Tribesmen will want to maintain recent record against the Kingdom

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 1

Galway v Kerry Sunday, February 24 Tuam, 2pm

IT seemed a curious decision on the part of the marketing men in Croke Park to take a picture from probably the worst game of last year’s championship and make it a central plank in their marketing strategy for this year’s league.

The picture itself is dramatic enough – David Moran and Jack Barry grappling for possession with Tom Flynn – and the caption exhorts us all to step up, to be there, to be there all the way for this year’s National Leagues or Allianz Leagues as they insist on calling them (sorry guys that one just isn’t going to catch on).

To give the marketing gurus their dues, Sunday afternoon’s clash between the two will we suspect go a long way towards deciding whether the Kingdom are going to be there all the way. Win and it’s damned near impossible to look past them for a place in the league final, even with two games still to play.

Of course, winning out west is easier said than done, especially against this Galway team who have consistently shown that there are few teams out there better than they are at winning ugly as they did last time out in Inniskeen.

Galway twice beat Kerry last season and twice had the Kingdom looking out of ideas for how to break them down. This weekend in Tuam is going to be an interesting barometer for how much more effective Kerry have become under new management.

Certainly we wouldn’t expect Galway to boss the green and gold as they did in Austin Stack Park last spring – Kerry have a better structure defensively now than they had then, they work harder and tackle more effectively.

That said things have been going so well for Kerry in the opening rounds, six points on the board after three games, that Peter Keane and co have afforded themselves a certain latitude to experiment even more than they already have.

How that will manifest itself this weekend we’re not quite sure. Brian Ó Beaglaoich is out with a on match suspension, could that open the door for Gavin Crowley to get his first start? Or maybe even Graham O’Sullivan, who will have played mid-week with UCC?

The UCC connection could limit the management’s room for manoeuvre somewhat if a player or two picks up a knock or even if they simply decide not to risk burnout and injury with two games for these players in the space of four days. That could see Seán O’Shea miss out – if only from the start – and if he does that might just tilt the pendulum back Galway’s way in their spiritual home.

Given how well they’ve started it might seem somewhat odd to back against Kerry, but given the amount of change on the pitch and behind the scenes in the last couple of months it wouldn’t be all that surprising if Kerry were to drop points somewhere along the line.

In Tuam Stadium against a dogged Galway seems as good a place as any – not that we’d be at all surprised if Kerry won again.

Verdict: Galway