Robert Finnerty leading the charge for Salthill Knocknacarra in attack
ROBERT Finnerty has arguably been the most consistent forward in Galway over the past two seasons.
Finnerty has continued his fine form into the club season for Salthill Knocknacarra racking up an impressive 5-28 and is currently leading the scoring He sealed Salthill Knocknacarra’s place into the county final with two late points in the closing stages of the second half in their two point win over Corofin in the last four.
“It’s just good to be injury-free; I was carrying a knock last year, the same the year before. This is the first time in a good few years now I’ve got a clean run with the club, it’s good in that way,” he said.
Finnerty admitted it can take time to readjust to club football with Salthill Knocknacarra after returning from inter-county duty with Galway.
“It kind of takes a while to get used to playing with the lads again, I was in Australia once we finished up with Galway for six weeks. I didn’t really play before that Milltown game, definitely that was probably my worst performance to date.
“I found it hard to get on the ball, trying to get back into the swing of playing with the lads more than anything. It can be difficult but once you get a few games under your belt, it’s almost like you remember how to play with each other again," explained the 2024 All-Star.
Finnerty is yet to get his hands on a Frank Fox medal, Brian Conlon is the only survivor from 2012 county final winning side who is a member of the current Salthill Knocknacarra panel.
“It would be unbelievable (to get a county medal), it’s something I’ve always wanted since I started playing with Salthill Knocknacarra. I’ve been chasing that medal and to get over the line it would be special. Hopefully it happens and we’ll see the scenes after then.”
Salthill Knocknacarra have suffered their share of county final heartbreak against Maigh Cuilinn in recent years, losing by a single point in the 2022 decider before falling to a two-point defeat against the same opposition in last year’s Galway SFC final. Maigh Cuilinn head into Saturday night’s clash as strong favourites, but Finnerty is confident Salthill can go one step further this time around.
“I don’t expect it to be anything different if I’m being honest, there’s probably a bit of a narrative out there that a lot of people think it’s going to be easy enough for Maigh Cuilinn. We have loads of confidence in what we have in our group and it should be a tight game and we’re definitely very confident going into it.”
The Salthill Knocknacarra forward admitted last year’s county final defeat to Maigh Cuilinn was a difficult one to take.
“It’s tough when you lose a county final like that by such a small margin, to watch the opposite team go on and compete, it was tough enough, it definitely did sit with us for a while.”
Finian Hanley is now into his third year in charge of Salthill Knocknacarra and the 2026 All-star nominee now feels that they have become a more consistent team under Hanley.
“There’s been a good bit more consistency the last few years, we’ve been in a semi final every year since 2022 bar 2023 when we lost to Maigh Cuilinn in the quarter-final.There’s huge consistency in the group at the minute which is great.
“The management team has a good understanding of us as people first and forertmost, a lot of us would have played with them. It’s a really professional set-up, they’re doing a good job of setting us up and their coaching has been really good. They’re bringing young lads through every single year and they’re managing to hold onto players which is important,” concluded Finnerty.