Tribesmen won while in 3rd gear which is surely a worrying sign for Dubs
THERE was a massive opportunity for Dublin against Galway on Sunday if they were good enough to take advantage of it. Ultimately, they weren’t. There seemed to be a flat atmosphere in the ground which was reflected in how Galway played for much of the first half following the high of their League final performance. Galway were stale, Dublin got on top midway through the first half but they weren’t able to drive it on from there. If they had a bit more conviction, they could have been ahead at half-time rather than clinging on. The game was already going away from them by the time Cian O’callaghan was sent off and the last quarter was a nonevent. What’s worse for Dublin is that Galway had another couple of gears if they needed them yet they still won by 14 points. At times, I was looking at Dublin thinking, ‘What
are they doing?’ You had their goalkeeper driving a free wide, David Treacy running the width of the pitch to take a sideline ball and putting it wide. They overcarried the ball a couple of times when goals were on. Their decision-making was poor, as was a lot of their passing. They were tactically naive too. Having watched Galway in the League final, it was no secret Joe Canning was going to play a roving role. Yet he was allowed to run the show, popping up in 30 yards of space. Either the gameplan in terms of dealing with him went out the window or there wasn’t anything worthy of the name in the first place. The absence of several players from the Dublin team for various was a big talking point going into the game. Some of them were dropped, others pulled out of their own volition, apparently as they have issues with Ger Cunningham. But you’re not playing for a manager – you’re playing for yourself, your teammates and your county. Of course, I’m not involved and I don’t see what’s happening behind the scenes but in any of the serious hurling counties, you can’t lose a raft of experienced players and expect to go anywhere. For a period, Dublin were Leinster and All-ireland contenders and you would have felt it was only a matter of time before they made the ultimate breakthrough. You could see it coming. That’s no longer the case. Maybe they will make the breakthrough at some stage but I don’t know when, only that it won’t be any time soon. Ger Loughnane commented on the Sunday Game highlights show that they have failed to produce a really top class scoring forward in the last decade but I’d they probably have only to lose them to football. I would have always felt that a player shouldn’t be making a decision like that until he’s 17/18 but maybe Dublin have to cut their cloth accordingly now. As for Galway, they didn’t go up or down in my estimation on Sunday. There may have been a vulnerability in their fullback line but other than that they did everything at their ease. But, then, Dublin made it easy for them.
Galway were at ease as the Dubs made it easy for them