There’s not much more to say about the team that’s been named for Sunday, except perhaps to note the slight oddity in naming Pat Harte, an out-and-out left-footer, at left-half forward. No more than the last day, of course, we shouldn’t expect to see him operating from wide on the left and it is the case (as it was last Sunday) that two of the half-forward berths are being occupied by midfielders. Galway will have at least three centre-field men (Coleman, Cullinane and Bergin) in the same area so I think we can expect to see a bit of congestion around there on Sunday.

The other point to note about our team for Sunday is that, in contrast with Galway’s selection, we haven’t got too many survivors from that torrid clash in Salthill less than a year ago. Of the starting fifteen for Sunday, only six (Heaney, Higgins, Dillon, Harte, Mortimor and Moran) started the match for us in Pearse Stadium, with two others (Howley and Austie) coming on as subs. That’s a fair old swap-out in personnel, especially when compared with Galway’s situation where, as was noted the other day, fourteen of their side for Sunday played some part in that match in May last year.

But, enough of that. What I really want to talk about is the weather. No, really. Today might be nice and pleasant but the forecast for Sunday looks distinctly ugly, with temperatures plunging back down to single figures and with dire mutterings about wintry showers and sleet and such like. If that scenario does come to pass, then any hopes about the match being played in something approaching championship-style conditions will have gone by the board. All those undercover stewards will also find it more difficult to mask their presence amongst a crowd composed solely of the hard-core brigade. Oh well, never mind – at least under Liam Sammon, Galway appear to be interested in playing football again. Whatever about the weather, under Peter Ford one would always have been safe to forecast the presence of an ugly brand of football.