Conor Hayes believes it would be nothing short of a disaster if the Galway hurlers lose their top-flight status on Sunday.

In today's Irish Times, the former manager and All-Ireland winning captain raises many concerns about the make-up of the Galway team ahead of the relegation playoff against Dublin in Tullamore. He believes the squad is top-heavy with players who are unproven at senior level and also claims that many players are being played out of position.

"I'm getting worried at this stage," the Kiltormer man said.

"Dublin will come with a strong team. Galway have beaten them earlier in the league and Anthony Daly will have Dublin well fired up. It's fairly important for Galway to hold on to top-flight status . . . it will put huge question marks over a lot of things if they do go down.

"Dublin are physical and fit. And they won't want to go down after winning the league last year."

"A lot of things are not adding up, but there is a lack of stability in the team. Too many young lads have come in at the one time and players not playing in key positions is one of the issues that management has to look at.

"I'd have Shane Kavanagh at full-back for stability and drop Fergal Moore back to the corner, with David Collins out to the wing. Lads should be played in their best positions and Collins is struggling at full. I've dealt with him for a few years and he's an outstanding wing-back. And you'll get the best out of Fergal Moore at corner-back. Centre-back is not his natural position and he's struggling a bit with that as well."

He added: "The worrying thing going into the championship is that you could almost pick the Kilkenny, Cork and Tipp championship teams, maybe Waterford too. But you'd have to think about the Galway team, when you should have 10 or 12 positions nailed down by now." Tweet

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