Search Results for 'Rob Finnerty'

Though they were never going to say it publicly, once the championship draw was made, Padraic Joyce and Galway’s focus would have inevitably shifted towards a Connacht final on May 10.

Galway's senior footballers travel to Páirc Seán MacDiarmada to take on Leitrim in the Connacht Senior Football Championship semi-final this Saturday.

With the Connacht championship now firmly on the horizon, attention inevitably turns to what Galway’s starting XV might look like. League football often raises as many questions as answers, and that certainly seems to be the case this year.

Survival but no finals or silverware. That’s the bottom line for Galway’s two flagship GAA teams after their National League campaigns wrapped up last weekend.

Galway face Connacht rivals Roscommon at Pearse Stadium this Saturday evening as they look to build on their National Football League momentum.

The year, 1981, remains the last time Galway lifted a Division One National Football League title, a statistic that still jars when you consider the calibre of footballers who have worn the maroon and white in the interim.

Despite managing just a single win from four National League outings, there is still a glass-half-full case to be made for the early season form of the Galway men’s flagship football and hurling teams.

Galway arrived at the Athletic Grounds carrying the kind of pressure that can crush a young team. Pointless after two rounds of the Allianz League and still smarting from defeat against Mayo a week earlier, Padraic Joyce’s side knew another defeat would leave relegation fears looming large, with a daunting trip to Tralee next on the horizon. Instead, what followed was a display of defiance, bravery and attacking zest that reignited their season and delivered a famous victory, sealed by Rob Finnerty’s free right on the hooter.

When the lights switch on at Pearse Stadium this Saturday night (7.30pm), two sides at very different points in their journeys will collide in the Galway Senior Football Championship final.

There have been bumps and bruises for some, smoother passage for others, but as the Galway Senior Football Championship reaches its semi-final stage, the four teams most expected to be here have navigated their way through.