Your Public Service Media Do Mheáin Seirbhíse Poiblí

As we approach the final furlong of the Allianz Hurling League, and what will be for all counties - bar Tipp and either Galway or Cork - the last bit of competitive action until a ball is thrown in for championship, we ask one question: just what exactly are some teams looking to get from this final round?

Galway have enjoyed the biggest change in fortunes over the course of the campaign. After they were hammered by Tipp at home in January in their first game, the knives were out for the Galway management and players, but Micheál Donoghue and Co took a lot from that day. They knew they had good players and some fine young talent but needed to be careful in how they blended youth and experience.

Since then, Donoghue has named much more experienced teams in each round while sprinkling in some youth. He's given several players a taste of inter-county hurling at the top level and the experience they will have gained from that will be invaluable.

Case in point for me is Anthony Burns. He lit it up against Clare with 2-03 from play in Salthill but the real lessons for him will have come from marking Limerick's Seán Finn recently and finding himself sitting on the sideline watching the second half.

You win or you learn, and he will have taken so much from that experience of being marked by one of the best to ever do it in that section of the field.

So, will Galway want to reach that league final now in what is unofficially a semi-final this weekend against Cork on Leeside? I think both teams will be going for this; and with the chance of silverware and a national title so close they would be foolish not to.

For Galway, if they were to get there, I am sure they’d be looking to right a lot of wrongs from day one in Salthill against