Footballers’ squad stretched to the limit but hurlers in better shape for league double bill

LAST year the Galway footballers took the National League by storm, but the county’s hurlers didn’t. Expect a reversal in fortunes over the coming weeks as the Tribesmen’s flagship GAA teams start their respective 2019 campaigns on the same day at the same venue on Sunday.

Pearse Stadium hosts this league double bill with Galway hurlers taking on Laois, now managed by former Kilkenny great Eddie Brennan, in the opening game at 12.30pm, while the footballers kick off against a Cavan team also under a new supremo in Mickey Graham, who did extraordinary things with Longford club team Mullanalaghta before Christmas.

Sunday’s clash (2.30pm) will be a first meeting between the counties since Cavan overcame Galway by four points at Breffni Park in April of 2016 to secure promotion to Division One. Gearóid McKiernan and company only lasted one season in the top flight, but bounced back up again last year despite losing a high-scoring Division Two final against Roscommon.

On the same afternoon, Galway were giving a good account of themselves against Dublin in the Division One final having made Croke Park unbeaten, but it’s safe to assume Kevin Walsh’s squad won’t get so far in 2019.

It’s not that Galway don’t want to be competitive in the league, but more to do with the unavailability of so many players for one reason or another for the competition’s early rounds. Damien Comer, Eamonn Brannigan, Adrian Varley and Paul Conroy are all injured; Sean Armstrong has retired; while the Sweeney brothers, Cathal and Patrick, are no longer involved.

Throw in fitness worries over Cillian McDaid, Michael Daly, Declan Kyne, Barry McHugh and Johnny Heaney who were all in the wars against Roscommon in the FBD League Final last Sunday and the prospect of the seven Corofin players on the squad being unlikely to feature again until their All-Ireland club campaign is over, it’s easy to see why Galway could struggle in the league.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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