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Though they were never going to say it publicly, once the championship draw was made, Padraic Joyce and Galway’s focus would have inevitably shifted towards a Connacht final on May 10.

Galway's senior footballers travel to Páirc Seán MacDiarmada to take on Leitrim in the Connacht Senior Football Championship semi-final this Saturday.

With the Connacht championship now firmly on the horizon, attention inevitably turns to what Galway’s starting XV might look like. League football often raises as many questions as answers, and that certainly seems to be the case this year.

Survival but no finals or silverware. That’s the bottom line for Galway’s two flagship GAA teams after their National League campaigns wrapped up last weekend.

The six points Galway have already accumulated in Division One of this year’s National Football League would have been enough to guarantee safety in seven of the last nine seasons played under this format. The reason it’s not eight from ten is the Covid-impacted 2021 campaign, when the divisions were split into North and South sections.

Two games. Two encouraging displays against last year’s All-Ireland finalists. But ultimately, two defeats and zero points. That is the stark reality of Galway’s opening to the 2026 National Hurling League.

The year, 1981, remains the last time Galway lifted a Division One National Football League title, a statistic that still jars when you consider the calibre of footballers who have worn the maroon and white in the interim.

Despite managing just a single win from four National League outings, there is still a glass-half-full case to be made for the early season form of the Galway men’s flagship football and hurling teams.

Galway arrived at the Athletic Grounds carrying the kind of pressure that can crush a young team. Pointless after two rounds of the Allianz League and still smarting from defeat against Mayo a week earlier, Padraic Joyce’s side knew another defeat would leave relegation fears looming large, with a daunting trip to Tralee next on the horizon. Instead, what followed was a display of defiance, bravery and attacking zest that reignited their season and delivered a famous victory, sealed by Rob Finnerty’s free right on the hooter.

A five-point defeat to your fiercest rivals will always sting, but last Saturday night in Thurles is unlikely to leave any lasting scars.