Damien Comer is one of the best footballers in the country right now.
He has been playing to them standards for quite a while. Comer is explosive. He’s an animal, and he just wants to get on the ball. He wants to take lads on, to stick it to lads, he wants to throw himself around the place.
That’s exactly what a manager wants. An honest player who has the strength and power to boot.
The Annaghdown man was on fire in the first few minutes in Pearse Stadium at the weekend. He was running the show in the inside line, kicking two from play and making hay with anything that came his way.
The problem with a lad like Comer stems from his own insatiable hunger to be involved in everything. For some reason, the supply lines to the Galway full forward just stopped soon after he kicked his second point.
Just like they’ve been doing in their league games to date, Galway reverted to type and began their slow, fist-passing build-up game from deep.
Their midfielders weren’t winning much ball and the whole team was dragged back out the field to a more conservative position. Comer was getting little or no ball kicked into him.
And do you think he, with that ferocious drive to be in the thick of it all, would stay put when that’s going on? Not a hope of it.
That’s why he was seen marking Aidan O’Shea in his own full back line and bursting himself to get back and make interceptions in midfield.
But Galway aren’t getting bang from their buck from one of the best target man in Ireland if he’s stuck out the field defending. The GAA Hour panel have been banging this drum for a while now, with Wooly and Cian Ward particularly vocal on their misuse of their weapon.
“Comer scored two points in the first five minutes,” began The GAA Hour Show host. “We were like, Jesus, that man is on fire, but for the rest of the half he was out around midfield. He was back on Aidan O’Shea at one point trying to punch the ball away from him. What’s going on there?
“You saw when they used Comer yesterday – he’s able to take on his man and score himself. Now, I don’t want to harp on about this but we even saw in the second half, he’s getting fouled, he’s laying it off to Paul Conroy running past him, Shane Walsh started looking for him.”
Whenever the Tribesmen made an effort to feed him, they were rewarded, but far too often the man is left isolated inside.
“It’s shameful how they’re not using him,” continued Wooly. “We saw a little bit of link up play between him and Shane Walsh on Sunday but when they work off him, they have a little bit of a system.”
Cian Ward feels it’s an epidemic of the modern game where players are encouraged to roam about. This leads to slower, more predictable build up play and cuts out the possibility of a defence splitting kick pass.
“Very few teams are saying, Comer, ‘you stay in the full forward line’ or Shane Walsh, ‘I don’t want to see you in our half.’ If people make those decisions, it changes how the game is played. It changes how quickly you can transfer from defence to attack, because you then have to option of kick-passing.”
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Going on what he’s seen in the league so far, Ward has been impressed with Galway’s ability to grind out results but he does feel that if they continue the way they’re going, they’ll be found out in the height of the summer.
“Galway have done brilliantly well, with three wins from three in Division One so far, but what we’re looking for is how is this going to translate itself down the line and in the summer months?”
“Based on what we’ve seen in the first three games, they’ll do well in the early stages of the championship but when they go to Croke Park they don’t have the game to adapt to it at the minute.
“If they’re playing this style of football later on in the season, they won’t score enough to beat any team later on in the season in Croke Park.
“If it continues into the summer, and Damien Comer is out around the middle of the field or in his own half back line…”
Not only does Comer score and frighten the daylights out of defenders himself, but he creates space for the other Galway lads to thrive too.
They need to use him more.
Turlough O’Brien interview, Brennan’s flair, Galway’s misuse of Comer and loads more from a packed GAA Hour Show.
