Dublin vs Galway 31st May

Dublin vs Galway 31^st May

Welcome one and all to the third weekend of the GAA diary and the start of the Leinster Hurling Championship in Croke Park!

Dublin are slight favourites for this one, but the men from west Leinster are unpredictable and many experts are tipping them to edge it.

The usual clichés aside, this is close to a must-win game for both teams – the loser is straight into Round 1 of the qualifiers, which will contain three Munster teams and is a real minefield. Galway tried the qualifier route last year and found their legs blown off, figuratively speaking, in the first week of July, losing out to Tipperary.

Injuries have significantly weakened the Galway starting fifteen, with Conor Cooney, David, Daithí and Niall Burke all missing out.

Dublin have an imposing-looking half forward line of Ryan O'Dwyer, Liam Rushe and Danny Sutcliffe and makeshift Galway centre-back Iarla Tannion will have his hands full.

Can Dublin find the goalscoring touch that has eluded them for the last three years?

Can Galway get enough ball into Joe Canning at full forward?

Can Ryan O'Dwyer avoid getting sent off?

Will the Dublin fans abandon their pints to come in and support their team?

Stay tuned, all will be revealed...

Pre Match Analysis – where is Tomás?

Tomás Mulcahy wrote a strange article during the week in response to the standard of play in the Waterford Limerick game last Sunday, the essence of it being that laptops are taking over hurling.

Perhaps Tomás is the man to travel back in time and assassinate the inventor of the microchip and save us all from the ruination of hurling. He may as well take out the inventor of the hurling helmet as well while he's at it, judging from this quote:

“So what message are we sending out to parents of young kids? Everyone has to wear a helmet now so automatically parents will deem ours a very dangerous game and little Johnny will be sent off to play some other sport. Our loss.”... “I think lads will pull away because you simply can't hurt a player. Just look at American Football where there is no fear because the head is protected when players are jumping into tackles and that.”

(Mulcahy, Tomás 2010)

Somebody give this man a job where he has access to the national airwaves!

Unfortunately, today's panel is the duo of Eddie Brennan and Ger Loughnane, and Tomás is nowhere to be seen.

Rudyard Kipling is referenced heavily in the pre-match chatter, a rather heavy-handed metaphor about the law of the jungle by Michael Lyster is taken on enthusiastically by the analysts -

Ger Loughnane: “The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack”.

Eddie Brennan, promoting inter-species co-operation: “Talking of the jungle, it's about what types of animals you want in your pack”.

As we approach the 20^th anniversary of the release of Jagged Little Pill, Eddie does Alanis Morrissette proud:

“It's ironic that Galway came so close to winning an All-Ireland in 2013”.

I imagine the following exchange as Eddie and Ger travelled up to Dublin this morning...

Ger: Have you any aul music at all in the car Eddie? I can't be listening to your ráiméis all the way to Dublin.

Eddie: Lookit I suppose in a way there's an Alanis Morissette album there in the glovebox.

Ger: Getting some music on here is vital. The last trip we were on, you talked and talked and talked about the size of Brian Cody's ears. I'll tell you something now – they're not that big.

Eddie: I suppose that's a fair point in terms of the ears, but what stands out to me, seeing them in person is how pink they are. Big pink ears. I suppose the prevailing wisdom is that as lads get older, they stop growing. But as the fella says, the ears never stop growing. So I think what you'll see from Brian in years to come is even bigger ears, if anything, if you like.

Ger: Right, I'm putting on the feckin' CD now and will you please stay quiet. Only that you look like Alan Partridge I'd have no time for you at all.

Pre-match predictions: Ger: Galway

Eddie: Both teams will want to avoid the qualifiers.

Down we go to our commentary team of Marty Morrissey and Dónal O'Grady.

First Half

1 min Cyril Donnellan, being marked by Conal Keaney, fires over a nice point.

3 mins Donnellan breaks free again, and his goal attempt causes a panicky goalmouth scramble, eventually cleared.

6 mins Referee James McGrath seems to be blowing for every third foul here, a lot of holding going on.

Marty Morrissey: “There is a strong crossfield breeze up here on the seventh floor.”

11 mins Long-range point from Donnellan – Galway are working hard and well on top in the initial stages.

15 mins Galway midfielders and half-forwards are not in any way inclined to let the ball inside to Joe Canning at the edge of the square, opting for pot-shots from range. Dónal O'Grady's annoyance is palpable.

17 mins Mark Schutte for Dublin is showing well for the ball and his direct style is causing problems for Johnny Coen.

I find myself nodding along with most of what O'Grady has to say in co-commentary. His pragmatic, tough-love style is strangely entertaining. He dislikes, above all else, wasted possession, and there is plenty of that going on here.

19 mins Marty's voice breaks into a pre-pubescent squeal as Galway midfielder Joseph Cooney breaks onto a loose ball, carries it forward, and fires to the net. Well taken goal.

Score: Galway 1-06 Dublin 0-04

21 mins Schutte's ball-winning is keeping Dublin in the game. He scores again from a great crossfield pass from Ryan O'Dwyer.

Dublin are finding space now in the middle third and have rattled off the last three points since the Galway goal. An excellent response.

O'Dwyer is playing slightly deeper than usual and doing a creditable impression of a poor man's Patrick Bonnar Maher.

Score: Galway 1-06 Dublin 0-07

30 mins Johnny Coen is yellow carded – Chutte is giving him a proper roasting..

32 mins Twice in the space of five minutes, Dublin full back Peter Kelly has lost possession in front of his own goal, a cardinal sin for a defender. Both times they have been lucky to get the ball clear.

34 mins Mark Schutte again! What a performance. Shortens the grip in traffic and flicks the ball over the bar.

35 mins Bad wide from Canning – he's really struggling to get into the game.

Half time score: Galway 1-09 Dublin 0-11

A strange half – Galway were well on top and Cyril Donnellan was threatening to run riot until Cooney's goal woke Dublin up. There have been sporadic bursts of the sort of intensity you expect from championship hurling along with some really poor, lacklustre passages of play.

Mark Schutte has been outstanding for Dublin, while at the other end, Joe Canning has done very little. Galway should surely be trying to feed him the ball more regularly rather than shooting from distance.

Ger Loughnane: “A slow boiler of a game”.

Eddie Brennan: “I'd go as far as to say the Galway forwards needs to squeeze up on the Dublin backs and stop them coming out with the ball”.

Second Half

37 mins Poor Marty is really struggling to differentiate between players wearing the same colour helmets. The sooner Tomás Mulcahy completes his mission the better.

39 mins Fine point by Danny Sutcliffe for Dublin.

42 mins Six points from frees now for Dublin , David Treacy is unerring.

Score: Galway 1-9 Dublin 0-14

48 mins Ryan O'Dwyer is winning a lot of possession around the middle and causing problems for Galway.

54 mins Joe Canning gets his first score from play from a decent low delivery.

Score: Galway 1-12 Dublin 0-17

57 mins Canning has given up playing full forward and started to drift out the field. Galway have no full forward line and it's hurting them.

60 mins It was only a matter of time...Ryan O'Dwyer is yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle on Iarla Tannion, arriving late and catching Tannion in the head. If only helmets weren't compulsory, that might never have happened...

O'Dwyer's Tazmanian devil style of tackling is always bordering on reckless and it wouldn't surprise me if he is substituted shortly.

63 mins The game is there for the taking for both teams but neither seem to want it. Galway have hit thirteen wides, many of them from poor positions.

67 mins The last few minutes of play mean that I must downgrade this game from 'average' to 'poor'. Really aimless stuff from both sides.

68 mins David Treacy misses a scorable free which would have put Dublin two ahead.

69 mins Point for Galway! Aidan Harte with a good score to level the game.

70+ mins Referee James McGrath blows the full time whistle even though most of the two minutes of additional time were taken up with substitutions – I don't think the ball was actually in play for any of it. The sooner the timekeeping mess is sorted out the better.

Final Score:

Galway 1-17 Dublin 0-20

I don't quite know how Galway managed to get a draw out of this game. Most of the standout players were on the Dublin side – Ryan O'Dwyer, Mark Schutte, David Treacy.

Joe Canning didn't look sharp and Galway made little attempt to feed him the ball. Having said that, Galway had several goal chances that they didn't capitalise on, and the loss of Peter Kelly to injury is a significant one.

Dublin may be demoralised to have been dominant in so many key areas and still not come out on top. As well as that, Canning missed two relatively straightforward frees, and the Galway backs fouled far too frequently.

Anybody's game in the replay, let's hope it's a better match.

Slán.