GALWAY CAN’T FIND A WAY PAST BLUE WALL
Unflappable Dubs march inexorably towards title number four
IN A football summer sprinkled with a little romance, Dublin continue to decorate it with their greatness. They riddled Galway at the death, partly for the amusement of their supporters in the 54,000 attendance but mainly, you suspect, to warn Tyrone and Monaghan that the golden ticket they will wrestle over today will be anything but a free pass.
The champions continue to spew numbers like a malfunctioning bingo machine, but there is nothing random about it.
This will be their seventh final in a decade and they will arrive there on the back of a 27-game unbeaten run, ensuring the odds on them winning a fourth All-Ireland in a row will shrivel to dissuade a run on the banks.
And all summer, we have been told that we haven’t really moved on but have benefitted from the rest falling off the back of the treadmill.
That theory was sourced mainly on the evidence that the champions have been light on the swagger, just doing what they have to do.
But that is their gift, nobody does the simple things quite as well as they manage.
In the myriad things that make this Dublin team great, it is the capacity to not only do the simple things perfectly, but to also keep doing them.
With the ball in hand they always make it count, and without it they always find a way to get it back.
On the scoreboard, this still had a pulse at half-time as Dublin led by two points (1-9 to 1-7), even though the sense of inevitability could have been cut by a saw.
When did this turn from a contest to a procession? Well, pick any moment of your choosing.
Ours came within six minutes of the restart when Sean Kelly cut inside the Dublin cover but his ambitious pass was intercepted by Jack McCaffrey and, within a matter of seconds, Con O’Callaghan had driven it over at the other end.
Or eight minutes later when Michael Daly’s shot from distance was blocked down and Dublin hoovered up the loose ball with Dean Rock this time raising a white flag.
Pressure on one end, precision at the other, there is no secret to their sustained excellence, but neither is there any answer.
Con O’Callaghan scored 1-3 from four shots on goal, Paul Mannion hit 0-4 from five attempts, Ciarán Kilkenny was three for three while Cormac Costello nailed three from three in a final-quarter run-out.
These are assassins dressed up as footballers.
That quality drip feeds through every line. When Galway stood off Stephen Cluxton, they were unable to counter Dublin’s rapid running game.
When they stood up to him, they were unable to counter the magnificent fetching of Brian Fenton.
That’s why, by the end, the structure and the spirit, that has served Galway so well this season, simply disintegrated.
In the final quarter Dublin tagged on 10 points and the only thing that warped the scoreboard at the end was Shane Walsh’s late goal that could only offer consolation to the deluded.
While Galway spent most of the evening chasing a game that went hopelessly beyond their reach, they still found room for a bag-full of regrets in the opening half.
They lacked composure when it was needed most – five of their six first-half wides were kicked from the scoring zone – and in the one period they had Dublin staggering, they could not deliver the free punch they were gifted.
Damien Comer’s eighth-minute goal was a potential game-changer in that it highlighted the Dublin full-back line’s vulnerability to direct ball – although they were hardly helped by Stephen Cluxton’s rush of blood in leaving his goalline.
But three minutes later the Dublin captain made amends, diving to his left to stop Éamonn Brannigan’s penalty, awarded after the now rampant Comer was fouled by Jonny Cooper.
It felt like a huge moment in the game, but it was compounded by Galway allowing Comer to drift out the field.
True, his team-mates were far too reliant on hitting him with the early diagonal ball he would have thrived on, but it left the Galway attack diminished, reliant on the sublime skills of Ian Burke.
And as the half progressed, Dublin started to bare their teeth when O’Callaghan flicked the ball to the net in the 27th minute to give the champions a lead (1-7 to 1-4) they would not lose.
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; E Murchan (MD Macauley, 57), P McMahon, J Cooper; J Small (D Daly, 66), C O’Sullivan (M Fitzsimons, 28), J McCaffrey (P Flynn, 68); B Fenton, J McCarthy; N Scully (C Costello, 44), C Kilkenny, B Howard; C O’Callaghan, D Rock (K McManamon, 56), P Mannion.
Scorers: C O’Callaghan 1-3, D Rock 0-5 (0-4 frees), P Mannion 0-4, C Kilkenny 0-3, C Costello 0-3 (0-1 free) B Fenton, K McManamon 0-2, B Howard, P Flynn 0-1.
GALWAY: R Lavelle; D Kyne, SA O Ceallaigh, E Kerin (K Molloy, 66); S Sweeney, G Bradshaw (J Duane, 68), J Heaney (A Varley, 59); C Duggan, T Flynn; E Brannigan (P Cooke, 50), S Walsh, S Kelly; S Armstrong (M Daly, 47), D Comer, I Burke.
Scorers: S Walsh 1-5 (0-3 frees), D Comer 1-1, I Burke 0-2, G O’Donnell, T Flynn, M Daly, J Heaney 0-1.
RefeRee: B Cassidy (Derry).