Blues in pole position but chasing pack are not Marooned
LAST Sunday was a very good day for Gaelic football.
Too often we rush to bash it as a sport but Sunday stood out as a day when everyone involved could be proud of the game.
Yes, you could place a black mark alongside the defending in the Division Two final but both teams were already promoted and were not as tactically tuned in as they might have been. The result was an avalanche of goals and a richly entertaining game.
There is always going to be controversy and talking points, but three things in particular stood out for me:
1. Is this Galway team ready to mix it with the big boys and having finally shaken off the soft centre? The answer to that is an emphatic yes.
2. Has Dublin’s attitude and desire waned? No, they remain exemplary in that respect.
3. Are Dublin’s fringe players as good as those they’re missing? Absolutely not.
Dublin’s game management in the last 25 minutes, their attitude and discipline, marked them out once again as arguably the best team at closing out games that we’ve ever seen.
But there’s no question that the team Jim Gavin (below) fielded on Sunday is not quite as good as those he’s had in the last few years. Now, as I said here on Saturday, that might well still be good enough to see them to the four-in-a-row as Dublin at 80 per cent of what they were is still a very high standard.
They finished with Colm Basquel, Brian Howard and Eric Lowndes and then when you look to the bench you had Andrew Mcgowan, Paddy Small and Ciaran Reddin. All good players, don’t get me wrong, but would you pick them over those that are missing? I wouldn’t have thought so. Gavin had to contend with James Mccarthy’s injury having already been without Paul Flynn, Jack Mccaffrey, Bernard Brogan, Diarmuid Connolly and Cian O’sullivan.
The next batch that he’s trying to develop are nothing like what he has had in the past. Dublin played well to get the result with 14 men but there are chinks there which give hope to others.
I was surprised at how Galway did, or rather didn’t, use their bench. You can’t wait until the 63rd minute to make a substitution and they should have made changes earlier to help them to stay with Dublin coming down the stretch.
They still have the Corofin contingent and Michael Daly to come back but they need to get more scores from their so-called marquee forwards.
Damien Comer was the only Galway attacker who punched holes in the Dublin defence. It was worth paying in to see him alone though I felt Galway didn’t use him wisely enough.
Too often he was caught down the field and wasn’t in position to inflict more damage when Galway regained possession. His power and strength should be deployed more economically.
On the whole, Galway did an awful lot right but a few lapses in concentration cost them with unforced errors on a few kickouts.
On radio commentary I got some stick for drawing attention to the referee Anthony Nolan’s performance.
Dublin were certainly fortunate not to incur a couple of black cards early on when he quite simply didn’t make the right call.
Galway stood off Dublin far too much in the last 10 minutes despite having the extra man, but it was a brilliant game all told.
Galway will take a lot from it but Dublin are more vulnerable than they have been in a while. But too vulnerable to win the All-ireland? I wouldn’t go that far.