Galway hurlers and footballers are aiming to stay in the winning groove

THE GAA seasons begins to shift up through the gears this weekend with Galway’s footballers and hurlers both competing at the business end of their respective pre-season competitions while, on the club scene, Galway teams are in action in the All-Ireland intermediate and junior hurling series.

While a home tie for Galway’s senior footballers at Tuam Stadium on Sunday (2pm) affords the Tribesmen an opportunity to avenge their 2015 FBD League final defeat to Roscommon (see match report v GMIT inside), Micheál Donoghue’s hurlers must travel to Parnell Park for their Walsh Cup semi-final against Dublin (2pm).

Certainly, there has been no love lost between these two in recent months – the Winter trip to Boston ending up as more a promotion of ‘The Fighting Irish’ than hurling! – and this was again evident in Galway’s Walsh Cup opener against DCU where tempers once again became frayed.

Consequently, Sunday’s contest will be as much a test of discipline as it will be of the teams’ hurling this time of year. “It is,” agrees Donoghue, “but it is also about everything we are trying to introduce (into the set-up).

“I think Dublin are as competitive as we are but what I will be looking at is what we can get out of the game and seeing if we can build on previous games. It is a competitive fixture – probably the most competitive game we will have to date – and I am just looking forward to it now.”

Accounting for UCD (4-15 to 3-12), Antrim (3-25 to 1-17) and Laois (2-20 to 1-9), Dublin have pretty much eased into this Walsh Cup semi-final but, in saying that, so have Galway – and without pre-season preparatory work behind them.

That said, Dublin will be a big step up from DCU, NUIG and, indeed, Westmeath, who Galway accounted for on a scoreline of 3-18 to 0-17 in Mullingar last weekend.

Goals from Jason Flynn (2) and Niall Burke in the opening quarter set Galway on their way, with Shane Moloney (0-5, 2f) and Eanna Burke (0-4) also lively. Burke has now tallied 13 points from play in his side’s three Walsh Cup fixtures.

“It (Westmeath game) was alright. We scored 2-5 without reply early on and that gave us the cushion. The better the opposition gets though, the harder it is going to be to impose that. Sunday now is about upping the standard again.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.