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I say unless there a miracle Donegal and Monaghan be going down.

Monaghan have never needed miracles to beat Tyrone in the league. We can't possibly play as bad as that 2nd half performance  in Galway and notwithstanding it took Galway ages to get that game closing goal, even that had to handed on a plate to them.

Galway controlled that game handily and had it not been for a moment of madness (that the ref should've sorted far earlier) and 4/5 Beggan punts from soft frees, it probably would've been a double figure scoreline. Galway missed a gilt edged goal chance 15 mins before their actual one on 63 mins, and fisted another when a goal chance was glaring. Not sure Monaghan got within sight of a goal

Would love to see Walsh lining out in the Athletic Grounds on March 18th, full house, one of Ireland's top players on view plus Walsh, will be some spectacle 

Damien Comer won't make it back for that one unfortunately. The crowds will have to wait until the Kerry game the week after

Question was asked and Galway stepped it up after ht, subs all worked with Sweeney having a super showing and Tierney was excellent getting those marks at the crucial times, a tonic victory.

Looked in real trouble 10 minutes into the 2nd half as Tyrone went looking for a goal, certainly didn't look like Galway would go on to score 9 of the next 12 points.

Won't be getting carried away given conditions/pitch etc and if Tyrone had got the goal it may have been a different result but Galway showed great character to dig in with the wind and momentum against them. Tierney stood up with those marks and 3 points from play as did a good few others with Galway missing their 3 best scoring forwards in Walsh, Comer & Finnerty.

Dylan McHugh has really surprised me, didn't look upto it in the Connacht Final against Mayo in Croke Park 18 months ago but delighted to be proved wrong, looks more then comfortable at this level and gave another outstanding display.

McHughs gone from someone I thought was fairly steady and smart but not up to the level of an AI contender, to someone who looks like he'll be an absolute mainstay on the team for the next 6-7 years. He's developed a burst of pace and ability to beat a man from seemingly nowhere. Jack Glynn also looks like he's making the year to year progress you'd hope for someone of his age. The losses of Silke and Molloy (and I'm by no means writing his season off yet) looked very worrying to begin with. But the improvement of the two mentioned above, along with possibly Sweeney, and Cookes addition allowing one of Heaney or even McDaid possibly to filter back, means the situation is a good bit rosier now than before. Eoghan Kelly is entitled to improve at a rate of knots also given how newly returned he is to football. The worry would be the lack of a physical specific man marker still

[Won't be many if any of the other Div 1 teams starting with so many first choice players in round 1 in the league.]

11 of that Galway team started All-Ireland final. Won't be many if any of the other Div 1 teams starting with so many first choice players in round 1 in the league.

Joyce looking to hit the ground running it seems while running the risk of injury with a lot of those players already heavily involved with college football and Moycullens season didn't end until early January so not much of a rest there.

No Shane Walsh of course yet he didn't play away to Derry in the league last year and Galway had that contest won by half time leading 3-8 to 0-4 with Tierney, Conneely and Comer with the goals.

Well that's patently nonsense. Go back look at the R1 teamsheets from the D1 teams last year. Teams haven't put throwaway teams out in the league in about a decade at this stage. Kerry and Donegal will look a bit different this year alright through injury and club commitments

How many U20 players will be making their competitive debut in D1 this weekend? Id say you could set the line at 2. It's an experimental defensive setup with a decent forward line. Goalkeeper best not talked about. Best player and free taker being gone until game 6 by the sounds of things will probably cost them at some point

Fair few names missing there. Il be pleasantly surprised if they come away with anything from Castlebar tomorrow night. His substitution list is always a perplexing read. No idea that a few of them were in contention. Must be a number of knocks.

Of the starters, all eyes on O'Flaherty of course but he's so young. Only really one out and out defender there in Glynn and being tasked with marking Ryan O'Donoghue (or Tommy Conroy if he played post injury) is probably something he'd have been saved from last season, never mind coming off an injury himself and no gametime under his belt yet this year. Assuming Heaney drops deep to protect the defensive rookies, it'll mean one of Finnerty, Comer or Dessie playing a lot deeper themselves than usual. It all looks experimental enough in practice

Anyone know what's the story with Patrick Kelly? Hasn't been mentioned in any interviews to my knowledge if its injury related, which seems very strange for what looked a surefire starter coming into the year

John Maughan writing Galway off for the year anyway, we should be ranked below Armagh and Derry in the National context. It was a "handy" All Ireland last year apparently.
His smug prediction after the Galway Offaly league game last year was completely inaccurate, so while I have a bit of trepidation about how we'll go after blowing what was a rare opportunity in a winnable final last year, I'm starting to feel better about 2023 already.

I don't think we'll have a particularly great league anyway. Between players unavailable for whatever reason especially in defence and we have quite a few involved in Sigerson as well. Just seems like there is a lot of competing interests at the moment and it looks a bit unsettled. Think they are a bit behind most teams as well in terms of work done apart from maybe Kerry. They have Kerry last up as well which will probably be a very different Kerry side to the one that will play the first half of the league. Get a few wins and stay up will be at aim I'd say and hopefully unearth a couple players in defence. They have to as they are down a couple of very good players back there and they won't be back this year.

I did see some of the Maughan interview alright. I could understand him saying listen Galway are down a few players so they might struggle to replace those players this year but it seemed a bit odd to landing us behind a few sides that they beat last year.

A lot of distractions alright between injuries, club and a frankly ridiculous number playing sigerson. They don't look to have much work done compared with last year. However, that does apply to numerous teams in D1, with Donegal and Kerry riddled with injuries on top of some Donegal uncertainty, and talk of Monaghan and Roscommon having slightly slow preps also. I expect Galway to be solidly mid table, perhaps to the lower end, enough maybe to get by the ones above but not enough done to challenge Tyrone, Armagh and Mayo who'll all hit the ground running. Quite unlucky to have Kerry in the final game also when they'll almost certainly be back to normal, rather than early on

John Maughan writing Galway off for the year anyway, we should be ranked below Armagh and Derry in the National context. It was a "handy" All Ireland last year apparently.
His smug prediction after the Galway Offaly league game last year was completely inaccurate, so while I have a bit of trepidation about how we'll go after blowing what was a rare opportunity in a winnable final last year, I'm starting to feel better about 2023 already.

Im enjoying this "handy run" stuff coming from a select few. Quite how i don't know. They had two draws, one sent them to play Mayo away and then Roscommon in Connacht, which is the hardest possible. The next, their 'reward' for winning Connacht was one of 3 options, being 7 points favorites against Cork or Clare or drawing Armagh in red hot form. Got Armagh. They literally played every good team in the competition (in 2022 terms) apart from Dublin

Sent Kerry on the way home in 2018 but 'knOcK oUt' makes it invalid supposedly. A third of the panel beat Dublin in an All Ireland Final just over 2 years ago, something of far more relevance than stuff in the 70's and 80's id say

Galway need a good league after the disaster of 2021.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/darragh-o-se-galway-s-defeat-at-the-death-to-monaghan-is-shocking-and-unforgivable-1.4594401
Monaghan have gone into the last game of the league needing a result three or four times and they've always managed to find it. Why are they able to do it and teams like Galway aren't?
I know you can say the league is the league or whatever but Galway are one of the teams that will only develop properly in Division One. The way they shot themselves in the foot in the closing minutes of that game gave me the impression they didn't really understand what was at stake. They didn't protect the ball, they didn't protect their goal, they didn't protect their lead. It must be killing Joyce that they gave up a Division One spot so cheaply.  In the first five games of the 2020 league they beat Monaghan, only lost to Kerry in injury time, walloped Tyrone and beat both Donegal and Meath on their home patches. They were top of Division One, they had the most goals of anyone in the country. They were flying.
Look at what they've offered since. Hammered by Mayo on their first day back in October. Beaten by Dublin the following week. Lost by a point to Mayo in the Connacht final. On to this year's league and they've been trounced by Kerry, lost to the Dubs, beaten Roscommon and now caught at the death by Monaghan. They've gone from a run of four wins from five games to one where they have just one win from their last seven.

This reads absolutely terribly 12 months later. Hindsight and all but D2 last year gave Galway the opportunity to gain a few much needed wins and confidence after two shortened championships where one loss had them out. It didn't hinder Mayo whatsoever the year before and id hazard a guess it wont hinder the dubs in the slightest this year.

Getting to D1 is important for counties trying to establish themselves such as Cork and to a lesser extent Derry this year. For those that have had 2 or 3 years in the division already, a drop back to two for a year doesn't matter much at all. If anything, it'll be easier going forward to get good seeding for the championship by promotion through div 2 than it will be by avoiding relegation in D1. **If you don't win your provincial**, D1 survivors and those promoted from D2 will be No.3 seeds most likely. Relegated teams from D1 will likely be No.4 seeds. Provincial finalists will be 1 & 2

Bit of an oxymoron there though? The last 10 AI winners have scored 20,20,20,21,23,20,18,12,15,18,17.

The two outliers there are a monsoon (2015) and the most defensive AI of all time (2014). Take those out and the average winning score is 19.66 points.

Mayo have reached that total 0 times in 7 finals. They only got over 17 once

Mayo more than played their role in the higher winning scoring totals

Look at the average conceded for winners in finals over the last decade. Mayos habit of conceding goals many of them sloppy has been a big issue that was never sorted out.

I don't think there was a choice tbh. What made Mayo good, and also why their matches were usually entertaining, was because they needed to go man to man and make the game chaotic. Partly because they had very good man to man markers but mainly because their forwards were bang average. If mayo played the cagey game of 4 forwards up and sweepers etc, the results would be, and indeed were, shambolic. The 3 consecutive defeats to Galway in Connacht were evidence of that because Kevin Walsh realised that if you clogged the game up effectively, ultimately he trusted that he had the few forwards who could score while being overmanned and without space and Mayo didn't. And that's even with Mayo having a far better overall team at the time

Mayo needed all 6 forwards in attack, and more importantly, good runners from defence, to create scores. That's always going to lead to counter attack or high ball goal opportunities for the opposition. Thats the trade off they needed to make and accepted.

Dublin, to their credit but also perhaps stupidity, decided to play Mayo man to man in all those games. It suited Mayo perfectly and it made the games entertaining, and ultimately Dublin trusted that they'd get enough goal chances that way to win, which they did just about. You are also dancing with fire playing that was against Dublin though, which we ultiamtely saw in both the 2015 replay and 2019 when they tore mayo apart and put 3 past them

To be honest I reckon Mayo of 2016, no AI winners among them, would take the best of the rest in a match.

In a semi final, sure. Not in a final though.

If they called it a League final where they played the Best of the Rest.......they'd have a tiny bit better of a chance of winning!

Some groups are destined never to win, no matter how good they are.

The weight of sealing the deal gets bigger with every disappointment.

It has to happen if they get say 3 decent forwards

Scorelines in finals Mayo was involved in the last decade.

2021 -  2-14 to 0-15
2020 - 2-14 to 0-15
2017 - 1-17 to 1-16
2016 - 1-15 to 1-14
2016 - 2-9 to 0-15
2013 -  2-12 to 1-14
2012 - 2-11 to 0-13

Lack of scoring or conceding too many goals the main issue?

Bit of an oxymoron there though? The last 10 AI winners have scored 20,20,20,21,23,20,18,12,15,18,17.

The two outliers there are a monsoon (2015) and the most defensive AI of all time (2014). Take those out and the average winning score is 19.66 points.

Mayo have reached that total 0 times in 7 finals. They only got over 17 once

To be honest I reckon Mayo of 2016, no AI winners among them, would take the best of the rest in a match.

They got beaten by a poor Galway side in Connacht that year, needed a dodgy penalty to get over Fermanagh in the qualifiers and then got the handiest available quarter and semi draw. I think some misconstrue some Dublin underperformance at times with opposition greatness. That 2016 drawn game was the worst Dublin performance of that 8 year stretch, including 2014.

2013 version of Mayo was by far their best imo. That was the one year they absolutely swatted everyone else aside in the way Dublin did year in year out

Breheny's List:
1.   Dermot Early
2.   Lee Keegan
3.   Mickey Kearins
4.   Nudie Hughes
5.   Glenn Ryan
6.   Kevin O'Brien
7.   Eugene McKenna
8.   Declan Browne
9.   Joe Kernan
10.   Mattie Forde
11.   John Galvin
12.   Paddy Moriarty
13.   Peter McGinnity
14.   Tony McManus
15.   Dessie Dolan
16.   Harry Keegan
17.   Liam McHale
18.   Keith Higgins
19.   Noel Roche
20.   Paul Barden
Though I'd have the likes of Benny Coulter, Barry Owens, Paddy Bradley, Enda Muldoon, Sean Lockhart before a good few men on that list.

Surely Ciaran MacDonald should be on this list.

Ciaran Mcdonald was the Serge Blanco of Gaelic Football. He was always thinking a few steps ahead. He wouldn't be at home on  Brehony list

Retirement and highlight reels have been kind to MacDonald. He won one solitary all star despite reaching 3 finals. Alan Dillon won two for example, as did James Horan. Zero intercounty championship motm awards I've been realiably informed by a mayo stats nerd.

Putting him in the "greatest to never win" conversation alongside Keegan or Higgins does an injustice to those two. Never mind Dermot Earley snr or Declan Browne

He was a joy to watch. The Ronaldinho of GAA.

You can be superbly skillful and a joy to watch and not be overall that effective. Your own Jamie Clarke has done things with a ball ive never seen anybody else do but you wouldn't in your right mind have him down as a better player than Stevey mcdonald or McConville.

Dillon was more effective for Mayo. Keegan was 3 times more effective than both. I don't think you can include any of them in the conversation with Keegan for this specific title

Breheny's List:
1.   Dermot Early
2.   Lee Keegan
3.   Mickey Kearins
4.   Nudie Hughes
5.   Glenn Ryan
6.   Kevin O'Brien
7.   Eugene McKenna
8.   Declan Browne
9.   Joe Kernan
10.   Mattie Forde
11.   John Galvin
12.   Paddy Moriarty
13.   Peter McGinnity
14.   Tony McManus
15.   Dessie Dolan
16.   Harry Keegan
17.   Liam McHale
18.   Keith Higgins
19.   Noel Roche
20.   Paul Barden
Though I'd have the likes of Benny Coulter, Barry Owens, Paddy Bradley, Enda Muldoon, Sean Lockhart before a good few men on that list.

Surely Ciaran MacDonald should be on this list.

Ciaran Mcdonald was the Serge Blanco of Gaelic Football. He was always thinking a few steps ahead. He wouldn't be at home on  Brehony list

Retirement and highlight reels have been kind to MacDonald. He won one solitary all star despite reaching 3 finals. Alan Dillon won two for example, as did James Horan. Zero intercounty championship motm awards I've been realiably informed by a mayo stats nerd.

Putting him in the "greatest to never win" conversation alongside Keegan or Higgins does an injustice to those two. Never mind Dermot Earley snr or Declan Browne

The backline was insanely competitive. You could swap out any of Silke, Morley and White there for any of TOS, Graham Sullivan, McCloskey or Rodgers and I don't think there'd be many complaints. The other 3 winners were nailed on

The only other debate is Rian o'Neill. Personally I'd probably do what the Sunday game did and shoehorn him in at midfield over Glass. Tom O'Sullivan, Comer and even Rodgers seem to be getting downgraded in people's minds for their performances in their final game, which Glass doesn't seem to be, and I don't think his year up to the point was as spectacular as the other three to those points. However on strict terms, he was the second best out and out midfielder.

The other would be swapping Kilkenny out for RON, but it's a time honoured tradition that all semi finalists get at least 1 award. Someone who nobody is talking about having a quiet final is Sean O'Shea. I suppose the spectacular free heroics live in the mind but it's particular funny in light of the debate around Comer, when O'Shea had an equally quiet final and Comer had a far better year up to that point. I'd argue that Comer is even more deserving than Shane Walsh tbh