It is not logical for Galway to be playing the way they are playing

It has been an impressive league campaign for the Tribesmen.

The western county secured promotion to Division 1 at the weekend after overcoming Kildare by two points on Sunday. This was off the back of an impressive league campaign where they recorded five victories, a draw and one loss. The Connacht defending champions will get their championship campaign underway at the semi-final stage when they meet either Mayo, New York or Sligo. Galway Bainisteoir Kevin Walsh will take pride in his side's displays thus far as they look to claim back-to-back Connacht titles and improve on the disappointing exit at the quarter-final stages of last year's All-Ireland Championship to Tipperary. Unfortunately for the neutrals, besides the narrow margin of victory, Sunday's Division 2 final wasn't exactly easy on the eye. Both sides were incredibly defensive as they packed out their respective 45's when not in possession. Both teams were already guaranteed promotion to the league's top tier so some supporters may find it annoying that such a defensive mindset was adopted by both teams. It was a topic which came up for discussion on the latest episodes of The GAA Hour whereby the panel took differing views on the use of the blanket defence. Host Colm Parkinson and Cian Ward accused SportsJOE's Conán Doherty of being more receptive to the idea of team's applying overly defensive systems (the argument is from 37:00) as they lambasted the Tribesmen for their style of play.

"Then again we are the traditionalists, Conán here is grinding his teeth, he's all for the men inside the 45," jibed Parkinson. 

Doherty argues the point that weaker sides have no choice but to apply such tactics but admits that there are certain teams in his mind which have no need to do so, Galway included.

"I'm not (all for men inside the 45') but I think it's the same in any sport if you're a worse team," he said. "That's what annoys me so much about Galway. Galway are a good team, they don't need to do it. It's not logical for Galway to do it. "But what happens naturally for a lot of teams is that they're not good enough and they end up just reverting into a shell, defending, get bodies back. "It's just easier. It happens in soccer, it happens in rugby to an extent, it's just more natural when the team isn't as good as the other."

We're not too sure how many Galway fans will agree with regards to this opinion on Walsh's side. They have been relatively successful of late and if they manage to beat Mayo in the Connacht Championship again this year then we doubt there will be too many complaints, regardless of the style of football which is employed.