Galway hurlers and footballers set off on a long road to glory in 2025
Inside Track with John McIntyre
YOU’D nearly struggle to recollect the winners of last year’s National Leagues – Derry in football and Clare in hurling – but that won’t stop the crowds from descending on venues all-round the country for the start of the 2024 competitions this weekend.
With the pre-season tournaments kicked to touch for 2025 – my hunch is that they will be restored next year given all the challenge matches which went ahead in their place – it should result in big attendances for the opening round of the league given most counties have been in competitive hibernation since early last summer.
Certainly, Galway supporters have two attractive fixtures to look forward to within less than 24 hours of each other at Pearse Stadium. The repeat of last year’s All-Ireland football final between Armagh and the Tribesmen would draw a decent crowd in any event, but with Saturday’s clash the first game to be staged under floodlights at the venue, expect the turnstiles to click merrily.
Though the game is being televised by RTE, it will be disappointing – weather permitting – if an attendance well into five figures doesn’t turn up in Salthill. Armagh fans will likely travel west in big numbers, and it is to be hoped that the unique experience of watching the match under floodlights will reduce some of the antipathy towards Pearse Stadium.
Galway are favourites to turn the tables on Armagh and while a home victory would only amount to a tiny consolation for what unfolded at Croke Park in late July, it would set Padraic Joyce’s team up for a decent campaign at least. It will be interesting to see what fringe or new players get a run in this league opener.
Joyce hasn’t hidden his desire for Galway footballers to end over four decades without a National League title and, to this end, one expects the men in maroon will be well up for the visit of the All-Ireland champions. In the longer term, the team management will be hoping to avoid the injury crisis which dogged the squad for a large part of 2024.
The following afternoon, two teams who aren’t viewed as serious contenders for the Liam McCarthy Cup this year will strive for an early season lift. Both Tipperary and Galway have drifted well off the pace over the past couple of years and while Henry Shefflin exited Galway, Liam Cahill is still leading Tipperary from the sideline.
Pictured: Women’s Soccer award winner Julie-Ann Russell, with her parents Walter and Úna, her sister Tara and her brother John, at the Medtronic Galway Sports Stars awards banquet in the Galway Bay Hotel. Photo: Iain McDonald.