Galway are well-equipped to compete with Armagh in Sunday's All-Ireland quarter-final, however, they will need to have a rock-solid defence in place to cope with the attacking threat of Kieran McGeeney’s side.
That’s the opinion of former Dublin midfielder, Ciaran Whelan, who is expecting a high-scoring and fascinating Croke Park encounter between the Connacht champions and the Ulster side.
Armagh fell at the first hurdle in the provincial championship, losing out to Donegal in the quarter-finals, however, the Orchard County have built up momentum throughout the qualifiers and go into the game as slight favourites despite missing several players through injury.
McGeeney’s side beat last year’s champions, Tyrone, in the first qualifier round before exacting revenge on the aforementioned Tir Chonaill to secure their place in the last eight.
Galway beat Mayo, Leitrim and Roscommon en route to the provincial title, however, Pádraic Joyce’s men have not played in a month, compared to Armagh, who have already played two championship matches in June.
Speaking on this week’s RTE GAA Podcast, Whelan believes that Armagh’s explosive attacking unit will cause Galway serious problems if they opt for a man-to-man approach.
"If Galway go down the route of a shoot-out, they'll get their arses handed to them," said Whelan.
"If they go man-to-man defensively, they can get badly exposed, and they have learned that the hard way in recent years, particularly against Mayo.
"And you have to give Joyce and the management team credit for identifying that they had to get themselves right at the back against Mayo to cut out that running game.
"Similarly, they have to approach Armagh in a similar vein, as Armagh will mix it up going forward, and the movement in their forward line is excellent in the way Jason Duffy and Rian O’Neill can interchange and come in and out, and Rory Grugan, they have good top class forwards.
"And then they have good ball players like Stefan Campbell that’s making it happen around the middle."
And while Whelan has been impressed with the Armagh attack, he also feels that it could also prove to be their Achilles heel, as they were exploited in behind by Donegal on occasion last time out.
"I don’t think Galway can afford to come with a template to really attack Armagh, I think they’ll look at Armagh’s strengths over the last couple of weeks and say 'we’ve got to close down their kicking game, stop them making goalscoring opportunities and maybe try to hit them on the counter-attack’, which they did well against Roscommon as they have good strong runners and pace.
"Donegal showed a few chinks in the Armagh [tactics], Armagh will attack with numbers, they all come up and try to get themselves into position, even (goalkeeper) Ethan Rafferty will come up.
"I think some of the quick kick-outs that (Shaun) Patton got into the pockets of the half-backs and some of the turnovers, so if you can get at Armagh before they reset that’s the chance to really go after them as they do give you that opportunity."
And Whelan believes that Galway have the quality of players and the pace to implement such a tactic against the attack-minded Armagh, and provided their defence stays resolute, there are ways to expose their opponents by hitting them at pace on the counterattack.
"If Galway can move that ball very, very quick, that’s where they can get at Armagh, they’ll have to get a foot pass to get between the half-forwards and half-backs.
"Donegal just didn’t do it enough, but you could see that there were opportunities there for them.
"It is going to be a fascinating game, and I think it will be high scoring, but Galway will need to have their defensive cap on them to possibly close down Armagh."
Follow the All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals on Sunday, Galway v Armagh (1.45pm) and Kerry v Mayo (4pm), via our live blog on rte.ie/sport or on the RTÉ News app. Watch live coverage on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player commencing at 1.15pm with live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
Follow the All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals on Saturday, Derry v Clare (3.45pm) and Dublin v Cork (6pm), via our live blog on rte.ie/sport or on the RTÉ News app. Listen to live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
