FRANK FARRAGHER

FEBRUARY has dawned and there’s talk of Spring everywhere with another new football season ready for christening. Here in Galway, there’s no one expecting miracles . . . we’ve endured a fair bit of humiliation over the past two seasons . . . so at least Alan Mulholland won’t be laden down with great expectations as he sits on the northern bus to Derry this weekend.

It’s now close on 11 years since Galway won ‘the Sam’ and we even have to go back to 2008 for the last provincial title, but along the way of recent years, there have been All-Ireland minor and under-21 titles printed into the record books. There is also quite a sense of relief that the county has gone back to basics by picking a manager from within – the rebuilding has to start from the bottom up and there are no free lunches out there.

Anyway for Sunday in Derry’s Celtic Park (2.30), youth get its fling under the Galway management team of Alan Mulholland, Donal Ó Fatharta and Alan Flynn. The side is heavily sprinkled with players in the 21 to 23 age profile and for different reasons, there is no Joyce or Meehan in the starting 15.

Probably the most worrying news from a Galway point of view to emerge over the Winter was the ongoing injury worries that now threaten the future career of Caltra’s Michael Meehan, a one man scoring machine and one of the country’s top forwards.

Meehan, has apparently exhausted all surgical routes in terms of getting a medical solution to his ankle injury troubles, and now his hopes rest on being able to manage the problem with physio and rest periods, which could provide him with shortened playing windows through the season. Given his absolute dedication to the cause, his injury problems do represent a real cruel turn of fortune on an individual, family, club and county basis.

Whether or not Padraic Joyce will rejoin the Galway panel remains to be seen, but with each passing week into the new training regime, his chances of ‘giving it another year’ will probably get slimmer. It will of course be a big personal decision for the Killererin clubman, after giving well over 14 years of top class service to Galway.

Nicky Joyce is back in the Galway panel but was not included in the starting fifteen announced last night for the trip to Derry, although he is listed in the subs. Like a few other players on the bench such as Barry Cullinane, Joe Bergin, Kieran McGrath and Gary Sice, he will be hoping to get a run at some stage.

In the starting line-up, there are seven players that lined out in last year’s under-21 All-Ireland success against Cavan – goalkeeper Manus Breathnach; defenders Colin Forde and Jonathan Duane; midfielders Thomas Flynn and Fionntán Ó Curraoin; as well as forwards Mark Hehir and Danny Cummins.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.