BOTH DUBLIN AND Galway will have carried disappointment with them when they exited Croke Park this evening.
There’s more questions than answers for Dublin again after not finishing out this game. Galway will know they got away with it because Dublin couldn’t put them away at the end.
It’s only the end of May but it’s still a time in the summer where teams want to make a statement.
The game itself didn’t really have the bite I expected. Galway made a whirlwind start. Their forwards played with real desire, demonstrated by the hooking and blocking they were doing.
All over the pitch it was a real declaration that they were thundering into Leinster championship. Anthony Cunningham must have been on the sideline delighted with this dream start.
But then the air came out of their challenge when they should really have kicked on. Galway lost their shape and it reminded me of the second-half of their defeat to Tipperary last year. They stopped chasing and doing the right things.
Iarla Tannian had been playing a holding role around the ’45 but he got sucked out of the position. Dublin were able then to send enough ball forward where Mark Schutte caused mayhem in the first-half.
For the second weekend in a row, we saw a corner back getting cleaned out. It was Domhnall O’Donovan last week and Johnny Coen this weekend. The switch should have been made sooner by Galway, it was mismatch with Schutte having the edge in height and pace over Coen.
Schutte’s 2014 season hit the rocks early on when he got injured against Wexford but he’s began 2015 like a man on a mission. He lit up the Dublin forward line and his form gave real encouragement to the rest of the Dublin team to give the ball into him
Dublin will be most disappointed that they didn’t close this out. Galway dropped their guard but Dublin didn’t push forward with enough conviction.
There’ll be a lot of attention over David Treacy’s late free. It was unfortunate as he played very well and that was the only one he missed. But these are the ones that have to go over.
The ability to always nail those frees are what made the likes of Eoin Kelly and Henry Shefflin great freetakers. Sometimes that’s the difference between winning and losing.
Liam Rushe and Ryan O’Dwyer did a lot of good work collecting breaks for Dublin in the second-half and taking the ball forward from there. They helped build a big platform but Dublin just didn’t take the opportunity.
They were building momentum but hit a couple of bad second-half wides, going for shots when the ball needed to be recycled. Guys around the middle just need to give the extra handpass to set the shot up a bit better rather than being so rushed.
If Dublin are to be serious contenders, they need to have composure in possession late on in games. It is something they are going to have to overcome, learning the ability to kick on and when they have a team down, to just go for jugular. It’s not an easy thing to do but winning All-Ireland’s isn’t easy.
I don’t think Joe Canning should have been playing for Galway given the injury he is carrying. He supposedly has 16 stitches in his hand.
A ball came in towards him with about ten minutes left and he went with his hurley in a haphazard way to try to get the ball rather than using his hand. Joe sent three placed balls wide as well and looked like he was affected by the injury.
Jason Flynn had been going well on the frees for Galway, he sent over one from the sideline against Clare in the league with Davy Fitz roaring at him. We saw in 2012 with Galway in the All-Ireland final replay in the case of James Skehill, that you don’t play players that are injured.
I know Joe is a big player for Galway but sometimes you have to wonder what it achieves fielding a player with an injury. We didn’t see the Joe Canning we’re used to today.
It’s a positive for Galway that they were three points behind with 16 minutes left but came back to draw a game they should have lost. Cathal Mannion and Flynn showed up well for young lads on the Galway team.
They skinned their men at times and showed great pace. There were warning signs there for Dublin as Galway showed a far greater goal threat. Tullamore is a tight pitch but if Galway can isolate one of them close to goal, they could benefit.
There was a lot of uncharacteristic errors from Peter Kelly today. He’s another bothered by injury at the moment and he’ll be a loss to Dublin if out next week. He looked today as if he’s been listening to people commenting on how good he is at using the ball out of defence.
That’s important but for a defender sometimes you have to play on instinct and get the ball out of danger. It nearly cost Dublin a couple of times in the first-half.
Instead of victory, Dublin got a draw and must now go down into a tight pitch in Tullamore next Saturday night. On the Galway team bus, Anthony Cunningham will have been saying to his players that they got away with one today.
There’s issues for both sides to address before they take to the field in O’Connor Park.
