Galway 1-21

Dublin 0-15

By John McIntyre at Parnell Park

BACK to the scene of the crime. The venue where the Galway hurlers were burgled for 3-29 in by far their heaviest defeat of Henry Shefflin’s first season in charge.

This time the Tribesmen weren’t in the dock after another Walsh Cup fixture against their admittedly callow hosts, leaving Parnell Park on Saturday with nine points to spare.

On a hostile evening for hurling, some of the play must have bordered on the hideous for the hurling purists among the decent crowd. A multitude of rucks and stoppages, and little fluency to the exchanges, made this match a hard watch.

In the rival players’ defence, it’s only January, the pitch resembled a glue-pot and the biting cold wind had a significant influence on the quality of play. Galway may have only fielded three of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final team, but most of the players in maroon jerseys are not novices at this level.

In contrast, apart from a couple of regulars, Dublin were virtually unrecognisable. In that context, it would have been disappointing if they had even come close to repeating last year’s Walsh Cup win. They didn’t.

With the presence of former Galway All-Ireland winning margin Micheál Donoghue on the Dublin sideline, it added some spice to the fixture and, unsurprisingly, neither team lacked anything in commitment with Galway’s robust tackling and ability to force turnovers key planks of an ultimately comfortable win.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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