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Jim Gavin: 'It's a great opportunity to play Galway again'

Dublin manager Jim Gavin.

Dublin manager Jim Gavin.

By Cian O'Connell

Dublin manager Jim Gavin is looking forward to next weekend's Allianz Football League Final against Galway at Croke Park.

Fintan Kelly's late point earned victory for Monaghan over Dublin at GAA headquarters on Sunday, but Gavin is relishing another opportunity to face an in form Galway outfit.

"It's a bonus, if I'm honest we plan for the seven, and if we get an extra one we'll obviously take it," Gavin says about the League schedule.

"It's a great opportunity to play Galway again. We'd a cracking game down there last weekend in Salthill, a really enjoyable game, and I'm sure next week will be the same."

Gavin experimented during the game with Monaghan ahead of the Galway decider. "We gave lots of players opportunities there to start the game, and again when the game was in the mix, to put players in to experience that atmosphere, that intensity that Monaghan bring, you just can't replicate that in training," Gavin stated.

"To get that there will certainly bring those players on a lot. That was certainly a positive. But we'll reflect on the game and try to pick a strong team for next week."

Gavin acknowledges that Dublin aren't far off where they want to be in terms of fitness and performance ahead of the Leinster Championship.

"Yeah, I think so," Gavin replied. "We've planned for the seven games. We obviously came back a little bit later than everybody else in terms of our training cycle.

"There's a lot of work to do. Guys will go back to their clubs after next weekend after two rounds of hurling championship and football championship, and we won't see them for those five or six weeks.

"In physical terms we're where we want to be. Obviously performance isn't replicating that, so there'll be a lot of hard reflection on that game, to get ourselves ready for next week."

There is a possibility that Diarmuid Connolly might return for the Galway match at the Jones Road venue according to Gavin. "Yeah, there's a number of players that we're resting," Gavin commented.

"He's in that bracket – Ciaran Kilkenny, Jonny Cooper, even Stephen Cluxton, Paul Flynn. There's a number of players that we need to be cogniscant of the time that they've had in the squad and the length of their inter-county careers, so it's trying to get the balance.

"And obviously this was an opportunity as well for some of the players who've just joined the squad over the last number of seasons to give them game-time. So there's always that balance of giving players time off and trying to get the performance at the same time."