Galway Star Finnerty Back in Action After Knee Injury, Eyes Championship Success

The 27-year-old’s experience and insightful play have provided a critical element to the Galway setup. He commented on the exciting changes to the rules, noting, “For any player it is really exciting, especially for forwards. Having a lot more space up front is massive. The way football had gone over the last few years, you might only five or six touches of the ball in a game because teams were playing mass defences. It was really difficult at times, but now every day you go out you are going to get opportunities, you are going to get a lot more ball and are going to get one-on-ones which is a huge thing. It's really enjoyable and has freshened things up a lot.” The recent league campaign concluded with Kerry securing a 24th title, edging out Mayo in a closely contested final. Prior to that, Kerry had also defeated Galway. Despite this loss, Finnerty acknowledged the impressive performance of Jack O’Connor’s squad, stating, “They are really impressive at the minute, loads of good forwards. They are playing a nice brand of football. We would have scored heavily enough against them, we put up 2-19, but they scored 3-20-plus. They are an exciting team to watch and I have no doubt they will be there or thereabouts. But I think there are five or six teams that would fancy themselves against them. It will make for an interesting championship but Kerry are definitely strong going into it.” With such a competitive field of contenders, Galway will need to perform at their best to retain their Connacht title and aim for a place in the All-Ireland series.