GAA Championship weekend preview: Saturday's action
GAA Championship: Peter McNamara analyses the live televised action on Saturday.
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It could turn out to be significant that Joe Canning has had both a game and another six days of recovery under his belt before this tie as the Portumna clubman was out of sorts in Croke Park on the back of his much-documented hand injury.
There is reason to believe Galway may have slightly greater scope for offensive improvement in this forthcoming tussle too with an even more telling input to come from Jonathan Glynn and Jason Flynn.
Dublin, on the other hand, will be focusing more this week on developing attacking plays in order to create goalscoring opportunities, something they did not do enough of at headquarters.
Ger Cunningham’s men need to get in behind Galway’s defensive lines instead of opting to shoot from any angle that is before them as the Metropolitans may need goals on this occasion to advance to the last four of the provincial championship.
Dublin were fancied to win last week and did not do a whole lot wrong.
Yet, their inability to close out tight games is becoming an issue and because of that it is possible Galway could edge to a victory by a minuscule margin.
The Sky Sports crew begin their Championship coverage by broadcasting the meeting of Kildare and Laois live in an intriguing Leinster SFC quarter-final clash.
Of course, all week the talk has been that the victor of this encounter will merely be practice-match material for Dublin in the provincial semi-final.
Still, neither side, especially Kildare if Jason Ryan’s side do prevail, will see things in such a negative light and this local derby tie could be enthralling in O’Connor Park.
The key question is: What impact will relegation to the third-tier of the league structure have on Kildare?
Laois survived the drop but were clawing desperately at the cliff-face themselves in the same division.
Greater things have been touted for Kildare for years yet no silverware of note has been earned by the Lilywhites despite their quests for success.
Still, Ryan is a seriously shrewd coach and tactically Kildare will be well-placed to negate Tómas Ó Flatharta’s side.
It will be crucial though for Kildare that they man-mark Ross Munnelly because he remains as the main go-to forward for Laois.
Additionally, Ryan will need Emmet Bolton to be able to orchestrate attacks and counter-attacks for Kildare from deep positions on the field.
Ó Flatharta will be conscious of containing Bolton.
However, Bolton could prove to be match-winning again on this occasion as he was when the sides met in the league last March.
Don’t miss analysis of Sunday’s Championship encounters which will be posted online on Saturday.
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