Friends reunited as Monaghan and Galway to add new chapter to modern rivalry 

The counties have met a half dozen times in the last six years.

FAMILY TIES: Galway manager Padraic Joyce is linked by marriage to the Farney. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Maybe it's because he is married to a Monaghan woman or maybe it's because the Farney are simply a team that refuses to be ignored.

Either way, a rivalry that Galway manager Padraic Joyce couldn't have conceived of in his playing days has suddenly developed and come sharply into focus.

Galway and Monaghan have met six times in the last six years, between the league and Championship, and while Galway have won four, Monaghan have arguably won the two that really counted.

Beating Galway in a final round Super 8s game in 2018 secured Monaghan's All-Ireland semi-final place that season. Three years later, with then manager Seamus McEnaney banned following a breach of covid regulations, Monaghan beat Galway again in a Division 1 relegation play-off in Clones. After extra-time.

Joyce was so distraught afterwards, he sidestepped media duties.

Three years on, it'll be an even greater disaster from Galway's perspective if Monaghan get the jump on them. Galway were only nudged into the preliminary quarter-finals on scoring difference after finishing Round 3 with a draw against Armagh. By any metrics it was a game they should have won.

Monaghan, meanwhile, won their first game since January last weekend. They looked shaky enough doing so, faltering down the home straight against Meath and scraping by with three points to spare.

Monaghan manager Vinny Corey has put out the clarion call that their season starts here, noting that 'this time two weeks, there's only four teams left', the inference being that Monaghan can be among them.

Injuries could be an issue. Joel Wilson (head), captain Kieran Duffy (hamstring), Karl O'Connell (groin) and Ryan O'Toole (arm) are all concerns. Darren Hughes (knee) is definitely out while Karl Gallagher and Conor Boyle stepped away this season and Kieran Hughes, Shane Carey and Fintan Kelly retired over winter.

It's why Corey doesn't agree that coming through last year's preliminary quarter-finals and quarter-finals will necessarily stand to them now.

"We did do that but the only thing I'd say is it was a different team last year, we're probably missing six or seven from that," said Corey. "Even from the defence last year, you only had half of those defenders against Meath. It's tough but it's an opportunity for boys to step up, and we need them to step up. Let's see what this weekend brings, they'll be stepping up against tougher opposition again."

When the sides met in the league, at Clones in March, both were injury ravaged and Galway won by 3-12 to 0-14.

"What we did two months ago or two weeks ago is irrelevant," argued Corey, whose side went nine league and Championship games in all without a win. "When you're losing games confidence is going to take a hit, you could see that. And we've seen that with other teams as well, it's human nature.

"We've had a lot of adversity and losing players and different things but listen, this is an exceptional group, we've had nobody who has walked away."