Limerick should be feeling nervous as Tribe start to motor
GALWAY are moving quietly through this summer in a way that will make John Kiely wary. They ended Dublin’s season with a 0-27 to 0-21 win in Salthill yesterday, they are still unbeaten in championship hurling under Henry Shefflin and will be favourites when the apprentice meets the master Brian Cody again in the Leinster final on Saturday week.
But the story in Pearse Stadium wasn’t the Tribesmen but a disappointing Dublin side. For a team who travelled west knowing their championship existence was at stake, there was surprisingly little fight in Mattie Kenny’s charges.
Apart from the excellent Donal Burke, who scored 14 points and at times took the challenge singlehandedly to Galway, no other Dublin forward made any sort of impression on the game. Eoghan O’Donnell had a tremendous battle with Conor Whelan at the other end of the field, even if the flamehaired full-forward took him for five points during a splendid second-half performance.
It is hard to know where Dublin go from here. A summer which had promised much after they emerged from Wexford Park with a win has now disintegrated. There remains plenty of potential in the capital and some wonderfully talented hurlers. But since the messianic Anthony Daly left the scene, they have struggled to find a formula to harness it. Perhaps, it is time to put the bat-call back out to the charismatic Clare man.
Too often this summer, Burke has been let down by the others in the Dublin attack. This was yet another match in this campaign where they failed to rattle the net, although only a heroic block from Fintan Burke stopped Paul Crummey from doing so late on.
Burke was brilliant, the St Thomas man garnishing another solid defensive shift with a lovely sideline ball late in the game. And his performance was part of a fine rearguard action that will please Shefflin most when he slices and dices a drab enough affair that was played in front of almost 11,000 at Pearse Stadium.
We all know what Galway can do up front. Whelan underlined his cult hero status in the second-half, Conor Cooney hit a remarkable 13 points in a hard-working display, Cathal
Mannion nailed a couple of special scores. But it is further back the field where the foundation needs to lie if they are to rival Limerick.
All of the Galway backs were brilliant – from Jack Grealish and Darren Morrisey on either side of Daithí Burke, to Padraic Mannion who is playing himself back into form. Even as Johnny Murphy’s over-fussy officiating threatened to destroy the game in the first-half, the defenders stood strong.
The one big concern for Shefflin and his team is that David Burke went down with a nasty-looking knee injury about 15 minutes from the end. His leadership and experience will be needed as Galway go deeper into the summer.
Elsewhere in Leinster, Westmeath used last week’s historic draw with Wexford as a springboard to condemn Laois to the Joe McDonagh next season. Joe Fortune’s charges had a huge 5-24 to 1-18 win over the home side in Portlaoise, scoring 4-12 of their total in the second-half.
Eoin Keyes and Niall Mitchell propelled the Lake County to the win with two goals each as a disappointing campaign for Laois petered out in the closing stages.
Meanwhile, Michael Fennelly’s Offaly missed out on the Joe McDonagh Cup final as they were surprisingly beaten 0-22 to 0-17 by Carlow in Tullamore. That opened the door for Kerry and Stephen Molumphy’s side availed of it, beating Antrim 0-29 to 2-21 in Corrigan Park to ensure that they will do it all over again in the decider on June 4th.
Kildare became the first county to win the Christy Ring Cup on four occasions as David Herity’s impressive side romped home against Mayo in Croke Park, winning 2-29 to 0-19. The game was effectively over at half-time, as the Lilywhites were already 2-17 to 0-8 ahead. Ace attacker Damien Casey scored 0-14 for Tyrone as they brushed Roscommon aside 1-27 to 0-19 to claim the Nickey Rackard Cup while Louth overcame a slow start to see off Longford in the Lory Meagher final.
Elsewhere, GAA history was made in Aughrim as the first match of the Tailteann Cup was played. And it was Wicklow who made the most of having the home advantage to run out 3-16 to 1-10 winners over Waterford.