Galway Ladies complete their final group 3 fixture when they travel to Mullingar to take on Westmeath in the All Ireland Senior Football Championship on Sunday (1pm ).
A win will ensure they top the group, which will put them in an ideal position heading into the quarter-final.
However manager Timmy Rabbitte will know they cannot repeat the poor start they produced against Kerry last weekend when they were forced to claw back a huge margin.
Yet, after a disastrous start in which they trailed 1-8 to 0-1, the Galway Senior Ladies turned the game on its head to win by 1-14 to 1-10.
In O’Moore Park, Portlaoise, a hungry Kerry team enjoyed a superb start, leading the recently crowned Connacht champions by 10 points after 20 minutes. But at that point Galway turned the game around, and went on an incredible run, scoring 1-11 without reply.
Galway finally got off the mark thanks to a free from Tracey Leonard. Galway’s run started with two more frees from Leonard, before Louise Ward worked a short free very well and finished the ball to the back of the net herself.
They then reduced the margin to just three points before half-time, thanks to a super point from distance by Aine McDonagh.
The Tribeswomen continued to take the initiative with Mairead Seoighe, Sarah Conneally and Roisin Leonard all raising white flags.
While Galway did not let up, two points for Kerry from Houlihan and O’Leary made a game of it again towards the final quarter, but Galway’s Megan Glynn fired over two late points to finally kill off the game as a contest.
Galway made six changes from the Connacht final replay. Dearbhla Gower got her first start in this year’s championship in goal. Sinead Burke and Molloy came into the full back line for Lynch and Cooney, while in the forwards Lucy Hannon and Leanne Coen replaced Roisin Leonard and Sarah Conneally.
“We never really got going in the first-half,” said Galway midfielder Aine McDonagh. “Towards the last 10 minutes we started to get our footing right and we started to get grips on the game. Thankfully we came out in the second-half a bit more lively and we got the job done.”
Scorers: Galway: T Leonard 0-7 (0-3f ), L Ward 1-0, A McDonagh, M Glynn, S Conneally 0-2 each, M Seoighe 0-1, Kerry, H O’Donoghue 1-2, S Houlihan 0-3 (1f ), L Ni Mhuircheartaigh (f ), L Scanlon, E Dineen, A Galvin, D O’Leary 0-1 each.
Galway: D Gower; O Murphy, S Burke, S Molloy; N Ward, B Hannon, C Cooney; L Ward, A McDonagh; O Divilly, M Glynn, M Seoighe; T Leonard, L Hannon, L Coen. Subs: F Cooney for Molloy, S Conneally for Coen (both 22 ); R Leonard for Hannon (36 ); S Lynch for C Cooney (44 ); R Ni Flatharta for Seoighe (55 ).
Kerry: L Fitzgerald; A O’Reilly, L Coughlan, C O’Brien; A O’Connell, T Breen, C Murphy; L Scanlon, A Brosnan; E Dineen, K Cronin, A Galvin; S Houlihan, L Ni Mhuircheartaigh, H O’Donoghue. Subs: A Foley for Ni Mhuircheartaigh (37 ); D O’Leary for Galvin (41 ); A O’Callaghan for O’Donoghue (49 ); M O’Keeffe for Cronin, J O’Sullivan for Murphy (both 55 ).
