer, not merely because they are the most recognised faces in Galway but also because they offer the best shot for Joyce’s team to excel in the All-Ireland series.
The fact that the two of them have only managed to complete two games in two and a half seasons, while both are at the peak of their careers, is a momentous issue. In 2022, during Galway’s march to the All-Ireland finals, both of them were consistently part of the starting line-up. In that championship, Galway played football for nearly 450 minutes; Walsh and Comer shared the field for 417 of those minutes, witnessing about 92 per cent of Galway’s finest season in a generation.
However, since then, their collective presence on the field plummeted. In the 2023 championship, they were on the pitch together for just 230 minutes out of a possible 442, a significant drop to 52 per cent of the time. Post the 2022 finals, Galway have played approximately 1,470 minutes across league and championship matches. Regrettably, Comer and Walsh have jointly contributed only 302 minutes of play, which is just about 20 per cent of the total available time.
Both players have been absent for significant periods, due to either injuries or personal reasons. Comer has struggled with constant hamstring issues that have negatively impacted his performance over the years, while Walsh’s shift to Kilmacud Crokes has required him to play throughout the winter for the last couple of seasons. Moreover, he spent a month in Australia in the 2023 league as a personal time-off. Of the 23 games Galway has played after the 2022 final, Walsh has participated in 11, Comer in 10.
Fortunately, it seems as though a period of access to both players for coach Joyce is on the horizon. Unfortunately, their performance in the previous Connacht final left a lot to be desired – both players were unable to score from play and were substituted before sixty minutes into the match. However, they dominated the 2022 final, with Comer and Walsh scoring 0-3 and 1-6 respectively, the majority from play.
Galway has great potential if this duo returns to form. Conversely, if they falter, the impact could be disproportionately damaging.