Galway footballer, Dylan McHugh, pictured as AIB announces a five-year extension to its sponsorships of the GAA All-Ireland Football Championship and the AIB Camogie and GAA All-Ireland Club Championships. AIB is extremely proud to be extending their support of #TheToughest championships, as well as the players and communities involved in Gaelic Games nationwide.
By John Harrington
When the draw for the All-Ireland SFC group stages were made on Tuesday, some GAA supporters couldn’t help but get ahead of themselves.
Only two teams in each of the four groups are currently known for definite, but the temptation to predict who the provincial winners and runners up will be and so hazard a guess at the final composition proved irresistible to many.
A common consensus was that Galway will be in a highly competitive looking Group 2 as Connacht champions alongside the Ulster runner-up, Tyrone, and Westmeath.
Of course, for that scenario to pass they’ll have to first beat Sligo in Sunday’s Connacht Final.
Some supporters might be happy to look further down the road, but Galway defender Dylan McHugh is adamant neither he nor any of his team-mates are going to take the Sligo challenge for granted this weekend.
"A lot of lads in our group would have played in a minor final in 2015 and an U21 final in 2017 against Sligo and drew the minor and won after the replay in the U21 final,” says McHugh.
“Pádraic (Joyce) has emphasised the 2007 Connacht final when Sligo beat Galway as well.
“We won't be overlooking Sligo at all, we'll be preparing to get a performance on Sunday."
Dylan McHugh of Galway celebrates at the final whistle after his side's victory in during the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Roscommon and Galway at Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
McHugh is especially wary of the challenge he’ll face in the Galway rearguard against a Sligo forward-line that possesses plenty of dangerous weapons.
"They'll be throwing the kitchen sink at us,” he says. “They have great forwards: [Paddy] O'Connor, [Niall] Murphy, [Seán] Carrabine, they're all great players that need to be watched.
“I would have played underage with Galway against Sligo a lot, and a lot of those lads will be playing against us.
“I know they're good footballers, they have loads of momentum as well. They've only lost one league game so they'll be full of confidence. We need to be ready."
This current Galway team wouldn't strike you as one in danger of getting too far ahead of themselves. They've been performing in a business like manner and now look capable of winning matches in a variety of ways.
"We have a flexible group of players that can play different ways, be it sitting back a bit more and sometimes being that bit more offensive," says McHugh.
"But that's probably just down to the new players that we have, more squad depth, and just being able to play the game in different ways.
"You'd be happy enough with how this year has gone so far but there's an awful lot of football still to be played. We've unearthed a couple of new players, getting a few players back into the squad and it's all good."
