Rob Finnerty predicts challenge Dublin will bring to Galway as he's wary of wounded animal in group opener
ROB FINNERTY has revealed Galway are braced for a Dublin backlash today.
The Tribe dethroned Dessie Farrell's All-Ireland champions last season and Meath ended their 14-year domination of the Leinster SFC last month.
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An epic quarter-final last June saw the Connacht giants defeat the Sky Blues.
And three weeks ago, the Royals served up a similar shock with a 0-23 to 1-16 victory in Portlaoise.
Dublin have been licking their wounds since, while Finnerty was helping his county conquer Connacht for a fourth year in a row with victory over Mayo.
And the Salthill-Knocknacarra man knows the downtrodden Dubs will be out for blood in a first-ever Championship game between the counties at Pearse Stadium.
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The All-Star hitman 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 — 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 not to rate them very highly, especially with the extra lads back as well.
'They were missing three or four starters against Meath, and I know maybe two or three of them were only just back on that day.
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'So maybe they were caught on the hop.'
Galway lost the All-Ireland final to Armagh last July and want to right a few wrongs themselves.
Louth GAA homecoming in Drogheda after Leinster final win over Meath
They will face another battle with the Orchard in round 3 of the group of death next month but back-to-back Championship wins over Dublin is the Tribesmen's first target.
Key duo Damien Comer (hamstring) and Shane Walsh (back) are back in Joyce's squad for today's clash after missing their entire Connacht SFC campaign.
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And Finnerty admits topping Group 4 and going directly into the last eight is vital after doing things the hard way in 2024.
Pádraic Joyce's side missed out on top spot when they drew with Armagh in the last round.
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The marksman was speaking at the launch of Harvey Norman's new sponsorship of GAA Hawk-Eye
They dismissed Monaghan in the preliminary quarter-finals before taking Dublin's scalp, but played three games in as many weeks.
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Finnerty said: 'Yeah, it's obviously ideal if you do that because you're in that flow of a game every two weeks, so that would be the best-case scenario.
'Last year we played three weeks in a row, Armagh then Monaghan then Dublin. They were all really tough battles.
'It's just the worry that you're more likely to pick up a niggle and if you pick up a small knock in that first game, you might miss three Championship games and then your year is over.
'So obviously we'd like to just keep on this two-week-on, but it's going to be difficult with this group.
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'We've been in some massive Championship games over the last few years, so we probably do have that extra bit of experience and thankfully we're getting used to getting over the line in those situations.'
ROB FINNERTY was speaking at the launch of Harvey Norman's new sponsorships of GAA Hawk-Eye, official stats sponsor for the Men's Senior Football and Hurling Championships and also the Camogie Association stats sponsor.
With 18 stores across the island of Ireland and 290 stores worldwide, Harvey Norman is a leading retailer of furniture, bedding, electrical and computers
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