With Galway set to face Dublin in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Quarter Final on Sunday in Croke Park (4pm), both managers named their respective starting teams on Thurlsday night (Dublin) and Friday morning (Galway). Much has been made of Dublin manager Ger Brennan's selection of Con O'Callaghan at centre forward, despite the Cuala clubman coming off with a very visible hamstring strain at the end of their extra time win over Donegal last Sunday. There is little doubt that this Dublin team under Brennan look a more potent outfit with O'Callaghan in the side, so the question is does he start him if he is not 100% fit and hope he lasts as long as possible, or does he keep him in reserve until needed in the second half? Dublin have been forced into one change from the Donegal game, with Eoin Kennedy at full-back instead of Nathan Doran, who is not in the matchday squad after suffering a suspected Achilles injury against Donegal.
Galway have named the same team to play Dublin that they named in advance of the Westmeath game two weeks ago, but in advance of that game in Pearse Stadium, Fionn McDonagh came into the team in place of Shane McGrath. It will be interesting to see if the Dunmore MacHales man takes his place at centre forward from the start of Sunday's game in Croke Park, but recent trends would suggest that there will be at least one change to the starting Galway team. In the 12 championship games that Galway have played in 2025 and 2026 (so far), the team named beforehand has only started on 3 occasions, and all of those were last year. This year, Galway have made changes before all four championship games, while the Dubs have only lined out unchanged for two of their six games, the Leinster Quarter Final v Wicklow and Leinster Final v Westmeath. In the other 4 games they have made a combined 10 changes: v Louth (3) in Leinster Semi-Final, v Louth (1) in Qualifiers, v Cavan (3) in Qualifiers and v Donegal (3) in Qualifiers Rd 3. Suffice to say, the chances of Dublin and Galway both starting the teams they named are pretty slim!
This brings into question the whole point of the GAA insisting on managers submitting team and substitute lists on the Thursday night prior to games, when they very rarely have any relevance to the teams that appear in match day programmes. The other tradition in the GAA that has become obsolete is the layout of team lists in programmes, with the traditional four banks of three players either side of a midfield pairing long since discarded as a means of setting up. What seems far more important now is the team that finishes championship matches. Remember Galway v Dublin two years ago in the All-Ireland quarter final in Croke Park? Well perhaps the real reason i got so excited at the finish (Sweet Mother of Jesus and all that), was that we could Galway's first win over the Dubs in 90 years coming from a long way off. Former Galway midfielder and Galway bay FM co-commentator Barry Cullinane made the point that Dublin manager Dessie Farrell was starting his strongest team, which included Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion and James McCarthy. Barry's point was that if Galway could stay in the game until the last 15 minutes, those players couldn't come on as impact subs, so where would the Dubs get the bounce they might need late on? He was peoved correct as both McCaffrey and Mannion were taken off midway through that second half, the Dubs faded, and the rest is history. Kind of. Galway themselves have learned that you need impact off the bench, as it definitely hurt the Tribesmen in the closing stages of the 2022 and 2024 All-Ireland final defeats to Kerry and Armagh. To that end, Damien Comer has been the main 'impact sub', with a massive contribution in the last three games against Roscommon, Kildare and Westmeath. There's no Matthew Thompson this weekend for Galway, but who knows if Galway can get over the Dubs whether the Salthill Knocknacarra man could yet play a big part in the championship this year?
Anyway, the list of games that Galway have made changes in the last 2 years to the teams announced are as follows:
GALWAY - 2026
v Westmeath (1) - Fionn McDonagh for Shane McGrath
v Kildare (1) - Connor Gleeson for Conor Flaherty
v Roscommon (2) - Kieran Mollor for John Daly, Ryan Roche for Liam O'Conghaile
v Leitrim (1) - Sean Fitzgerald for Cian Hernon
GALWAY - 2025
v Meath (3) - Peter Cooke for Paul Conroy, Jack Glynn for Cillian McDaid, Connor Gleeson for Conor Flaherty
v Down (0) - played as selected
v Armagh (2) - Conor Flaherty for Connor Gleeson, Peter Cooke for Paul Conroy
v Derry (1) - Sam O'Neill for Cein Darcy
v Dublin (1) - Cian Hernon for Jack Glynn
v Mayo (0) - played as selected for Connacht Final
v Roscommon (1) - Sean O'Maolchiarain for Finian O'Laoi
v New York (0) - played as selected.
