No spark as hurlers brushed aside with alarming ease

John McIntyre

Inside Track

Inside Track with John McIntyre

THE worrying levels of pre-match negative murmurings were, unfortunately, not misplaced. An unsettled Galway team which had been struggling all year for a consistent level of form had their limitations brutally exposed by a rampant and far sharper Dublin outfit in a free-flowing Leinster final at Croke Park last Sunday.

12 months ago, Joe Canning and company had blitzed Kilkenny in the performance of the championship and though many of those same players were on duty again for a second consecutive provincial decider, most of the swashbuckling hurling came from their opponents this time. There is no arguing with Sunday’s heavy loss by a dozen points.

Though some local critics might have seen the result coming, few would have envisaged that Galway could be so far off the pace and in such serious trouble in a multitude of positions. Dublin, much hungrier, working harder and performing with greater intensity, were in a different league for much of the contest with their forwards cutting the Tribesmen defence to ribbons at will. Conal Keaney, the robust Ryan O’Dwyer, Dotsy O’Callaghan and, in particular, Paul Ryan went to town.

It wasn’t as if Galway were caught napping from the throw in and had to chase a big early deficit. The teams were on level terms at four points each after 12 minutes, but from there on Dublin took over with their team work and ability to engineer space up front often leaving the Leinster champions chasing shadows. They again went with a five-man attack and though Galway initially employed Johnny Coen as their sweeper, their backline was regularly exposed.

With Ryan netting a preventable goal in the 24th minute, Dublin had already laid down a big marker. Midfielders John McCaffery and Joey Boland were quick to establish a foothold in that sector, so much so that the Galway management felt obliged to call James Regan ashore, seconds after scoring a fine point, long before the interval. Two more changes were made for the second-half as Anthony Cunningham was forced to carry out some desperate fire-fighting.

Trailing by 1-12 to 0-7 at half-time, Galway were in a big hole and when Ryan fired home a screamer in the 41st minute to stretch their advantage to 2-14 to 0-9, last year’s All-Ireland finalists were staring a humiliation in the face. To the team’s credit, however, they staged a spirited rally, highlighted by two cracking individual goals from Joe Canning, again their most influential player, and David Burke and just into the final quarter, there was now only six points between the teams.

Sadly, that was as good as it got for Galway. Dublin steadied themselves and reeled off six unanswered points with substitutes Conor McCormack and Simon Lambert also making their presence felt on the scoreboard as Anthony Daly’s team charged to the county’s first Leinster title since 1961. It was great day for Dublin hurling, but a bad one for Galway who simply lacked the winners’ match-practice and desire, while a number of players, including team captain Fergal Moore and Iarla Tannian, are struggling to regain their outstanding form of 2012.

To make matters worse, Galway had too many square pegs in round holes. Johnny Coen, Shane Kavanagh, their one defender who managed to hold his own, Joseph Cooney, Regan, David Burke and Niall Burke were all selected in positions in which they are not most associated with at club level, while proven Portumna duo, Andy Smith and Damien Hayes, who both gave the team some impetus after being introduced, were surprising absentees from the starting line up.

In the contest of a rearguard which conceded 27 scores and was fortunate not have been hit for more, it defied logic that it was further up the field that the team management was carrying out all the surgery until replacing Cooney in the 63rd minute. By that stage, the damage had been well and truly done as Kevin Hynes and Moore were repeatedly exposed in the last line of defence, although the ease in which the Dublin outfield players were able to find Ryan and Callaghan reflected the lack of pressure that they were being put under.

Furthermore, James Skehill will be disappointed to have been beaten for Dublin’s opening goal in a defensive sector which simply couldn’t cope with the opposition’s pace and movement. Several Galway players were also caught in possession and though the team is bound to improve for last Sunday’s outing. morale can’t be great after this drubbing. On club form alone, Ardrahan’s Jonathan Glynn ought to have won a starting place, but the team’s problems were much bigger than any individual selections.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.