TRIBE HOPE BLUE AWAY IN SALTHILL

All-ireland champions rack up 22 points & 0 wides by the sea

DUBLIN upped the ante at Salthill yesterday to go top of Division One thanks to comfortably disposing of Galway.

Dessie Farrell’s side, who lost their opening two games, joined Derry on eight points.

Dublin racked up an impressive 22 points on a heavy pitch that had just taken the Galway/limerick hurling game, although the Salthill wind wasn’t close to being the factor it usually is.

The All-ireland champs were ruthlessly efficient, with no wide in the second half and no miss until All Star Colm Basquel was blocked down in the last play.

Across the entire game they had just one wide, a first half Con O’callaghan free and four other misses.

O’callaghan cut loose in the second half, finishing with nine points, including three from play and a mark, having been well curtailed by Sean Fitzgerald before the break.

Mcginnis, handed a start at wing forward and given 51 minutes, was very impressive, and could well be the next Dublin player off the conveyor belt.

The Skerries man is a big unit, who can get about the field and he also notched two points from play.

Almost every other manager in the country would have been delighted with the exhibition of clinical, pacey play Dublin put on.

But Farrell reflected: “There are some things to be moderately happy about. The conditions were tough. I thought our skill execution at times was poor.

“The lads themselves won’t be happy with some of what went on out there so it was a little bit of a frustrating type of a day if I’m being very honest.

“And yet when you look at it, we won by whatever we won (eight points).

“Shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves maybe. They (Galway) are missing a huge amount of bodies – some significant talent.

“If they had some of those players available to them I think it could have been a very different game.

“We just move on. Next week, Croke Park. Hopefully the conditions will be a bit better and we can continue to work on some things we have been trying out.”

Galway were unlikely to trouble the scoring board enough to beat Dublin without the drive of Cillian Mcdaid and Sean Kelly, and the punch of Damien Comer, Shane Walsh and Matthew Tierney.

They were also without Liam Silke and Patrick Kelly, but then Dublin didn’t have Stephen Cluxton, Michael Fitzsimons, James Mccarthy, Eoin Murchan, Cormac Costello and Lee Gannon.

Dublin brought on multiple All-ireland winners in Jack Mccaffrey and Paul Mannion, while Paddy Small appeared to pull up in the warm-up.

The visitors were superior throughout and hit eight points from play in the first half from six different men.

Galway hit just two points from play first half, with Dublin turning ball over more effectively, breaking quicker and scoring easier than the home side.

The big difference was how much pressure Dublin were able to get on the Galway player in possession, particularly when it was kicked inside and in the corners