Cork v Galway, Croke Park, 5pm Despite being two of the blue-chip football counties, Cork and Galway is one of the quieter rivalries around, with the record books showing just five championship meetings between the sides since 1973. Their last clash was also at the quarter-final stage of the competition in 2005, when the Rebels won by 2-14 to 2-11. Both teams have moved on considerably since then – in terms of personnel at least – with Michael Meehan, Seán Armstrong and Finian Hanley Galway’s survivors and Graham Canty and Noel O’Leary still in place for Cork. The simple truth of the matter is that for the losers on Saturday, their season will be judged as a failure. Galway have just about come around after their demolition by Mayo in the Connacht quarter-final, but qualifier wins over Tipperary, Waterford and Armagh won’t be enough to shield them from the critics if they lose. After struggling against Tipp and Waterford, at least Alan Mulholland’s side showed some zip in the 1-11 to 0-9 defeat of Armagh, although the Orchard County hadn’t exactly set the competition alight (the eight-goal mauling of a demoralised Leitrim aside) prior to that. And yet, after a remarkably poor sequence of defeats in the qualifiers dating back to 2004, the Tribesmen have now strung three wins together in the back door and it’s impossible to measure the benefits they will have gained in gathering that momentum. In theory, Cork should present a similar challenge to the one Galway failed so miserably against Mayo, but the Rebels have looked a pale shadow of themselves this year. Big wins over Limerick and Clare were poor preparation for the Munster final against Kerry, and Conor Counihan’s side drowned in the first half in Killarney before finally mustering a comeback that fell short in the second half. Counihan has made a whopping six changes from the Kerry game, but the selected line-out is likely to change before throw-in. Cork have named Pearse O’Neill and Alan O’Connor in midfield after their arrival against Kerry sparked the revival. They’ll need to be at their best against Paul Conroy and Tom Flynn. Mark Collins and Ciarán Sheehan also come into a new-look attack. Cork are aiming to reach the All-Ireland quarter-final for the ninth successive year, while Galway haven’t been in the last eight since 2008, when they lost an epic to Kerry. Remarkably, Galway are also looking to win a championship game at Croke Park for the first time since the 2001 All-Ireland final.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 21:18:21 +0000
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