Eirgrid All Ireland U21 Football Final
Galway v Dublin
5PM Saturday 29th April
Tullamore
In Tullamore this Saturday evening Galway will bid to claim their sixth All Ireland U21 Championship and their first since they won in 2013. Standing in their way is a Dublin outfit fresh from upsetting the odds by defeating a fancied Donegal in the semi final on a scoreline of 1-13 to 0-9. The Dubs are searching for their fifth title this weekend at this age-group. Saturday’s encounter will be a historic one, as 2017 is the last year that the U21 grade will be contested. From 2018 onwards, the U21 and minor competitions will be replaced by U20 and U17 instead.
Galway have overcome Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo and Kerry en route to the decider. They played Leitrim in the preliminary round of the Connacht Championship and won by 4-10 to 2-12, after surviving a late scare in the form of a spirited second half comeback by the Leitrim men. Next day out against old rivals Mayo was another tough game, Galway eventually coming home 2-13 to 1-10 winners with a late score from sub Eoin Finnerty sealing victory. In the Connacht Final at Markievicz Park it took extra time to get over a brilliant Sligo team highly motivated to win their first ever U21 Connacht Championship, with the Tribesmen eventually triumphing 3-20 to 2-15 after a dramatic game. Galway then travelled to Ennis for the All Ireland Semi Final as huge underdogs against Kerry, but produced a fantastic display of attacking football to comfortably overcome The Kingdom, 2-14 to 2-10. Full match report of that game from rte.ie available here http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2017/0415/867969-under-21-galway-v-kerry/. In the campaign to date there have been many stand out performers on this Galway team, with wing back Cillian McDaid, midfielder Peter Cooke and centre forward Michael Daly in particular catching the eye.
The teams for Saturday’s game will appear here as soon as they are released and we will be live tweeting all the action this weekend on Twitter @ConnachtGAA.
By briangaa Mon 24th Apr
