The Galway hurlers are away to Offaly this Sunday (1pm ) in the first round of the National Hurling league at O'Connor Park in Tullamore.
Having been relegated from Division 1A last season, Michael Donoghue's priority for the spring will be to get a few wins under their belts in the league and return to the top division for 2018.
However with Wexford and Limerick also eyeing that target in this division, there are no guarantees Galway will bounce straight back.
The Galway panel had a good workout and some quality preparation for the start of the NHL last weekend when they faced Kilkenny in the final of the Walsh Cup final in Nowlan park.
Galway went down by 0-20 to 0-18 in an entertaining game and they could have perhaps won the game except for some wayward free-taking.
The Walsh Cup has been a good opportunity for the Galway management team to run their eye over some new panel members and they have used 37 players in the competition.
That means a lot of young hurlers will have tasted senior action and been given a chance to stake their claim for a place in the senior panel which is a positive.
Offaly are managed this season by Waterford man Kevin Ryan. He is joined in his backroom team by former Offaly star and double All-Ireland winner Johnny Dooley as a selector and coach, and former Waterford player Paul Flynn as forwards coach.
The Faithful county has not been going well over the past few seasons and anything less than a solid win on Sunday for Galway would be a disappointing result.
