Chance ramps up for Donegal and Galway after Kerry exit

An All-Ireland semi-final and no Dublin or Kerry left. The sense of opportunity was already huge but Armagh's heroics yesterday ramped things up another level.

The journey of both Galway and Donegal has been an against the odds story all season. Pádraic Joyce’s ability to keep his troops on the road while sustaining more casualties than a war movie has been the managerial performance of the year until we look to Jimmy McGuinness and his surpassing even the most optimistic predictions of his second coming.

If a Russian athlete improved as much in this Olympic year as the Donegal team has, there would be questions asked. No such questions in Donegal.

The drug is McGuinness, and in terms of performance enhancers, it appears unmatched. But whose journey is ending this weekend with Sam so tantalisingly close?

Match-ups

McGuinness will be confident that in Brendan McCole and Eoghán Bán Gallagher he has the perfect foils for the key Galway talismen of Shane Walsh and Damian Comer. The potential of Eoghán Bán on Shane Walsh has the added benefit of not just putting tabs on a dangerman but presenting an attacking advantage.

Eoghán Bán spent more time in the Louth full-forward line than all Donegal’s front six outside of Oisin Gallen and there would be few things Walsh would like to do less than chase Gallagher up the pitch.

On the flip side, Donegal are one of those teams that don’t have an out and out star forward. Once upon a time, Paddy McBrearty was such a player, but the 2024 version to date is a player past his lethal best. If anyone is going to earn a few extra minutes in the video meeting, it’s Oisin Gallen but like the other Donegal forwards, Galway will hope Gallen’s natural marker – Sean Fitzgerald, will be up to the task