By Frank Craig
Geraldine McLaughlin has warned her teammates that Galway will be a much different proposition in the championship than they were when Donegal downed them in League combat back in June.
Maxi Curran’s side will take on the Tribeswomen on Saturday, at Markievicz Park, in Group Four of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
Donegal impressively accounted for the weekend’s opposition by 4-21 to 2-11 last month on their way to a place in the NFL semi-finals. Termon star McLaughlin fired an impressive 2-7 in that 16-point drubbing.
However, she says that was a largely experimental Galway outfit and that new boss Garry Fahy used the league primarily as an opportunity to run the rule over a number of fresh and inexperienced faces.
McLaughlin is expecting a much different test in Sligo at the weekend.
“It is a completely different set of circumstances,” said McLaughlin. “I don’t think either side will take anything from that league game. You can’t go into championship thinking you’re going to get the same time and space that you did in the league. championship is so much different.”
Donegal’s star attacker picked up what appeared to be a serious knock first day out in the league and the question was how it might hamper her in the weeks ahead. As it turned out, it was not as serious as first feared.
“It was a dead leg. And the worry is, the season the way it is, you just don’t want to be missing any training sessions. They are that valuable. I missed a game as well.
“But you just have to be wise – look at the bigger picture. It was only something small. But like I said you want to shake it as qucikly as possible and thankfully it didn’t hinder me for that long.”
Galway and Kerry opened Group Four last weekend with the Connacht girls just about shading matters on a scoreline of 2-11 to 2-10.
In a three-team section, that scoreline suggests that the Kingdom girls won’t be any kind of a soft touch either.
“It gives you a hint of what’s coming. We’re just excited now about getting out there and putting out hard work into practice.
“After the Cork loss in the league there was a reset and a focus switched to championship.
“Sometimes, when the thing is coming at you as fast as it was, it’s hard to sit back and actually reflect on what has gone well or not gone so well in the games. You immediately move on to thinking about the next game when you should really take some time out and look at the last one. We’ve all had time to do that now. And again, we’ve to put that learning into practice now.”
Donegal were able to tally some impressive scorelines in the league but a concern for them has to be their slow starts and the number of goals they themselves are leaking.
McLaughlin says the aim in between, where the side also booked its Ulster final spot with a win over Cavan, has been to strike an acceptable balance.
“Yeah, it’s a hard one to kind of break down. Of course we’re delighted with what we’ve scored but we conceded too much on most games. But if you’re prepared to commit and go all out in attack, it’s going to leave you more vulnerable at the back. To find a balance something has to give. So we’ll see.”
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