High flying Galway ladies seek league final place

CUSACK Park in Mullingar was the location for Galway’s All-Ireland semi-final loss to Dublin eight months ago. This Sunday, the two sides will meet again in the semi-final stage of the National League in the Westmeath town, but this time the pitch of St. Loman’s GAA club will host the match.

Dublin were 2-14 to 1-13 winners last August, but much has changed in the intervening period. Six players who didn’t start that game were in the Galway team against Mayo last time out. Sarah Gormally and Noelle Connolly have come into the full-back line to good effect, while Nicola Ward’s shift across the half-back line has helped bring assurance to the defence.

Tracey Leonard and Edel Concannon are back in the full-forward line, and Galway seem to have a more settled look overall. They now have a series of Division 1 games under their belt for the first time since 2011, a campaign in which they managed to finish top of the pile with five wins, one draw and one defeat from their seven matches.

Many outside of, and within the county also, would have expected Galway to push hard for a semi-final slot this spring. When Galway played their opening fixture against Laois on February 1 however, manager Kevin Reidy was aiming to stay in the top tier for 2016 first and foremost.

“It’s a struggle to get up into Division 1, so our first target was survival,” he said. “Once we got that out of the way, then the next target was to have a cut at getting to the semi-final. Now that we’re in the semi-final, it’s a cut at getting to the final.”

A step by step process it has been, and some of the football Galway produced has been outstanding. Hefty scores were racked up against Laois (6-15), Tyrone (4-15), and Kerry (3-12). Galway scored 21 goals and 84 points, and hit the back of the net in all seven of their matches.

Leonard, Concannon and Louise Ward conduct affairs in the forward line, while Geraldine Conneally, Annette Clarke, Sinead Burke and Nicola Ward are given licence to bomb forward when necessary. They play the stylish, attacking game that Galway football has traditionally been synonymous with down through the years.

Full preview in this week’s Connacht Tribune.