Preview
Edwin McGreal
FRANK Browne’s Mayo will prepare for their third encounter with Galway this year with a relatively clean bill of health. Kilmovee Shamrocks’ Sarah Tyrell will miss the game with an ankle injury but she is expected to be Mayo’s only absentee with Claire O’Hara expected to recover from a hand injury she sustained at the weekend.
Sunday’s final will be Mayo’s second clash with Galway in the championship with the Tribeswomen having won the initial game by ten points. Mayo responded to that defeat by winning the league final against the same opposition by eleven points a week later.
Both teams will advance into the group stages ahead of the All-Ireland quarter-finals come what may on Sunday but victory will help the winners in terms of seeding for that stage, added to the obvious benefit of a winning habit.
Mayo played the league final against Galway on Sunday, May 6 and have had no competitive fixture since. For Mayo manager Frank Browne it was about using the time in between wisely and he is confident that his team have managed that.
“We’ve had a long break since the league final which has been hard going,” he told The Mayo News. “But I think we’ve used it well. We took the first two weeks off and have been preparing for the last four weeks. From now on there will be matches every second week with the Champions League format after the provincial finals and hopefully that will continue for us all the way to September 23 (All-Ireland final day)”, admitted Browne.
Sunday’s clash will be Mayo’s twelfth championship clash with Galway since 2003. Galway have won six, Mayo four, with one draw. The portents would suggest that Sunday will be another tight encounter and Browne expects it to be a difficult one for his side.
“It will be tough in Tuam,” he said. “They (Galway) will be like wounded animals after the league final. They beat us in the round robin by ten points, we beat them by eleven points in the league final, so it will be interesting. We’d be confident enough though that we will be able to come out on top.”
