Connacht SFC Semi-final
Galway v Mayo Pearse Stadium, Sunday 4pm, RTÉ 2
In a way this is the ideal championship opener for Mayo: tough enough to be able to take something from winning it but fairly achievable all the same. This GAA Connacht football semi-final has focused attention on Galway's poor recent record against their neighbours – four defeats since the last victory seven years ago.
The home side will be nonetheless upbeat about this because there is such generous room for improvement on both last year’s damp squib in Castlebar and the team’s annihilation at this venue in 2013.
Galway are also a couple of years’ further down the road with a group of promising young players and have already had two championship outings while their opponents have yet to play. They suffered a setback with the loss of the talented Shane Walsh whose hand was broken in the traumatic circumstances of a fatal car crash.
Kevin Walsh's side are, however, well covered in the forwards with the outstanding Damien Comer and Corofin's Michael Lundy, All-Ireland club success under his belt this spring.
Genuine talent
Issues arise farther back. Although Walsh has tried to drill a more forbidding defensive outlook into the team and in Liam Silke they have a genuine talent with pace and skill, the defence that conceded the second highest goals tally in a modest Division Two and coughed up chances against a Leitrim side otherwise well beaten will need plenty of improvement against Mayo.
In Carrick-on-Shannon there was also a whopping concession of 40 frees, indicating really bad habits going into a match where Cillian O’Connor kicks the opposition’s placed balls.
Mayo's anxieties have been more to do with off-field matters, primarily the change in management and the need for players to click with Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly having been so committed to James Horan's regime. There has also been continuity, though, as the influential Donie Buckley, who coached the destruction of Galway two years ago is still on board.
Turbulent setting
After a turbulent settling-in period the word appears to be that the spring training week in Portugal went sufficiently well for a lacklustre league campaign to be parked and a renewed sense of purpose to emerge.
Suspicions that the team must be experiencing some form of fatigue given the unrequited efforts of the past four years can’t be completely allayed tomorrow but a good display with the energy and tempo of Mayo’s championship form in the past four years would be a reassurance.
Team selection shows some interesting variations. David Clarke is back in goal, an adjustment exchanging Rob Hennelly's kick-outs for command of the square, and Tom Parsons makes his first championship line-up since the county's last defeat in the province five years ago – at the hands of a Sligo team managed by Kevin Walsh.
At his mobile best Parsons is a significant addition – he was man of the match against Cork in his only league start – but if not fully engaged his value is less obvious.
Mayo's strength and conditioning is also expected to give them an advantage but ultimately this should be decided in favour of the team, which has been an established Division One side with an elite championship pedigree.
THE LOWDOWN
Last meeting: 2014 Connacht final, MacHale Park, Mayo 3-14, Galway 0-16.
Odds: Galway 9/4, Mayo 1/2 and 15/2 the draw.
Injuries: Mayo's Evan Regan is a long-term absentee with a broken collarbone and Donal Vaughan has missed 10 days training due to injury but is recovered whereas Galway are missing All Star nominee forward Shane Walsh who sustained a broken hand in a car crash last week.
Suspension: None
Just the ticket: Stand €25 and Terrace €20. Juveniles €5. Concessions available for students and senior citizens at designated turnstiles.
Verdict: Mayo
GALWAY: Tba
MAYO: David Clarke; Chris Barrett, Kevin Keane, Keith Higgins; Lee Keegan, Tom Cunniffe, Colm Boyle; Séamus O'Shea, Tom Parsons; Diarmuid O'Connor, Aidan O'Shea, Kevin McLoughlin; Andy Moran, Cillian O'Connor, Jason Doherty.
Referee: Pádraig Hughes (Armagh).
