Galway team captain Conroy expecting a tough battle in Carrick-on-Shannon

THE jetlag is long gone and the skyscrapers of the Manhattan skyline are a distant memory.

Galway’s 2015 Connacht campaign got underway with a 16-points win over New York a fortnight ago in Gaelic Park but the provincial championship ‘proper’ begins this weekend.

There’ll be nothing lovely about Leitrim on Sunday. The Galway senior footballers know that full well. Leitrim will be organised and dogged and hard-working and will pile plenty of men into a crowded defence. They’ll want to frustrate Galway from the outset.

Kevin Walsh’s men expect an early onslaught from the home side, who relish the underdogs tag especially in Carrick-on-Shannon.

The prize for the winners is a semi-final date with All-Ireland contenders, Mayo, who are seeking a five-in-a-row of Connacht titles. But for Leitrim, the reward of scalping Galway, one of the ‘big two’ out west, is almost as big an incentive.

St James’ captain Paul Conroy, chosen as Galway captain for a second year, is aware that Leitrim are waiting in the long grass. “They knew since the start of the year that they’d be playing us. This is the big one for them. This is their All-Ireland final. And they’ll be trying their best to get one over on us,” he warns.

Galway has a good record against Leitrim but this particular group of players hasn’t much experience of playing them in Summer. Four members of the current squad – Conroy, Gary Sice, Finian Hanley and Gareth Bradshaw – were involved the last time Galway beat Leitrim in championship back in 2008 at Pearse Stadium. And just one of them – full-back Hanley – has played against Leitrim in senior championship at Páirc Seán MacDiarmada.

Galway won the Connacht championship semi-final that day in Summer 2007, to record their eight win on the trot against Leitrim since their breakthrough year of 1994. But it was tight (1-10 to 0-17) and so, too, was the clash the following year, in Salthill, which is the most recent championship outing between the pair when Galway held them off, 2-14 to 1-13.

Leitrim, like Galway, finished the National Football League campaign strongly; and that is solid form even if they are playing at a lower level, in Division Four.

Shane Ward’s men shared the spoils with two of the teams that were promoted to Division three, Longford and Offaly. And they comfortably won their last three league matches against London, Carlow and Waterford. Emlyn Mulligan, their top-scorer and talisman, is abroad this season, which blunts Leitrim’s attacking threat. In their favour, Leitrim has been fully focused on this weekend since the fixtures were announced; whereas Galway had a transatlantic distraction.

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