On paper at least, the Connacht football final has the look of being the most closely contested of the four provincial deciders.
Westmeath, for all their progress and Dublin's so-called decline, will be huge underdogs in Leinster. All-Ireland champions Kerry have plenty of walking wounded, but Cork were underwhelming for large periods against both Tipperary and Limerick as they look to land a first championship win over the Kingdom in Killarney in more than 30 years.
Ulster’s clash of Monaghan and Armagh is the other final that sees counties that operated in the same league division this year (the Farney will be playing out of Division 2 next season in keeping with their recent yo-yo tag), yet the Orchard County will be favourites to finally get their hands on the Anglo-Celt Cup after some recent heartbreak.
So it will be at Dr Hyde Park this afternoon where potentially - and the 2026 championship has made mugs of many - the biggest battle of the lot will take place.
After the highs of demolishing Mayo, the Rossies have been widely reminded that recent history is against them when they welcome Pádraic Joyce’s side to town.
You have to go all the way back to 2001 for the last time they lifted the Nestor Cup at the Hyde. The venue has not been kind when facing the Tribes either. Since the 1990 Connacht final they have lost all seven championship ties to Sunday’s opposition.
Their most recent Connacht titles – 2017 and 2019 – have come at the expense of Galway however and the nature of their win in Castlebar is the root cause behind growing optimism.
Joyce will certainly be wary of an attack that simply shredded the Mayo defence, led by the inspirational Diarmuid Murtagh – who didn’t kick a single wide – and a barnstorming display from Enda Smith at centre-forward. With Darragh Heneghan chipping in with 1-03 and Colm Neary outstanding, whether Daire Cregg comes straight back into the starting team remains to be seen.
The Boyle man has been named among the subs, though stranger things have happened late changes to a GAA starting team.
Keith Doyle and Conor Ryan provided a solid platform around the middle, yet a sterner challenge awaits. Galway’s strength – fitness permitting – under Joyce has always been around the strength of the likes of Paul Conroy, John Maher, Cillian McDaid, Cein D’Arcy and Seán Kelly in securing primary possession.
That the Rossies achieved such a comprehensive win in Castlebar without stalwarts such as Ruaidhrí Fallon and Brian Stack - also named among the replacements - as they work their way back to full fitness will give manager Mark Dowd confidence in the strength of his panel.
Even allowing for Galway’s laboured win over Leitrim, the constant nervous glances at injury updates and even the underwhelming championship exit last year at the hands of Meath, the Tribes still arrive with enough credit in the bank to enter as odds-on favourites.
Since Roscommon’s Connacht title success in 2019 at the expense of Galway – only Murtagh, Smith and Ronan Daly from that starting team seven years ago began against Mayo last time out – the counties have been swimming in different waters.
Joyce assumed the Galway hotseat from Kevin Walsh the following season and they have since become provincial kingpins. Sunday marks an 11th consecutive final and victory would secure five-in-a-row.
Sam Maguire ambitions were what Joyce spoke of before he took charge of his first match, and a couple of All-Ireland final appearances show how close they have come to ending a drought that stretches to 2001. In the same period, an All-Ireland quarter-final appearance (2024) is the furthest that the Rossies’ summer has stretched to.
As ever for Galway supporters, much of the pre-match talk will be dominated by fitness concerns.
After an impressive cameo in an otherwise lacklustre collective performance against Leitrim, Shane Walsh is named to start. Indeed the spine of the team – Kelly, John Daly, Conroy, Maher, McDaid and the aforementioned Walsh – is as strong as anything other All-Ireland contenders have to offer.
Conor Flaherty - pictured above - gets the nod over 2024 Connacht final match-winner Connor Gleeson between the sticks after some chopping and changing last year.
Much is made of the team’s attacking weaponry, but Joyce will be confident that his defence will be able to stymie the Rossies’ in-form forwards more effectively than Mayo’s feeble resistance. Johnny McGrath could well be tasked with keeping tabs on Diarmuid Murtagh, while limiting Enda Smith’s aerial dominance could be more of a collective effort than an individual task.
By marching into a home Connacht final in such swashbuckling style – on the back of a promising league campaign – they have served notice of their potential as locals look for another scalp en route to the next stage of the championship
The Roscommon People’s preview for Sunday’s clash was headlined 'A Time For New Heroes’ and Dowd will no doubt have been as focused over the last fortnight on keeping his players focused off the pitch as much as anything on the training pitch.
"As usual with Roscommon, the question is whether they can handle the hype and expectation generated by the Mayo performance. I have my doubts," former Mayo footballer Lee Keegan wrote in his column this week.
Those comments may be partly mischievously motivated by his own colourful experience with Roscommon fans, but it’s also a nod to the fact that the underdog tag is what has driven some of their most memorable results.
The last Roscommon side to lift the Nestor Cup at the Hyde will be honoured at half-time today, with recent underage success adding to a giddy sense of excitement within the county.
Connacht may be a staging post for a Galway side with loftier ambitions, yet Joyce, ever the traditionalist, has always taken great pride in local matters.
"All this talk about draws last week, both teams wanted to win a Connacht championship," he said last year in the aftermath of victory over Mayo. "That is the way it should be. That is why the provincials to me are very important."
The Rossies will feel this is their time, yet the visitors, with close to a full complement, will be confident of extending their provincial domination.
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