Former Westmeath star Dessie Dolan believes Galway have the ingredients in defence to thwart the Roscommon attack in this weekend’s Connacht senior football championship final.

The Rossies welcome the Tribesmen to Dr Hyde Park on Sunday (4.15pm) looking to deny them what would be a fifth successive Nestor Cup triumph, with Mark Dowd’s side having been in impressive form to date in the championship by registering 7-47 in their two outings.

Speaking on the RTE GAA podcast this week, Dolan believes that Galway can curtail their opponent’s scoring threat enough on Sunday to claim the provincial title out west once more.

"Galway are going for five in a row - Paul Conroy's there, John Maher, Matthew Tierney, big, physical men around the middle," he stated.

"Galway generally do OK at midfield and I think that’s where Roscommon really capitalised against Mayo, winning the primary possession off kick-outs.

"In terms of match-ups, I don’t expect Enda Smith to be as dominant in terms of running the show, creating opportunities. He’ll be tagged and he’ll be tagged tightly.

"Equally Diarmuid Murtagh scoring 1-10 (against Mayo), the big question in that instance is who’s marking Diarmuid Murtagh and how is he getting so many shots away and why is there not someone tightening down on him?

"That’s the type of management Padráic Joyce is very good at. David Morris is his stats guy and the trainer and coach with him, they’ll know the key threats and they’ll know what to stop."

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