Strength on the bench can sway deciders

NEVER has a bad call worked out so well. In starting Jonathan Glynn and using Niall Burke as his first replacement, Micheál Donoghue went a long way to winning the hurling final.

And in the four-point contribution from among the replacements of Burke and Jason Flynn is a factor worth mulling over in considerations of the football final this day week.

Substitutes count. For the second All-Ireland final in a row, they were the winning of the game. As in last year’s replayed football final, the winning team’s replacements scored four points in this year’s hurling decider.

Glynn (above) was not especially effective in starting the match, but he did have the effect of drawing Tadhg de Búrca closer to the Waterford full-back line, with space freed up out the pitch for Galway’s long-range shooters.

However, Donoghue acted decisively in replacing him with less than 10 minutes having elapsed in the second half, allowing Burke to come in and make a major contribution.

Jim Gavin’s utilisation of his alternatives won the football Championship last season, with Cormac Costello’s three points and one from Bernard Brogan doing for Mayo the second time around.

The football decider is predicted to be a fierce physical battle, but that intensity takes a toll. Dublin have the more extensive bench options if the game needs winning with 10 minutes left to play.