Another big day, another defeat for our footballers at Croke Park

GALLANT in defeat, as usual. That was the consensus reached in the talk among Galway supporters leaving Dublin on Sunday evening. Not even the margin of Kerry’s victory (seven points) caused any pain to long-suffering followers of the Maroon and White.
That’s how far Galway’s football stock has slumped — it’s now completely acceptable to lose a big game at Croke Park.
Some Galway football supporters will, of course, have vastly different feelings about it, and for that the county should be grateful.
Make no mistake about it, this was a bad, utterly depressing defeat.
Surely it’s sporting madness to be talking about 'progress’ and 'transition’ and 'team-building’ and 'development’ after a Championship campaign which yielded only wins over two Division Four teams (London and Tipperary) and one over a Division Three team (Sligo).
It’s astonishing to read and hear, repeatedly, that Galway “need another year or two” before they are ready to win an All-Ireland SFC title, when anybody who knows anything about Gaelic football in this county knows there are no ready-made replacements — not one, I would say — for the defenders who conceded a total of 8 goals 46 points in their last three Championship matches, against Kerry, Tipperary and Mayo.