DUBLIN MANAGER MATTIE Kenny heaped praise on defender James Madden for lining out in their shock win over Galway just a day after burying his father Noel.
Madden was a late replacement in the starting team for Sean Moran at wing-back, playing a key role in the defence that held the Tribesmen to just 1-14 over the 70 minutes.
“It just shows you the character of James Madden,” said Kenny. “He laid his Dad, Noel, to rest yesterday. I talked to him a couple of days ago and he said his Dad would have wanted him to play.
“But obviously what he has gone through in the last two or three days, it would take a lot out of you physically and mentally. But it just shows you the courage of the lad and the type of player and character he is to give in a massive performance today.
“To the Madden family, to James’ mother Helen and his sister Áine, I’m sure they’re very proud of him today.”
Dublin were rank outsiders coming into the game but they were full value for the four-point victory which sealed their first Leinster final in seven years.
Galway struggled in front of the posts all afternoon. The swirling breeze in the first-half meant they were reluctant to shoot from distance.
Even Joe Canning, who arrived into the game just 12 points off Henry Shefflin’s all-time scoring record, was restricted to six points from 15 shots in a rare off-day.
“We knew this was going to be a massive, massive test against Galway,” Kenny remarked.
“This a top Galway team. They were in great form for the last six weeks. We knew we had to bring a massive, massive display to give ourselves a chance.
“That’s always the game plan, to get into it from the start. But in fairness to Galway, they came at us very strong in the first half. We survived a few attacks at our goals. And then we started building the scoreboard ourselves at the other end.
“I felt then we got into the game. We were competing very well in the game. I thought we defending really well, transitioned the ball really well up the field and kept the scoreboard ticking. And that was the foundation we built.
“It’s the way the modern game is going. You’ve got to be defensively solid. We’ve to protect the ball, mind the ball and use it well.”
Dublin defended heroically throughout the game but they’ve concerns over the fitness of Eoghan O’Donnell after a hamstring injury forced him off in the final quarter. Kenny confirmed their key defender felt a strain and will go for a scan to assess the damage.
Their focus now turns to Kilkenny in the Leinster final which takes place in two weeks.
“It’s a step we wanted to make. Coming into today’s game, we knew that today was a massive challenge playing Galway in this Leinster semi-final,” said Kenny.
“We wanted to come here and give a really good performance and take a step forward. This group has been working really really hard the last two years.
“Sometimes, the public judge you on results. And they don’t see the work that is going on in the background. Sometimes you can say, ‘we’re making progress and we’re building’. But it’s a results-based game. And that’s what you’re judged on.
“So today’s result, what it does is, it imbeds that effort and it’s just rewards for the savage effort these players and the management and backroom team have been putting in over the past couple of years.”
A disappointed Galway boss Shane O’Neill rejected the idea that Dublin simply had more hunger coming into the game.
“It’s very easy and lazy to say that one team is hungrier than the other. I don’t think that’s the position at all. We created an awful lot of chances there. The fact that they weren’t taken had nothing to do with hunger.
“I don’t think any team was more hungry than the other. Both of them wanted it as much as the other. It just seemed to be one of those days at times.”
The former Na Piarsaigh boss said Galway’s first-half profligacy filled Dublin with confidence.
“They would have and it would have helped Dublin, the fact that we didn’t score them. It kept them in the game but just overall small little things didn’t seem to go for us.
“22 scoring chances is a serious amount of chances in a half. It’s just a pity that we weren’t able to put them away.
“It’s very hard to put your finger on it. Maybe it was just one of those days. Or maybe that’s an easy thing to say. We’ll just have to look at the video and see is there anything that’s jumping out that we didn’t see, should we have made changes.
“But overall, look, they’re a very successful group, a very ambitious group, everyone is very disappointed with the result but we’ll have to dust ourselves down and drive on next week.”
Canning was hampered by a thumb injury in the run-in to the game and O’Neill admitted it may have affected his striking.
“He hasn’t done a huge amount of hurling over the last couple of weeks. I think Dublin having the game last week definitely stood to them. So maybe that was one element of it.
“There’s a lot of things that we just need to look at and to get right over the next few weeks.”
Galway head for round 1 of the qualifiers where they’ll face a beaten Munster side on the weekend of 17/18 July. Regrouping for the backdoor is “exactly what we’ll have to do” according to O’Neill.
“We’re out of one competition, the Leinster championship, so we’re in the other competition now, the All-Ireland, so we’ll have to see how that goes over the next couple of weeks.
“I suppose coming into today we would have treated it as knock-out as well, we wanted to win the game, we wanted to get to the Leinster final.
“It didn’t happen so we have to dust ourselves down and go again. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that,” he added.
“We’ll have to reassess the game over the next couple of games, address it with the lads over Tuesday, we’ll have a chat about it and then we’ll just have to park it and move on for the All-Ireland.”
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