Galway star on Dublin's 'revenge' mission and how he picked Mayo's pocket

Rob Finnerty reckons that Dublin will be gunning for revenge when they land in Salthill this evening.
Galway scored their first Championship win over the Dubs in 90 years in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final, condemning the then Leinster champions to their earliest exit since 2009.
And having relinquished their provincial title last month after losing to Meath, Dublin are now bidding to avoid successive Championship defeats for the first time since 1997, when they were knocked out by the Royals in their first outing having also been beaten by them in the previous year's Leinster final.
But Finnerty says that they will be driven by the prospect of avenging last year's defeat.
He said: 'They definitely will. They're a really hungry group and they obviously still have so many top players.
'They'll probably get a few more bodies back, but you can only imagine what their training's been like since that defeat to Meath and I'd say they're raring to go.
'When you look at their team sheet, there's so many players there with so many All-Irelands so it's hard to not rate them very highly, especially with the extra lads that are coming back as well.
'I think they're probably missing three or four starters against Meath, and I know maybe two or three of them were only just back on that day. So maybe they were caught on the hop that day or whatever. But yeah, they'll still be really strong.'
There is a novel factor to the tie with it being the first Championship meeting of the counties away from Croke Park since the 1933 All-Ireland semi-final, which took place in Mullingar, and it's certainly the most interesting group in this phase of the Championship with All-Ireland champions Armagh and Derry also involved.
'I've heard that a lot now, the group of death,' says Finnerty. 'People were even saying it last week before we even played our provincial final. It's obviously a really tough group but it's probably where you want to be as well.
'Getting the opportunity to play Dublin at home in a Championship game is unbelievable, so we're really looking forward to that.'
Galway come into the game having emulated a feat of their greatest ever team by winning four Connacht titles on the spin for the first time since 1966, with Finnerty taking on the mantle in attack in the absence of Shane Walsh and Damien Comer through injury in the provincial final against Mayo.
'Shane and Damien are obviously two of the top players in the country, so they're going to be a massive loss to any team.
'I think a lot of us are that few years older maybe, different players and have that bit more experience and there's loads of different lads coming into themselves.
'We're in a really good place as a group and when we get them back that'll only make us stronger.'
The game swung in Galway's favour through Finnerty's ingenuity as he intercepted a Colm Reape kickout in the 61st minute and was pulled down by Rory Brickenden, who was black-carded as a result.
It was something that Finnerty says he was waiting to pounce on having studied Mayo's form.
'That's kind of their favourite pocket there. He's a right-footed kicker so he obviously likes to kick that way.
'It would have been something I'd have looked at on video as well, about maybe trying to fake going the other way and then trying to intercept it. So I had a feeling we might get one and thankfully we did and we made it count.
'I probably was trying it a lot throughout the game. It just happened to come off once, thankfully enough.'
Finnerty is, of course, the son of former Mayo footballer Anthony, also known as 'Larry' and a long-time Salthill resident, though he suggests that his father's identity has been somewhat diluted at this stage.
'He was absolutely delighted after the game, to be fair to him. I think he's coming around. He's a bit of a Galway man at this stage, obviously you have that extra bit of craic with the family, the cousins and aunties.
'They obviously still have that side to them, where they'd probably be supporting Mayo. It is enjoyable.'

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43 minutes ago

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Irish Examiner

44 minutes ago

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