The real Galway stands up as Derry face crossroads

The shadow-boxing is ongoing but we're finally seeing the real Galway stand up.

Watching the game in Salthill last Saturday was a jolting reminder of how a team's fortunes can change so quickly.

Here was a sense of two teams travelling in opposite directions. That euphoric Connacht final win could be the spark that has ignited Galway's season. In contrast, the sucker punch that Derry took in the Jim McGuinness-orchestrated ambush in Celtic Park appears to have rocked their confidence and disturbed their momentum. All of a sudden, Galway look like they're ahead of Derry in the pecking order.

We all anticipated that Derry would be refreshed after the five-week break and would roar out of the traps, similar to Mayo in Killarney 12 months ago. Instead, their performance raised more doubts and questions about where their summer is headed.

Obviously, Gareth McKinless' bizarre moment of madness had a massive impact on the game. It's already attracted plenty of comment, and Pádraic Joyce was fairly strident in his post-match comments, understandably so. Suffice to say, it was a bad, bad act and really quite hard to fathom. I don't know if it was borne of frustration but it had big ramifications on a couple of fronts.

He's a bit of a loose cannon on the pitch and is great to watch, I would rate him really highly as a player. But his madness crossed the line last Sunday. That type of ill-discipline is a bad sign, in general.

Galway punished them well and looked really slick and assured for the rest of the game. Paul Conroy again proved that age is just a number. His first big win over Derry was in the minor final in 2007 and he scored the winner as a 19-year-old in the Connacht final against Mayo in 2008 - a few years before my own