After six months of inactivity on the playing field, the Galway senior footballers, under the stewardship of Padraic Joyce, will begin their 2021 season in Killarney against Kerry on Saturday (3pm ).
Joyce will be supported by the same selectors this season with John Divilly, John Concannon and Michael O’Domhnaill, with Michael Comer in charge of the strength and conditioning.
Galway, like all counties, have been faced with challenging preparations. Training was only permitted to resume on April 19, while challenge matches only granted the week before the league was due to begin which has left little time for match readiness in what will be a tough league for the Tribesmen.
With the league divided into two groups of four based on region, Galway's group opponents are Kerry, a Roscommon team that they will be facing in the Connacht Championship, and seven-in-a-row All Ireland chasing Dublin.
These league games will be played week-on-week, adding further pressure for players and management who must ensure performance levels are immediately up to standard. There is also a worry this enforced congested schedule will result in injuries to players who will be going from zero to one hundred. However, on the flipside it offers the opportunity to introduce some fresh blood, giving some younger players minutes which all supporters will be keen to see following the U20 footballers' All-Ireland final win in November.
When Galway played Kerry in the league in February 2020 it was a spectacle for supporters under the lights in Tralee. The Kingdom just edged Galway out in what was a super advertisement for the game. However, Saturday's game has a more competitive edge as Galway will be hoping to pick up a vital two points in this testing campaign. Securing safety as early as possible will be high up the agenda.
Manager Padraic Joyce says returning to training had given his players a new lease of life after lockdown.
“It was easy enough the first month or two [for the players] as they had something to look forward to, but the month of March they found very difficult as they didn’t have any set date to aim for when they were going back and that’s when the S&C guys need to know what level of intensity they need to bring to training.
"But look it, we are back and we will just get on with it. Eventually they got the nod to go back to training on the 19th of April. It was like a new lease of life, it was like you let new born calves out to a field.”
There are also changes to this year's squad with eight new players, he says, while also paying tribute those who had left the panel.
“There are changes outside our control, some lads retired, Gareth [Bradshaw] retired. He served Galway really well. Fiontain O’Curraoin had a lot of injuries. The rest who are gone couldn’t commit to the level required by Galway.” They include Ian Burke, Michael Daly, Jason Leonard and Adrian Varley.
And some of the players will feature against Kerry, he says.
“They’ve been in the Galway system before, with one or two plucked from the club championship. Lads who won the 20 last year and there is a great hunger within them. More than likely you will be seeing one or two of them on Saturday.”
Joyce also has some injury concerns, including Cillian McDaid and Darragh Silke.
“The first night we came back Cillian McDaid hurt his knee and it has turned out to be more severe than we thought, we think it’s around eight to 10 weeks. He has that championship date in mind so hopefully he will get back for that. On Saturday Darragh Silke went over on his ankle and it looked nasty at the time, but he is going for a scan and we will know more then.”
