Galway's Shane McGrath back in action for Dunmore MacHales

GALWAY football star Shane McGrath was in back action for his club Dunmore MacHales in their Division Two league final win over St Michaels last Friday. After Galway’s exit to Dublin in the championship, McGrath was straight back into his action with club alongside inter-county team mate Colm Costello.

McGrath enjoyed a breakout season with the Galway senior footballers. Dunmore MacHales team manager Michael Halliday was satisfied with the performance of his players in overcoming a spirited challenge from the city club.

‘‘It’s a good victory for us,’’ he said. ‘‘We were playing against a very competitive team in Michael’s; we played them earlier in the year and it was a good game that day and it was the same again today. So, it’s definitely good preparation for championship and we’ll roll on now and see how we get on.

‘‘We played very well against the wind, and we moved the ball fairly nicely. We were also a bit sloppy on occasions, but when we got the ball into the right positions we did finish very well.’’

After a very solid first half performance, Dunmore played their best football in the third quarter of the match. Halliday was pleased with how his players went up through the gears to see off their opponents.

‘‘There was a very strong breeze there in the second half and like every team, we were trying to get our best two point shooters on the ball. We managed to get Shane (McGrath) and Pádraig (Costello) into good positions a couple of times and they have that in their locker. But in fairness, the other lads worked very hard to set those chances up.’’

‘‘The lads have trained very hard this year. We’re division two champions now, but obviously championship is what it’s all about. We’re going to knuckle down now and prepare for Monivea-Abbey in four weeks-time,’’ he concluded.