The curtain-raiser on county final Sunday sees Claregalway take on Salthill in the minor A final in Tuam Stadium (2pm ).
It is good to see the minor final back on the same day as the senior final, and should be a great occasion for the young men involved.
The same sides met last year in the final with Salthill coming through as victors.
Salthill had an impressive win over Barna in the West Board final, while Claregalway, who were All-Ireland Féile champions four years ago, were far too strong for Monivea/Abbey in their North board final clash.
The Salthill team manager is former Mayo star Anthony Finnerty, and he believes his side will face a much tougher challenge in the county final against a highly-rated Claregalway.
"We know from last year how lucky we were to beat Claregalway in the county final. We have lost a lot of our team since then, and I think Claregalway have around 13 of that side – we have seven or eight U16s in our starting line-up, so we are under no illusions about how tough the final will be for us," he says.
"They are rightly favourites going into the final on Sunday. However, we are going to have a go at them. If we play to our best and perform at our optimum, who knows what could happen? We are delighted to be back in the final and we are looking forward to doing our best to try to win it."
Claregalway team manager John Kilmartin and his management team will look to county minor Conor Campbell, Jack Glynn, dual star Conor Walsh, who won an All-Ireland minor medal with the county minor hurlers last month, and man of the match in the North Board final Padraig Commins, who shot 0-7 in that game.
Milltown’s Anthony Coyne is down to referee the final.
