Dara Bradley

SALTHILL / Knocknacarra clubman Finian Hanley will be officially unveiled as the 2012 Galway senior football captain later today (Tuesday) on the eve of the start of the Division Two National Football League campaign.

Hanley was one of three captains named at the start of the season last year under a so-called ‘team-orientated’ ethos espoused by the then manager Tomás Ó Flatharta and he shared the role with Kieran Fitzgerald, who left the Kerryman’s panel, and Michael Meehan.

Manager Alan Mulholland will make the announcement at a press briefing later today, just days before the first real test of his new reign comes on Sunday with the county’s National League opener with Derry at Celtic Park (throw-in, 2.30pm).

After two seasons of mediocrity in their league and championship campaigns, in which two managers – Ó Flatharta and Joe Kernan – were let-go after less than 12 months, Galway’s targets for this Spring are understandably modest.

Mulholland told Sentinel Sport that survival in Division Two was the number one priority of the league campaign; anything else, such as promotion back to Division One, where they were relegated from last year, would be a bonus, he said.

“The goal we have set for the league is to maintain our position in Division Two and we’ll treat everything after that as a bonus,” said Mulholland.

That should be eminently achievable, although with Meath, Derry, Tyrone, Kildare, Louth, Monaghan and Westmeath all in the mix, it’s not a foregone conclusion either.

Galway fielded a ‘mixed-bag’ of players over the course of the Connacht FBD League, with many new faces adorning the maroon and white senior jersey for the first time, and he said the policy of giving younger players an opportunity to shine would continue.

“We will be giving young lads a go, many of the younger guys already played championship, but the difference in the National League is we’ve got to get league points on the board and so we’re going to be trying to win every game,” he said.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.