Matthew Tierney of Galway poses for a portrait with the Sam Maguire cup at the 2023 GAA Football All-Ireland Series national launch in Howth, Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Galway’s football championship campaign which had been motoring along serenely until Sunday’s defeat to Armagh has suddenly hit a bump in the road.
Had Shane Walsh landed a difficult late free they’d be resting up this weekend as table-toppers preparing for as yet unknown All-Ireland Quarter-Final opponents.
Instead fate has seen fit to instead hand them what will surely be an arduous test on Sunday against the team they know better than any other, Mayo.
Galway footballer, Matthew Tierney, admits that will require a mental adjustment for a team that seemed to be cruising after a Connacht title win and wins over Tyrone and Westmeath in the group phase before that loss to Armagh.
“Yeah, I suppose it does, we just have to completely flip everything around now and just focus on the task in hand and that is Mayo this Sunday,” says Tierney.
“We've to park the Armagh game now tonight at training. We'll do a bit of video analysis and everything and there'll be a few questions asked, but then all we'll be doing will be focusing then on Mayo and trying our best again.
“We can't afford to be feeling sorry for ourselves. There's no time, is there? It's a quick turn around so all we'll be doing is getting the bodies right and the minds right.”
You can say with some certainty that there won’t be much between Galway and Mayo on Sunday.
That was the case when they drew in the first round of the League and then later met in the Final when Mayo were triumphant by three points.
Each team knows the other inside out, there will be no surprises, so the focus for both camps this week will be on recharging themselves physically and emotionally after defeats to Armagh and Cork at the weekend.
“We've played Mayo a good few times in the last few years and it's all about getting it right on the day,” says Tierney.
“Sometimes it has gone well and sometimes it hasn't. We'll just have to learn from all those past experiences and have ourselves right.
“It's do or die now. We need to get our own house in order."
Matthew Tierney pictured with his father Matt after captainin NUIG to the 2022 Sigerson Cup.
If Tierney is in the market for any advice about how to get the better of Mayo this weekend, he won’t have to go too far looking for it.
His father, Matt, has always been a very close confidant. A talented footballer in his own day, the elder Tierney has never been shy about giving his son some words of wisdom if required.
“Both of my parents have had a huge influence,” says Tierney. “Mom and Dad would have driven me to all my games.
“Dad would be one of my biggest praisers but also one of my toughest critics. We talk our way through the games, especially when I was younger. Now I have excellent coaches I can do it with but he was very good when I was younger at praising me when I needed praise but also, which is the main thing, criticising me when it was needed.
“Sometimes you need a bit. You can't be thinking you're the main man all the time so it's good to have a bit of balance. Whether he's right or wrong he'll tell me what he thinks. Ah, it's a bit of fun to come home to too sometimes.
“My Dad is a pure die-hard. He goes to every game be it with Galway, the club, or Sigerson. He's love travelling and he has his own gang that he brings to every game so they have a lot of craic as well, which is what it's all about.”
Matthew Tierney of Galway in action against Conor Meyler of Tyrone during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 1 match between Galway and Tyrone at Pearse Stadium in Galway. Photo by Ray Ryan/Sportsfile.
Whatever advice his father had to give him probably changed somewhat when Tierney went through a growth-spurt in his late teens and developed the physical tools to be a different sort of footballer.
As a juvenile, few would have predicted he’d become the strapping middle-third powerhouse he is now.
“I was very small all the way up,” says Tierney. “Much smaller than average until I was 16 or 17. I was always a corner-forward. Always the small, nippy corner-forward, but then had a bit of a growth spurt and that helped because you'd still have the skills from when you were young.
“I'd say it was a massive help for me that I had to work on my skill to get an advantage when I was young because I was smaller than most.
“Even watching underage teams now I'm always looking out for the small, skilful lad. Because they'll have it harder when they're that age and it'll stand to them when they grow up, they'll have that bit of bite.”
Now 22 and in his third year of inter-county football, Tierney is one of the best forwards in the country, but still feels he has a journey to travel in terms of getting the best out of himself physically.
“The first year I got a shock as every young lad does,” he says. “It does take time. You have to put the work in outside of training on your own and put more emphasis on the gym.
“I had to hit the gym heavy but I'm getting there now. Still a bit to do, but I’m getting there.”
