Galway v Derry

A look at some of the potential key battles and tactics in Saturday's opening All-Ireland SFC semi-final between Derry and Galway.

If Joyce does opt to give that job to Kelly, he could prove one of the game's central characters as his ability to bring the ball out of defence has also been a key element of Galway's playing method this summer. It wasn't long ago that if an opposition defence subdued Walsh that Galway were in trouble but Joyce has been able to get the best out of Rob Finnerty, who hit 0-4 against Armagh, and Matthew Tierney while Damien Comer appears to be playing as well as ever and could find himself being shadowed by McKaigue. But goalkeepers have to be far more assured than Gleeson was under the high ball that day and Derry will surely test his mettle with a few long deliveries into the square early on, and indeed periodically during the contest, even if he does appear to have regained his composure during the initial stages on Saturday.

Ahead of a mammoth weekend in the All-Ireland SFC, Colm O'Rourke offers his picks for two highly competitive semi-finals.

Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Follow the All-Ireland Football Championship semi-finals this weekend, Galway v Derry (5.30pm on Saturday) and Dublin v Kerry (3.30pm on Sunday), via our live blogs on rte.ie/sport or on the RTÉ News app. With the colour and excitement, it's hard to beat Dublin and Kerry. But Rory Gallagher showed that they had a different bow to their violin when they came to Croker against Clare and rammed in five goals. I think Galway may have the edge in this one.

Derry now have that mix of silk and steel that sees them go to Croke Park as slight favourites over the Tribesmen.

"After Donegal last year, I put myself under a lot of pressure that day. It was a lesson in micromanagement. I want you to be hateful! "I like it when it’s going well for me. Clare were dispatched with ease and Derry’s knack for creating goal chances became clear. There’s certainly a case to be made for last year’s heartbreaking Ulster semi-final defeat to Donegal giving Derry a platform to push on. I don’t want you boys to be nice. Subject closed." "Best team won, no complaints," barked Mullins, as he kept moving. Was it a defeat on a big day that was the making of this team? Mullins was gone before the end of the week and he kept his powder dry until the following month when he let rip in The Derry Journal. But the Mullins era was a strange one for the county, and one that never seemed to make much sense.

GALWAY and Derry are both on the precipice of history when they face off in the All-Ireland football semi-final.A win for the Tribesmen would see them.

What are the odds? What are the teams? GALWAY and Derry are both on the precipice of history when they face off in the All-Ireland football semi-final.

Derry legend Conleith Gilligan joined Ger Gilroy to look ahead to the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-finals, with a particular focus on Derry ...

Galway captain Sean Kelly, who last week had his quarter-final red card overturned by the Central Hearings Committee, is once again named at full back.

Mind you, Bradley was initially named to start at midfield in the quarter-final, but was withdrawn before throw-in and replaced by Toner who lined out in a two-man full-forward line next to Benny Heron. The Derry selection shows one change in personnel from their 14-point dismissal of Clare. Emmett Bradley, who was first sub in against the Banner, replaces Niall Toner. In the first of the weekend’s All-Ireland semi-finals, Galway boss Pádraic Joyce has kept faith with the starting team from their dramatic and ill-tempered quarter-final win over Armagh.

All the build-up, LIVE updates and reaction from Saturday's All-Ireland semi final.

Ulster champions Derry take on Connacht champions Galway in the first of this weekend's All-Ireland SFC semi-final clashes on Saturday with both counties ...

It can also be purchased through NOW TV here. Viewers outside of the UK & Ireland will also be able to watch the action on GAA GO at a cost of €10. Ulster champions Derry take on Connacht champions Galway in the first of this weekend's All-Ireland SFC semi-final clashes on Saturday with both counties seeking to end a long wait since their last final appearance.

All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Derry v Galway (today, 5.30pm, Croke Park, live on RTÉ2 and Sky Sports Arena). ON a journey like this, you have all the obvious ...

Derry won three out of five league meetings between 2006 and 2010, but Galway have won all of the last four since. There's also the issue of how a team that's become very confident in its defensive system deals with the five-man full-forward line that Derry will use to try and pull them out of shape. He has the potential and willingness to kick the ball 80 yards over the top, and Derry will have to be wary. He's seen a lot with Donegal, Fermanagh and now with Derry and I'm just wary of him as a tactician that he might have something up his sleeve that we don't see coming. Other teams have underestimated Finnerty and he's used that to return 1-13 in four championship games, all but a single point of it from play. Ultan Harney and Ben Crealey could both lay claim to having gotten the better of him in open play. Conor Glass, Lachlan Murray, Ciaran McFaul, Oisin McWilliams and Emmett Bradley were the first five Derry players to touch the ball that day – only Glass will start this afternoon. “Galway in the second half, when we put a massive squeeze on, they were happy to go long and if they lost it long, you're 70 yards from goal with 13 men behind the ball. Roscommon ate them up in the two league games, albeit that was reversed in the Connacht final. Their ability to cut through was impressive but their shooting and efficiency weren't at the levels they've set. Clare were added to it but funnily enough, while they scored 5-13 and won an All-Ireland quarter-final at their absolute leisure, the game was both a marker of how far they've come and how far they still have to go. ON a journey like this, you have all the obvious markers.

Galway and Derry will meet today in the All-Ireland Football semi-final and we have all the TV channel and live stream info.

The game can be streamed live on the RTE Player here. The game will be shown live on both RTE and Sky Sports Arena. Galway and Derry will meet this afternoon as they look to book a place in the All-Ireland final.

All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Derry v Galway, Croke Park, Saturday, 5.30 — Live on RTÉ 2 and Sky Sports Arena. Two things occur about Saturday's All-Ireland ...

Conor Glass at centrefield has had an immense season, his movement — sharpened by time in the AFL — has really punched holes in opposition cover and it will be interesting to see if fellow Aussie rules alumnus McDaid gets the task of stalking him. They have been to extra time and in Galway’s case a penalty shoot-out, which means that both are also tempered by having to survive intense competition. The quarter-final victories will have stood to the teams and both are provincial champions, so haven’t had to face defeat along the way. Galway’s kick-passing will make any turnovers extremely perilous but Derry are unlikely to play risk-reward football to those extremes. Derry aren’t simply dependent on that, though. Galway bring plenty elsewhere but it’s hard to shut out the late concession of scores in their matches against Mayo, Roscommon and Armagh. They were also anxiously and unavailingly chasing the equaliser at the end of extra time in the quarter-final before Cillian McDaid fired a brilliant but low percentage point to save the day.

A meeting with All-Ireland champions Tyrone was just a matter of weeks away in an Ulster Championship they hadn't won for 24 years - or taken a serious scalp in ...

He continued: "We are probably still benefiting from the preparation prior to the Championship. Our preparation is still very good but we needed that after how scattered our league preparations were and it just took on a life of its own after that. We have a flavour of it now and we don't want to let it go.” It was a really bad day in terms of weather but I don't think it would have mattered because our performances prior to that game weren’t good enough. But with preparations hit by Glen and Slaughtneil’s club runs, the former Sydney Swan says Derry underwent “a crash course preseason” between the League and Championship. We can talk about players and other things but you need a leader and a very, very special one to unlock special things. "When you look back on it now, no wonder why our league performances weren't great and we knew that. “You only thought you knew what competing at the top level was in comparison to now. “The management now are very much the standard bearers,” he said. We didn't and we weren't going well enough to win the game at that particular time but yes there were doubts that night. "You get a flavour of it (management) from working with school teams but working with adults is a completely different scenario. To go away and work with people, do a bit of managing because it is completely different. We are all human at the end of the day.

We come full circle. In late August 2001, Derry and Galway met in the first All-Ireland semi-final of the inaugural championship played under the qualifier ...

Please review their details and accept them to load the content. The podcasting fraternity has remained wary of Galway throughout the campaign and it was hard to find a regular talking head tipping them to beat either Mayo or even Roscommon in Connacht. Talk of Galway's supposed 'soft-centre' was cliché for so long that the punditocracy are reluctant to forget. That the county's hurlers were All-Ireland champions at the time - and favourites for another - may also have deprived them of some limelight (they drew a very small Galway crowd to HQ for what was a first semi-final appearance in 17 years). The football league, however, is a far more consequential business and there was plenty on the line in Owenbeg last March, with both teams gunning for promotion. In the end, we got a surprising blowout. One significant caveat is that Derry were without primary score-getter McGuigan, sent off in perplexing circumstances in Hyde Park the previous week. They registered just three wides as against Mayo's 11 in a tense second half in Castlebar, while their miss tally was similarly paltry in the Connacht final, their starting forwards racking up 2-14 from play. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. In late August 2001, Derry and Galway met in the first All-Ireland semi-final of the inaugural championship played under the qualifier format. Their most naturally gifted attacker Shane Walsh continued to mix the sublime with the occasionally inexplicable. Benny Heron added another to his season's tally after lashing home a brace against Monaghan, McKinless again bulled forward to fire another three-pointer, while Paul Cassidy, usually good for a couple of points, rifled one into the top corner stanchion. Derry proved they could grind it out in such circumstances and Gallagher finally had an Ulster title as a numero uno, after previous final losses with Donegal and his native Fermanagh.