The Galway senior hurlers will make the short trip to Cusack Park in Ennis on Sunday to take on neighbours Clare in the penultimate round of the group stages of the Allianz National League (1.45pm ).
Clare have a much more realistic chance than Galway of reaching the semi-finals, having hammered Wexford away on their last outing. They face table-toppers Cork on the last day, but with the prospect of a huge home game against a resurgent Tipperary side on the opening day of the Munster championship, Brian Lohan may not go all out to qualify.
Although still early in the season, Galway could do with a big performance against a credible opponent for seventy odd minutes with only an away trip to Westmeath to follow before the Leinster championship gets underway.
So the time for experimentation has stopped and will Henry Shefflin now send out his strongest available fifteen for this assignment? That is a tough question that will not be answered until the starting lineup is announced on tomorrow night.
Much like the Ireland rugby team’s Six Nations rota next year, Galway have the trickier schedule to deal with this year with away trips to Kilkenny and Dublin, on the last day. Have Galway unearthed enough panel depth in the early portion of the year to deal with these tests, only time will tell.
Clare come into this contest on the back of posting 6-25 against an abysmal Wexford side two weeks ago, with 13 of their panel registering scores and 6-18 of that tally mined from open play. John Conlon, Tony Kelly, Ryan Taylor and Paul Flanagan all made their first appearances of the league, with Kelly in particular looking his usual classy self.
This performance followed a fairly flat outing away to Limerick where they fell to a six-point defeat, while in round one they comfortably got the better of Westmeath. The Banner faithful will surely come out in numbers with Galway in town, and Lohan will demand a performance that meets the expectations of the home crowd.
Elsewhere, there will be Galway representation at Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day as Presentation College Athenry qualified for the final of the All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior A competition after a narrow 0-15 to 0-14 win over Thurles CBS in Birr. They will take on Kilkenny powerhouse St Kieran’s College in the decider, as they got the better of Cashel Community School in their semi-final.
In the Senior B competition, Holy Rosary College Mountbellew came up short in their bid to reach the final, as Cork’s Bandon proved too strong on a 1-16 to 2-7 scoreline. There was no joy either for Clarin College Athenry in the Senior C last four or Mercy Woodford in the Senior D competition.
