Galway ladies footballers can be even better says Daniel Moynihan

“We had a spread of scorers from the half-back line all the way up to the full-forward line. If a couple of the full-back line got forward, they would as well. We also had players coming off the bench who made a difference and that is pleasing,” Moynihan told Tribune Sport.

Galway converted ten points from their eighteen shots during the first half which saw them open up a 0-10 to 0-3 lead at the interval.

“It was not a polished performance. We left scores behind and I don’t think the conversion rate was where it needed to be. Once we get over this little celebration of reaching the final, it’s back to work on Wednesday. We’ll review this game and try to remedy some of the things that didn’t go right for us."

Galway have now progressed to their sixth All-Ireland ladies football final and are appearing in their first final since 2024 where they were defeated by Kerry by 12 points.

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The Galway manager now believes his side is ready to take the next step. “If you look at my first year involved we got to that final, I don’t think we were particularly ready for it if you know what I mean. We gave it a crack and it didn’t work out. The team has grown over the last two years, I don’t think they are going to be phased by Croke Park or facing Kerry in a final.

“I think we are more rounded now, better squad and probably a little more ready for the occasion that comes with it. Please God we put in a good performance. We are capable of doing that,” explained the Ballinasloe clubman.

The focus will be on themselves in the lead into the All-Ireland final according to Moynihan. “We’ll just concentrate on ourselves in the final. We can beat anybody in the country if we play our football and that has to be our attitude.”

The Connacht champions targeted a fast start and were intent on getting on top from early on during their All-Ireland semi final win over Armagh.

“We came out strong and fast, it’s very difficult in this heat to try and keep that going for 60 minutes but in fairness that 30 minutes was excellent. We just carried on from there. I’ve spoken about already the finishers that came on and made a huge impact for us as well. I’m very proud of the whole group.”

Shauna Hynes chipped in with four points off the bench, while Louise Ward, Chellene Trill, Riona Quinn and Sophie Healy were also introduced.

Aoife O'Rourke, Aisling Madden, Lynsey Noone, Aoife Molloy and Andrea Trill, all regular contributors during the league campaign, were not even called upon, highlighting the remarkable strength and depth within the Galway panel.

“We are blessed with the talent we have in Galway, that’s a testament to the work the clubs have been doing. It’s very difficult to pick a 15 and picking the five to come on as well. We have to list a panel of 30 but we also have a number of girls who aren’t in that 30 but are pushing hard.

“We just looked at this one particular game, that was the key thing for us, we weren’t looking past it. Armagh have huge strengths, great forwards that can cause real problems for us, we wanted to negate some of those hard runs, defensively we did really well against them,” concluded Moynihan.