Canning and Hayes key to Galway’s hopes

Galway’s plans for tomorrow will be simple — get the ball to Damien Hayes and Joe Canning.

In his games so far Canning has spent the first quarter inside near goal and then he has been given a free role but for it to work his colleagues must supply good quality ball as often as possible and set him up in one-on-one situations with his marker.

The only way to make this happen is to avoid the long-ball game and play a short precise passing game from the defence to set up Galway’s half forwards and put Canning in front of goal. An early Galway goal would put them in prime position and heap pressure on the champions.