The Galway Intermediate Football Championship final takes place on Saturday afternoon between Kilconly and Dunmore MacHales at 4pm in Tuam Stadium. The man taking charge of this fixture with so much at stake for both teams is Kieran Quinn.
This game on Saturday will be a right old battle between two proud old clubs with so much on the line. A return to senior football is the carrot being dangled in front of both clubs, that will feel they have been away from the big time for too long, Dunmore MacHales in particular. The parishes of both teams have been draped in their colours all week and are expected to show up in their droves. Only the parish of Milltown separates Kilconly and Dunmore, so they will be familiar enough with each other.
Dunmore MacHales have been knocking on the door of senior football for the past few years now. There has been massive hype and pressure surrounding this young squad that have been waiting for a day like Saturday since their devastating defeat to Naomh Anna Leitir Móir in last season’s final.
Gary Delaney has led his team to within 60 minutes of senior football once again, and that experience of last year’s final should stand to Dunmore as the game enters its crucial periods.
Dunmore’s key performers really stood up in their semi-final victory over Corofin as Padraig Costello and Matthew Reddington put in huge performances for their side, particularly in the first half when the game was all but won for them. Kilconly will have learned from Corofin’s downfall that one cannot give such time and space to these players who will certainly punish if given that freedom. Jake Slattery has also been immense for Dunmore this year and will take serious minding from the Kilconly defence. Thomas Gleeson has also been very solid in the engine room all season and will need to be at his best on Saturday if Dunmore are to pull through.
Kilconly, unlike Dunmore have made their way to the final under the radar, despite the clear quality in their starting team. Players such as Paul Mannion, Niall Daly and Conor Marsden have played for Galway at underage and senior, and possess serious quality on the ball. Mannion, in particular, has been exceptional all season for Kilconly with his athleticism to get about the pitch and accuracy from placed balls proving crucial. He will be the main man for Dunmore to try to shackle down.
Both the quarter final against Glenamaddy, which went to extra time, and the semi-final against Oileain Árann, displayed the fighting spirit and determination in the Kilconly ranks. Both of these performances came after losing in the final group game to Dunmore MacHales where they shipped four goals. The fact that Kilconly are so battle-hardened from their path to the final will give them serious confidence if the game is tight heading down the final stretch. It is a difficult game to call when the prize is so big, whichever team copes best with the pressure towards the end will prevail.
Galway SFC Semi-Final Preview
The Galway football championship will this weekend host the semi-final stage with a couple of tasty fixtures on the schedule once again, with both games set to be hosted in Pearse Stadium as a double header on Sunday afternoon. In what has been one of the most competitive championships in a long time, there will be only two standing on Sunday evening after the weekend’s drama has culminated. Both fixtures are extremely difficult to call on paper and it is expected that both games will go right down to the final whistle, just as we witnessed with each of the quarter final games. The weather is likely to be more of a factor than it has been to date this season as winter draws closer, which we have seen over the past week or so.
The first of the double headers is the clash of Annaghdown and Salthil-Knocknacarra with throw-in at 2pm. Annaghdown’s journey to the semi-final so far has been a whirlwind. After overcoming Barna by the requisite twelve points in the final group stage came, Alan Flynn’s men were full value for their two point victory over St Michael’s in the quarter final. These two teams met earlier in the championship which Salthill-Knocknacarra won at a canter by ten points. It would be naïve of them to think this game will pan out in a similar fashion given the form and momentum which Annaghdown have picked up. In that group game, Damien Comer was double marked by the Seasiders and can expect similar treatment again on Sunday afternoon. Much will depend on the star forward for the result to fall in Annaghdown’s favour. John O’Mahony will be hoping to have Robert Finnerty fit for his side after he was taken off early in Salthill-Knocknacarra’s quarter final victory over Tuam Stars with a back injury. O’Mahony will have been grateful for the semi-final’s having been put off a week later than the original schedule to give his talisman an extra seven days of recovery. A tough one to call but Salthill-Knocknacarra will be favourites to edge it.
For the third year in succession, Moycullen and Mountbellew-Moylough meet in the championship. This gigantic clash will throw in at 3.45pm on Sunday afternoon. Most people’s winners of this year’s Frank Fox will come from this match, given the form both teams have displayed all season it is hard to argue with that opinion. Both teams have been there and done that having won the championship in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The two teams which will line out on Sunday will be made up largely of the same personnel which played in both of those years. A few notable absentees of the starting lineups from those years come from Mountbellew-Moylough with Michael Daly and Shane Moran both suffering with long-term injuries. Their physicality and guile will be a massive loss to Val Daly’s team on Sunday as they aim to inhibit a hugely athletic Moycullen team with the likes of the Kelly’s, Owen Gallagher and Peter Cooke all operating around the middle. Moycullen will be looking to limit the damage of the likes of Patrick Kelly, Eoin Finnerty and Barry McHugh in particular, who has been their main scorer all season. McHugh notched 0-10 in the quarter final against Corofin on a day when his foils, Finnerty and Kelly were kept quiet. It is an impossible game to call from the outset, but the bookies have Mountbellew-Moylough as favourites. Either way there will be jubilation for one of them come 5.30pm Sunday evening.
