Galway suffered a disappointing 0-22 to 0-14 loss against Dublin last weekend in Pearse Stadium. This was followed by Kerry’s defeat of Roscommon, meaning that if Galway don’t lose in Killarney on Sunday afternoon, they won’t be depending on outside results to remain in division one.
If Roscommon fail to beat Derry at the same time then Galway will be safe.
Padraic Joyce will have been disappointed to lose his captain Seán Kelly before the game to yet another injury, while Robert Finnerty had not fully recovered from a dead leg against Monaghan. He was able to welcome back Paul Conroy off the bench while Liam Silke also togged out for his county for the first time since the All-Ireland final loss in 2022.
Dublin were just that little bit better in most areas of the field. They took the lead in the fifth minute and never went behind after that. Galway had seven different scorers across the day but only Cillian Ó Curraoin troubled the umpires more than once. The Michael Breathnach's clubman scored 8 on the day with three of them coming from play. Ó Curraoin is now Galway’s top scorer in the league. Despite it being his first league campaign, the 20-year-old hasn't been fazed by the step up from u20 football.
With Shane Walsh and Matthew Tierney out injured, Ó Curraoin has taken over the free taking duties and has been in brilliant form.
On Sunday, Galway will meet a Kerry side who still have a chance of making the league final, as they are level on points with Dublin and just behind Derry. With Galway missing Seán Kelly, the return of Silke to the panel is a huge boost. Silke was on the bench against Dublin but Joyce chose not to risk him.
Joyce said: ‘The conditions and the game didn’t suit him, we didn’t want to chance him today. We’ll get another week of training done with him and hopefully he’ll feature for us at some stage next weekend’.
Robert Finnerty is likely to be fit in time for the game, and he will look to ease the scoring burden on Ó Curraoin. Corofin duo Jack McCabe and Patrick Egan both came off the bench last Saturday with McCabe getting his first Galway score.
With this being the last round of the league all four matches will be thrown in at the same time, 1.45pm on Sunday afternoon. The game will also be shown live on TG4, this will be Galway's sixth NFL game of the year to be shown live on TV, with Galway’s game against Roscommon in round 2 being the only exception.
The match is set to be played in Fitzgerald stadium in Killarney, and will be refereed by Laois man Seamus Mulhare.
