Galway 1-13 Kerry 1-10

The West's awake.

Kerry and Galway didn't live up to the lofty expectations but don't think for a second that Kevin Walsh or any of his men give a damn about that. The Tribesmen's footballers have made a habit out of proving their critics wrong this year and they went out to Croke Park and did the same thing again on Sunday. For God's sake, this is a team who won five games straight in the League and only Dublin got the better of them in Division One. Each one of those wins was accompanied with the catch that their 'limited' defensive style would be found out in the wide open spaces of Croke Park. https://twitter.com/officialgaa/status/1018538977387827200 Galway were priced at 3/1 to beat Kerry today. It wasn't in the League final as Dublin just about edged them and it wasn't as they began their Super 8s campaign with a comprehensive victory over Eamon Fitzmaurice's Kerry. Galway gave their critics the two fingers yet again. How many more times will they have to do that? But when you watch the likes of Damien Comer play this game with a smile on his face, and when you watch Shane Walsh skip about Croke Park like he's kicking around in Kilkerrin-Clonberne, you quickly realise that these lads don't really care about the narrative. They gave Kerry a lesson in Croker on Sunday afternoon but this, their first win in GAA HQ since 2001 has been a long time coming. Ian Burke was again class up top for them as was Shane Walsh beside him. The slippy conditions didn't help either side but when it came down to it, Galway got the job done and too many men in green and gold disappeared. David Clifford, scorer of 1-3 is one of only a few Kerry men who came out of this game with much credit. They were listless and a late red card to Killian Young just compounded their misery on a damp day for the county. Comer, who'd ran himself into the ground, celebrated the goal wildly fro the Galway bench. https://twitter.com/TheSundayGame/status/1018538876208463874 It's back to the drawing board for Kerry, and they're now under pressure going into their next match against Monaghan. As for Galway, they'll be content to be written off again. The only sour note for Galway was that their charismatic midfielder Paul Conroy suffered a double leg-break after a hefty first half collision with Sean O'Shea. We wish him the best with his recovery.