Galway have made two changes for Saturday's All-Ireland football final replay at Croke Park but there is still no place on the Kerry team for Maurice Fitzgerald which will start unchanged from the drawn final. Neither selection will come as a great surprise but the controversy surrounding Fitzgerald's omission is certain to rumble on.
There had been speculation that the 1997 Footballer of the Year might come into the team in place of Dara O Cinneide but manager Paidi O Se sticks with his original selection despite the player's own insistence that he is fully match fit. Fitzgerald's appearance in the drawn match wasn't particularly effective but there are those within the county who maintain that he was played out of position. He is, however, certain to appear at some stage on Saturday.
Both Galway changes were on the cards. Kevin Walsh replaces Joe Bergin at centrefield and Richie Fahey takes over from winning 1998 captain Ray Silke. From Galway's perspective, the changes reflect the realities of the first match which saw the Connacht champions freeze for most of the first half.
Only when Walsh came on in the 19th minute did they establish a grip at centrefield. Up until then the match had passed Bergin by as Kerry won nearly every ball and the team's half lines hacked up on the breaks. Silke had been in trouble on Michael Francis Russell and didn't fare an awful lot better when switched on to John Crowley. Fahey, a brother of full back Gary, put in a good performance when replacing Silke in the corner after 40 minutes.
Despite the success of these substitutions there had been no certainty that manager John O'Mahony would stick with the changes from the start of the replay. Walsh hasn't started a match all year and his appearances as a replacement have been incrementally stepped up from a few minutes against Leitrim in the Connacht final, 20 minutes against Kildare in the All-Ireland semi-final and 50 minutes the last day.
O'Mahony and his selectors obviously believe that the Killanin clubman is now ready for a full 70 minutes. "We are happy that Kevin is fully fit and have no worries about starting him," he said when announcing the team.
By extension the Galway management must also feel that Bergin, only 19, has a major role to play on Saturday as he is bound to see activity at some stage. Up until last night, there had been speculation that Bergin might displace Tommy Joyce in the forwards but O'Mahony has kept faith with the attack which started the last day.
There are a number of positional switches up front. Captain Padraig Joyce starts on the 40 where he moved as part of the readjustments which brought in Walsh and helped turn the match for Galway. The big question will be whether Joyce's Kerry counterpart Seamus Moynihan will stay at full back where he started the drawn match or follow Joyce to the half line. Joyce's brother Tommy moves to the right wing and Paul Clancy switches into full forward.
Kerry have been named as they were for the drawn match rather than as they started. Before the throw-in O Cinneide and Liam Hassett swapped, as did Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Tom O'Sullivan.
