Galway’s form has nosedived in the absence of Shane Walsh and Damien Comer

With 42 minutes on the clock against Sligo, Pádraic Joyce could hold his horse no longer. It had been 10 months since Damien Comer’s last appearance as a Galway footballer and if they didn’t start looking lively, there was a real danger of that turning into 11. Sligo were four points up and had led since the second minute of the game. Time to put manners on proceedings.

Comer came out of the gate like a bronco with a toothache. He had two points on the board pretty much immediately and was part of the build-up to the free that brought another. By the time Galway made their second substitution, Galway had cut the margin to one. It was all far more manageable from there.

[ Robert Finnerty strikes late to save Galway from shock exit at the hands of Sligo ]

The next change felt just as significant. Joyce turned to Cillian Ó Curraoin and brought a few lairy jeers from the Sligo crowd when it was announced Shane Walsh would be the player coming off. It meant that Walsh and Comer had spent just four minutes and 45 seconds on the pitch together. They hadn’t linked up for a pass and in fact Walsh had barely been involved at all in that time.

Still. That four minutes and 45 seconds was the first game time Joyce’s two most crucial forwards had spent on the pitch together all year. In every conversation around Galway’s injury crisis throughout the spring, no two names came to mind quicker than Walsh and Comer. Whatever chance Galway have of a strong campaign with them both on the pitch and firing, they surely have none without.

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This feels like a huge six weeks ahead for everyone involved. It’s Joyce’s fifth season in charge, leaving him behind only Kieran McGeeney nationwide in terms of tenure length. Comer turned 30 in January, Walsh will be 31 next month. Nobody’s talking Last Dance territory quite yet, partly because nobody’s talking at all – on Monday, Galway issued a press release to say they would be doing no press before the Connacht final.

But the figures speak for themselves. Walsh has played one full game all year for Galway. Comer hasn’t played a full 70 minutes for them since May 20th, 2023, the Tyrone game in last season’s All-Ireland group stage. Since the 2022 All-Ireland final, Galway have played 23 games in league and championship; Walsh and Comer have completed 70 minutes together in just two of them.

Galway have, of course, had more key men injured than just them. Cillian McDaid hasn’t played a minute all year. Seán Kelly and Liam Silke sat out virtually the whole of the league. Matthew Tierney, Tomo Culhane and Rob Finnerty have all missed time as well. But Walsh and Comer aren’t just the two best-known Galway players – they’re the duo who provide the best chance Joyce’s side have of going deep into the All-Ireland series.

For them to have played just two full games together in 2½ seasons when both of them are in their prime is a huge problem. In 2022, during Galway’s run to the All-Ireland final, they both started every game. Galway played just shy of 450 minutes of football in that championship; Walsh and Comer were both on the pitch together for 417 of them. In the best season Galway managed in a generation, their two best forwards were on the pitch 92 per cent of the time.

Since then, those numbers have cratered. In the 2023 championship, the pair played just 230 minutes together out of a possible 442 – a nosedive to 52 per cent of the time. Since the 2022 final, Galway have played in the region of 1,470 minutes in league and championship. Comer and Walsh have been on the pitch at the same time for just 302 of them. More or less 20 per cent of the available time.

They’ve both missed swathes of time, some of it through injury, some of it self-imposed. Comer’s hamstrings have been a chronic drain on his career for years now. Walsh’s move to Kilmacud Crokes has kept him playing through the winter for each of the past two seasons – plus he went to Australia for a month during the 2023 league to decompress. He has played in 11 of Galway’s 23 matches since the 2022 final. Comer has played in 10.

But now, at last, it appears that Joyce has access to them both. Neither had much of a Connacht final last year – they didn’t score from play between them and both had gone off before the hour mark. But they were rampant in the 2022 decider, Comer landing 0-3 from play and Walsh running up 1-6, 1-3 of it from play.

Get that pairing back and Galway can go places. Needless to say, the opposite is equally true too.