Fahy ready to return for Galway

All-Ireland winning full back Gary Fahy is to make a return for Galway this weekend after more than three months out of action. He is likely to line out for the county in either today's challenge match against Institute of Technology, Tralee or in tomorrow's FBD Connacht League match with Sligo.

Fahy suffered an injury last October in a match against Cavan and missed all of the county's National League campaign before Christmas. The FBD league commences with two matches, Galway's trip to Tobercurry and Roscommon hosting Leitrim. Roscommon and Galway are starting the year after championship seasons which proved great disappointments for both.

Galway manager John O'Mahony is determined to learn from the lessons of last seasons failure to retain either the their Connacht or All-Ireland titles. "We won't be picking a team before the day," said O'Mahony. "Last week we selected a team on Thursday and by Saturday, between 'flu and injuries, everything had been changed. We're sure that Gary will be back and hopeful that Declan Meehan's shoulder injury will have cleared up. There's going to be a fair bit of experimentation because we'll have to rest a couple of players who are involved with Sigerson teams."

Among those players is Padraig Joyce who will play again this year with IT Tralee. "Padraig will probably play one half with us and the other with them," said O'Mahony. "He picked up a calf injury last weekend in a challenge against Clare."

Today's fixture and Joyce's involvement is a reminder that last year he was sent off during an FBD fixture with Sligo and ended up missing out on Tralee's third Sigerson win in a row. His sending-off - which was disputed at the time - resulted in an extraordinarily heavy suspension of seven matches. Although the actual ban was one month, it fell during a particularly busy period for the player.

As well as missing three of Galway's National Football League matches, Joyce was unavailable for Tralee's closing matches of the Sigerson campaign. Ironically his brother Tommy finds himself on the opposite end of the disciplinary scale this year.

Suspended for three months after being sent off playing for Killererin against Crossmolina in the Connacht club championship, he finds himself the subject of new disciplinary arrangements which exclude December and January from consideration when serving suspension.

Tommy Joyce may be able to claw back some of that time because Galway's National League season extended into December, he will still be out of consideration when the League resumes next month. In the meantime he is available for FBD duty as his suspension covers only major inter-county competition and club championship matches.

All Star centre fielder Kevin Walsh is another player back in contention. Recently returned to training, he is expected to start his first match back in the next week or two.

O'Mahony has spent the last two years keeping his options open as late as possible in the year. This time, however, he is expected to finalise his championship panel within the next month or so. Two years ago, the panel was kept open until April when Jarlath Fallon joined up and went on to become 1998 Footballer of the Year.

At the moment another key player, Michael Donnellan, is also concentrating for the moment on another sport. The implications of the player's move to Galway United is still shrouded in ambiguity but indications are that he may have to make a decision between the codes sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, the O'Byrne Cup in Leinster advances into the second round with holders Dublin heading to Longford, surprise winners against Kildare last week. Under-strength Meath travel to Westmeath with most of the All-Ireland winning panel on holidays and Tommy Dowd acting as manager in Sean Boylan's absence.

Wexford take on Laois and Offaly make the journey to Dr Cullen Park to play Carlow.