Tyrone favourites to emerge in the heel of the hunt

GAELIC GAMES: One grim realisation unites these teams. They might as well come up short this afternoon and slip away rather than progress playing poorly against weaker opposition only to prolong the agony. Each will know that a win will count as a serious step back towards contention.

Galway have the advantage of being fresh in that they haven't gone beyond the quarter-finals for three years whereas the All-Ireland champions are showing the signs of wear and tear. But conversely, despite their relative inaction, John O'Mahony's team have looked stale for the past two years and Tyrone showed signs two weeks ago of turning the corner.

There was a significance when the teams met in the league semi-final and replay in April. Firstly, the sight of the All-Ireland champions lifted Galway. It's no big secret that O'Mahony is one of the managers a little vexed at the suggestion that Armagh and Tyrone recreated football over the past two years.

That sense of having a point to prove was apparently shared by some of the senior players. The two matches were by a country mile the best performances given by Pádraic Joyce this year. Michael Donnellan and Seán de Paor also responded to the challenge.

Unfortunately for Galway, de Paor is out for the year now and in terms of ability and big-match experience he's a major loss. Seán Ó Domhnaill was another who rose to the occasion in the league although he will find the opposition a bit more tuned in this afternoon, with Seán Cavanagh, having secured a first in his accountancy exams, now free to concentrate on football.

Cavanagh's goal-scoring record is remarkable for a centrefielder in a team that doesn't score many. In fact he got the goal in Salthill that helped bring Tyrone back into the match and will need to be watched more closely this time.

Although Donnellan played at centrefield in the lacklustre qualifier win over Louth he is expected to start at centre forward today even if switches in a match against Tyrone are inevitable. There are signs that Damien Burke may swap wings with Declan Meehan in order to counter the threat of Ger Cavlan in the air.

The second significant aspect of the league display was the extent to which Galway applied Tyrone's techniques of hunting in packs and putting pressure on the ball-carrier to complement their more direct, attacking game. It worked well but there were signs against Down that Tyrone themselves had rediscovered the omnivorous appetite that marked their play last year.

The sight of two teams hunting in packs is not for the faint-hearted but the champions will find out how much their improvement owed to Down's limited second-half resistance. Their own defence has had to be reconfigured, with Gavin Devlin falling from favour at centre back and Conor Gormley switched from wing back.

Thirdly, last April's matches had the remarkable effect of dragging the two managers into controversy.

Normally two of the most composed and careful practitioners, Mickey Harte and John O'Mahony crossed swords after the drawn match on the subject of players fouling and diving.

Although they put the lid back on the second day (to the extent that O'Mahony was concerned that a photograph seemed to suggest he was rebuffing his counterpart when in fact they were just breaking after a handshake), the exchange revealed an interesting edge.

Peter Canavan is expected to make his comeback this afternoon for some period of the match. The exposure will be necessary after his long lay-off if he's to get any more out of the season, although it's hard to imagine that he can have a major impact in the circumstances.

Tyrone are getting better but they're not at the same intensity as they were 12 months ago. Yet Galway have to go back even further for a genuinely impressive championship performance. If they click, they'll win this match but that's a longer shot than Tyrone being sufficiently competent to win.

Uncertain, we'll play the percentages.

GALWAY: B Donoghue; K Fitzgerald, G Fahey, T Meehan; D Meehan (capt), P Clancy, D Burke; J Bergin, S Ó Domhnaill; M Clancy, M Donnellan, J Devane; M Meehan, P Joyce, D Savage.

TYRONE: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Gormley, C Gourley; J McMahon, S Sweeney, P Jordan; K Hughes, S Cavanagh; B Dooher (capt), B McGuigan, G Cavlan; M Harte, O Mulligan, S O'Neill.

Referee: M Monaghan (Kildare)