Galway name their team for Saturday

Willie Joe

A short while ago, Galway named their team and subs for Saturday evening’s National League Division One opener against our lads at MacHale Park (throw-in 7.30pm). Here’s the full match-day list they’ve named:

That’s a strong starting line-up, featuring eleven of the team that started in last year’s All-Ireland final. Out from then go Kieran Molloy (injured), Liam Silke (unavailable), Patrick Kelly and Shane Walsh while into the team for Saturday night come Eoghan Kelly, Daniel O’Flaherty, Paul Kelly and Dessie Conneely.

I think it’s safe to conclude that, with that team announcement, PJ is in no mood to give our new management team an easy ride in their first competitive outing. It’ll be interesting to see our line-up for the game.

70 thoughts on “Galway name their team for Saturday”

  1. Yeah I don’t think ours will be as strong really. That said, we probably have more done.
    Mayo will earn their win if they get one.

  2. Strong Galway team. Really looking forward to it now but have a gut feeling it will be a Galway win. Time will tell. Up Mayo

  3. Eoghan Kelly probably a potential weakness on that Galway team. A good player but really he’s an attacking wing back rather than a tight marking corner back. Whoever is on him will probably get a fair bit of space.

  4. Our Here Comes the Weekend pod went live for club members on Patreon a short while ago tonight. Mike, Colm Boyle and Barry Cullinane are on it. No quarter asked or given!

  5. The fact that Liam Silke and Kieran Molloy are most likely out for the season it’s pretty much Galway’s strongest 15 with the exception of Shane Walsh and probably Peter Cooke.

    There is also a lot of lads in that starting team who have been playing football in recent weeks between club and college commitments so from a fitness point of view we might not be too far ahead.

    Its a great game for who ever wins to lay down a marker and get a few points on the board, i hope whatever 15 we pick the lads come out all guns blazing on Saturday night.

  6. Not much experimentation there from Mr Joyce. Would say they would like to continue to have the upper hand on us. Good job we are playing at home!!! Not. It may only be the league in January but this looks like a really tough fixture.

  7. As everyone else above pretty much as said I do not think our team will be as strong. Galway are out to prove that last year getting to final is just the begining I would say and fair play to them!

    I think our team will have some of our main starters but after last years injuries do not think they will want to risk everyone but still think we will name a strong team to. If we do loose not the end of the road ha but never write off mayo as they say (generally) haha

  8. 10 changes from the Galway FBD line up v Mayo which i think shows how serious Joyce and his management was taking that comp.

  9. First real road test for the new defensive structure aka blanket defence. With Keegan and Mullin absent and a lot of new players in the ranks it’s an ideal time to adopt what every other county has and add a Mayo tweak to it. We will need to be patient as it will be a major adjustment for us supporters looking out at the opponents half devoid of a Green and Red shirt!

    Strong Galway side out so will be very interesting. We need to get off to a winning start but won’t be surprised if we share the points.

  10. About to listen to the new Podcast with my breakfast coffee. After looking at that Galway lineup I’m hoping the lads might offer a few crumbs of comfort to calm my panic!

  11. I think Galway want to consolidate division one survival first and foremost, and the earlier they can do that the more they can try a few things in later rounds

    I thought this was a banker for mayo until now, that said I still would be disappointed enough to lose it (it’s more important for mayo after last season imo), I’d doubt this Galway side have done a whole lot of collective training, and while the team is strong on paper, a lot of them won’t be up to near full pace. They’re also without one of the top players in the country. As far as I’m aware Jack Glynn and mcdaid are only back after injuries.

    I’d say deep down Joyce would be happy with a performance, get a few Moycullen lads some action and aim to have them in full swing by about round 3 onwards

  13. Seems to be alot of fear here just because ye see familiar names on the Galway team.
    It’s a long time ago since the All Ireland was played last year.
    How many of the establishment Galway players went missing in that final ?, a few big names.
    Let’s see what some of the new Mayo players can do with assistance from the established guys.

  14. 8 players from Moycullen on the panel.
    That has to be some sort of a record.
    Proud day for that club and the 3 Kelly brothers starting. Their dad was a brilliant player for Galway too who died young. Padraig Kelly, nice for the family. Best of luck to them

  15. Strong team but minus Walsh reduces their scoring threat, but they’ll still be hard enough to score against. This will be a good test for McStay in terms of tactics, setup and ability to beat the blanket. Now it is January so don’t expect peak fitness etc. but approach and style of play will gives us plenty of clues for the future. This is a big game for me albeit for different meanings / reasons…

  16. @mayo88.agree 100 percent. What kind of team were people expecting to face. We have a team well capable of taking care of business tomorrow and that’s not taking that galway team lightly. It will definitely be a struggle

  17. Even without Walsh that’s a strong team. Finnerty looked good in FBD and Conneely very good for club by all accounts with Burke maybe not yet back to old form but Comer is a handful, hopefully we name McBrien. Only about 4 that wouldn’t make their championship team although we might have a few weeks more training in the bag. An experimental team for us unlikely to test them.

  18. Comer at full forward is key , I would expect plenty of high balls into him to beat the blanket , conroy and Mc Daid ability to take scores from distance will also be key..

  19. Galway have named a strong team – so what. I never cease to be amazed at the respect posters here give our neighbours. Did we expect Galway would not want to beat us or something?

    Speaking of Galway, I took a look at Laochra Gael’s profile of Joe Canning last night. Absolutely marvellous. They have added a cutting edge to these documentaries, and the portrait of Joe was no maroon wash. His wonderful skills were on display, but there was plenty of flak for him too. The reason of course was the burden he carried every time he put on the Galway jersey. If you weren’t paying attention, you could be forgiven for thinking that Galway were a bunch of losers (now who does that remind one of)? But to paraphrase the Saw Doctors, they did ‘win just once’, Joe got his medal, and no one deserved it more.

    It struck me how much of a contribution Anthony Cunningham made, and how little thanks he got for it! Might not have been a bad option for us; not that I’m complaining about our management. Not yet anyway!

  20. Mayo defence without Keegan, Mullen and O Hora will not have the physical strength to stop strong Galway attack. Looks like a fairly easy win for Galway.

  21. There’s plenty of weak spots in that galway team, especially in defence.
    Sean Kelly is obviously brilliant but the 2 brothers are fairly middling, eoghan Kelly in particular will be targeted. Similarly he’s a brilliant club player but I’m not convinced by Conneely at county level

    Not much match winners on the bench there either for galway, mostly good midfield options like Maher and Cooke so I think they are well stacked for midfield.

    I just think Mayo will want it more, the new manager bounce means they will be targeting the 1st league game more than the others just as a statement win for mcstay, also seem to be ahead of galway fitness wise at the moment.

    Mayo to win by 4, Mayo 1-15 Galway 1-11

  23. ….laughing at some of the poor mouthing in the comments. I can only assume some of you are attempting the reverse jinx.

    How will we keep the ball kicked out to galway etc? lol

    Leave the cute hoor stuff to the kerry lads 😉

  24. The Joe Canning programme last night was excellent- as all the Laochra Gael programmes are.
    It gave an insight into the pressure and expectation to perform the top intercounty players are under. Hard to see how they enjoy it at that level. I am sure a lot of the great Mayo players were/are under the same pressure Joe felt. All these players have families, friends and a life outside of football – a lot of keyboard experts dont seem to realise this.

  25. Great strength in depth in that Galway panel with subs like the excellent Owen Gallagher to call on. Big test for Mayo, which is what we need..

  26. Joe Canning won the lot sometimes carrying teams.
    2 Minor All Ireland
    1 U21 All Ireland
    Fitzgibbon Cup with LIT
    5 County Medals and 4 All Ireland Clubs with Portumna.
    Young Hurler of the year, hurler of the year.
    All Ireland Senior Medal.
    Anyone calling him a choker or underachiever would want to take a good look at themselves.
    And lots of keyboard warriors did

  27. Don’t see how people are surprised by Galway naming a strong team. Id expect us to name our strongest availabe team also. With a condensed season and more games everyone will be looking to maintain their div 1 status early and use the latter half of the league for championship preparation. Galway have a strong team out but I think we are well ahead of them regarding training and conditioning at this early stage of the year. If Mayo are in it with 20 mins to go I can see us taking the win.

  28. The league matters.

    A defining moment/match for Mayo and Kerry was that wet night down in Tralee last year in the league. We should have at least got a draw but Kerry held on and gained so much strength and belief from that, taking it on with them right through to championship. In a funny way, it defined the season for both teams: Mayo learning how to lose tight matches, Kerry learning how to win them.

    The league matters.

  29. Probably as strong a team as we could field right now.
    I’m assuming Ian Burke and Patrick Kelly are injured.
    Hard to know how it will go – this time of year is tricky to predict. I don’t think we have as much pre season work done as Mayo at this point.
    I’d worry about us defensively. I can’t emphasise how big of a loss Liam Silke is going to be for us this year. It is much more difficult to fill a gap in the full back line than the half line. We don’t have any man marking corner backs left (Johnny McGrath is injured) – hence Eoghan Kelly being tried there (he hasn’t been playing there at all for either Moycullen or NUIG).
    I guess this is the place to try it and see how it goes – a lot of intercounty corner backs are “converted” from further out the field.
    The other big thing for me is that we are back to Gleeson in goal. I mean every other manager out there will be delighted to see that. It is such a huge weak spot in our ream as was plain to see last year. I honestly cannot believe we haven’t been able to find someone better. His club won the Connacht intermediate club this year – and he made howlers in several of their games both in Galway and the Connacht/All Ireland series.
    Goalie and fullback line are the biggest worries for me.
    Seemingly Glynn and McDaid are carrying knocks, so would not be overly surprised if they didn’t start the game.
    Looking forward to the trip to Castlebar though. Should be a good one.

  30. I don’t think Galway are as ahead as we are in terms of fitness aa someone else said above. We only lost to nearly that same team last year by a point and we were very much a weakened team then. We have that new manager bounce and the energy is high in the sqyad as padraig o hora& others have said

    I wouldnt say easy win @culmore feeling a bit more positive as others said Galway were always going to name a strong team!

  32. @galwayman. Defence is as much about match ups as it is about positions. And there will be some interesting battles all around the pitch. No hiding places for sure. Any info on ref?

  35. Hard to believe Gleeson is back in goals for Galway.

    We have spent years on here debating which all-star keeper to play in the hennelly clarke debate but that seems like a nice problem to have when you see Galways goalkeeper woes.

    There has to be someone in Galway better then gleeson, there has to be. He is a disaster waiting to happen in every game I’ve seen

  37. I can’t believe the comments about the Galway goalkeeper,any time I have seen him he has been excellent,but it appears to me that if you get a reputation as an early riser you keep it for life,anyway I am looking forward to seeing the game and Mayo been successful

  38. What’s the story with Plunkett, has he recovered from injury? He was also a HUGE loss last year.

  39. @Corick bridge – He had a poor game against armagh last year so that is still probably fresh in people`s head but to be fair to the lad he recovered well for the semi final and final. The regular game time will give him a boost of confidence.

  42. Smart money is on Galway for this one , too many holes in the mayo defence , I dunno how we are going to fill them holes tbh , the defenders that have retired and left for sunnier climate were just too good to replace easy & im not convinced we can ever replace them , so high was the bar standard they set .

  44. People fretting because Galway have 10 changes from the FBD tie and have named a strong,what did ye expect!?
    We’ll have near enough 10 changes ourselves and as strong a team as we can name.
    Hard to predict this one,weather supposed to be dry and has been all week,I dont know who that will suit better.
    Big crowd and a big game (maybe the biggest game Mayo have ever played in January?)
    Excitement building,I’m hopeful Mayo can get a win.

  45. Fair play to people who are confident about tomorrow. We haven’t played a competitive game yet with alot of the players on this panel and also the new management, and due to that I would be giving them plenty of time and space to grow and get to know each other.

    If they put up a good show tomorrow and no injuries I would be more than happy with that

  46. Galway only got back in late November but they have about 8 or 9 players who only got back in early January due to club commitments. There is no way they have more work done than Mayo at this point anyway. I would expect a relatively significant fitness edge for Mayo. Galway have picked a strong enough team on paper but I doubt they the work done yet to be anywhere near their best. I guess we’ll see.

  47. Hope David McBrien starts at fullback, taking on Comer would be a major test for him. As with a few others I expect to be named it’s sink or swim. I believe we might see the beginning of another top 2 or 3 team emerging in Mayo with the best of the newbies joining our top established stars. Mayo by 1pt in a humdinger of a game.

  48. Think Gleeson actually did grand in the final, I watched it back again recently. He should have got a black card at one point though but aside from that he was fine. He was actually awful unlucky for one of those Armagh goals too, which was one of the most freakish bounces I’ve ever seen (so similar to Hennelly v Btubber in the club quarter final). He has one of the best long kickouts in the country. He’s not as poor as people make out (and if last year doesn’t bring him on, nothing will), and there’s not a whole lot else out there in Galway. Its not really PJ’s fault if Flaherty won’t commit (which seems a bit bizarre looking in from the outside but I don’t know his circumstances). I won’t jump the gun on that one though, as he’s heavily involved in Fitzgibbon hurling at the moment so might be given “leave” for the time being.

    Eoghan Kelly was one of the player’s of the club championship and more or less the unanimous choice to slot into Molloy’s role, among Galway fans I have spoken to. I’d doubt his naysayers have actually seen him play live that much given his lack of intercounty experience but in 2022 he had an excellent Sigerson and club campaign and is very much being called in on merit. As for playing him corner back, positions mean shag all anymore a lot of the time – especially when everyone plays a two man inside line anymore. That said he was given a man marking role on key players at times last year – incl on Rob Finnerty in the 2nd half of the county final

    I don’t get the despondency all round though, Galway have done very little collective training and this is some of their players’ first meaningful match in months. I’m surprised in a way Joyce has started the likes of McDaid, Sean kelly, Daly and Comer this early, they’re all amongst the best players in the country in their position on their day but I’d say all are well below full pelt at the minute. So on paper it looks a daunting task but I’d say Galway will be rusty enough. They’re also missing one of the top forwards in Ireland

    Mayo were very poor against Roscommon though so you certainly couldn’t guarantee anything. I recall some horror shows in early rounds of the league in recent times

  49. Comer only got back to Ireland a couple days before Christmas after 3 months away travelling. So even he probably only has 3 weeks training done. Hard to imagine the fitness or sharpness is going to be there yet.

  50. No Tomo Culhane in the squad,…..good for us but surely he makes their starting 15 this year…a serious talent

  52. My Team
    1.Hennelly
    2.Jack Coyne
    3.David Mcbrien
    4.Sam Callinan
    5.Enda Hession
    6. Paddy Durkan
    7.Conor Loftus
    8.Jordan Flynn
    9.Mathew Ruane
    10.Jack Carney
    11.Diarmuid O’Connor
    12.Bob Tuogh
    13.James Carr
    14.Cillian O’Connor
    15.Ryan ODonoghue

  54. I have a spare ticket for tomorrow night’s game in Castlebar, Can’t make the game reluctantly. I’m in Kildare but can email to first person who contacts me on 0863296001.

  55. Cheers Achill75
    Hopefully one of our own forward line will light it up tomorrow, RO’D I expect will herald his return

  56. Interesting Mayo team. No Cillian, Paddy, David McBrein or Aido. I expect they are all on the bench

  57. 1 Colm Reape Knockmore

    2 Jack Coyne Ballyhaunis

    3 Rory Brickenden Westport

    4 Enda Hession Garrymore

    5 Stephen Coen Hollymount-Carramore

    6 Conor Loftus Crossmolina Deel Rovers

    7 Donnacha McHugh Castlebar Mitchels

    8 Matthew Ruane Breaffy

    9 Diarmuid O’Connor Ballintubber

    10 Fionn McDonagh Westport

    11 Jack Carney Kilmeena

    12 Jordan Flynn Crossmolina Deel Rovers

    13 Aiden Orme Knockmore

    14 James Carr Ardagh

    15 Ryan O’Donoghue Beal an Mhuirthead

  58. Having seen both teams named now I would be a little bit worried about our back 6 v their front 6.
    They have a very good hf line v an inexperienced hb line,it’ll be interesting to see but that might not be so crucial if we are planning on flooding our defence but really important not to get caught on the counter.
    Quick ball into Comer will be very dangerous.

  60. Conor loftus at 6. Its like every year there tryna shoehorn him into some position. To no avail. Lets see how he does this time. We can try him in goal if it dont work

  61. I agree with Spectre. Conor Loftus is neither a defender or a midfielder. If he has to play try him at 11

  63. Whilst I don’t want to start off the year arguing with posters ,it appears that we missed a trick with our management team Spectre looks to have the answer,personally I believe that Conor Lottie has a lot to offer

  65. Corick bridge he was good under age for sure but at senior has never really delivered. Dont get me wrong i hope he is a revelation but its not gonna happen imo

  66. @Supermac

    In fairness Eoghan and Paul Kelly better than fairly middling. Both starters on the Connacht winning Moycullen team and NUIG Sigerson cup winning team last year. As for Conneely at county level i’d somewhat agree as i think his height and strength goes against him

  67. Looking it it you would think we have named a very strong team but fitness levels are probably below Mayo. I will be interested to see if that Mayo backline can prevent goals as the threat is there as seen in fbd match. Hard to know what to expect with Galway not back training too long and McStay has Mayo ready.

  68. Conor Loftus is a superbly talented footballer. He has been used in a sweeper role this year, and has been Mayo’s best player overall in the FBD matches … in my opinion.
    He has the athleticism and ball carrying skills to be effective in this role. Also he appears to have been busy in the gym since last year. Has added considerable upper body strength.

  69. @Claremorris I fully agree and hes dedinetly bulked up to such a lovely guy to from what I hear he went to my secondary school!

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