Following their facile 3-31 to 1-11 victory over Laois last weekend at Pearse Stadium, the Galway hurlers head to Tralee to take on Kerry (2pm ) on Sunday in round four of the league.
Kerry have won one game from their three outings to date - their first against Laois (3-14 to 0-19 ). Since then they have suffered heavy defeats to Limerick and Wexford, who defeated them by 3-18 to 0-12 last weekend.
Micheál Donoghue's Galway side will also be expected to win handily enough again this weekend. Anything less than a double digit victory would be a surprise.
Last weekend's game in Salthill saw the return of the Mannion brothers from club activity, but the game against Laois was a genuine mis-match from the start.
Galway led by 0-9 to no score inside the first 10 minutes, and the vast majority of the 2,300 crowd in attendance already knew the game was going to resemble a turkey shoot by that juncture.
The home side had the wind at their backs in the first half and led by 15 points at half time, 0-20 to 0-5. The only talking point at that stage was that Galway had failed to score a goal despite owning possession, and both Joseph Cooney and Jason Flynn had chances of raising a green flag or two in that opening 35 minutes.
Former minor star, Craughwell's Thomas Monaghan, who was starting his first senior league game was lively and notched three nice points from play, while Paul Flaherty also caught the eye.
Galway's first goal was produced in the second half from Cathal Mannion before substitute Joe Canning hit a penalty to the Laois net, and Conor Whelan added the third in the last few minutes.
Despite Galway's loss to Wexford having robbed Galway of promotion, team manager Micheál Donoghue was pleased with his side's performance.
“We were collectively very disappointed with our defeat against Wexford. In fairness the lads applied themselves really well in training and brought that to the Laois game.
“We got a good start. The lads racked up a few good early scores, and it gave us a good platform to push on for the rest of the game.”
Scorers for Galway: C Mannion (1-5 ), J Flynn (0-6, 4 frees, 1 65 ), J Canning (1-2, 1-0 pen ); P Flaherty (0-5 ); C Whelan (1-0 ); C Cooney, T Monaghan (0-3 each ); J Cooney, David Burke, P Mannion, P Killeen, A Harte, Daithi Burke, J Coen (0-1 )
Galway: J Skehill, P Killeen, J Hanbury, P Mannion, A Harte, Daithí Burke, S Loftus, J Coen, David Burke, C Mannion, J Cooney, P Flaherty, T Monaghan, J Flynn, C Cooney. Subs used: J Canning, E Burke, C Whelan, G Lally. M Keating.
