Galway hand out a thrashing to Dublin in Tullamore

Galway 5-19

Dublin 1-18

THE temptation to eulogise about Galway’s thrashing of hapless Dublin at O’Connor Park, Tullamore on Saturday evening is tantalising, but it must be resisted . . . if partially in the best interests of a team which admittedly has transformed itself in the space of seven days.

Furthermore, so complicit were Dublin in their first ever championship defeat to the Westerners, we are obliged to reserve judgement on Galway’s true worth this summer despite all the positive signals emanating from this hopelessly one-sided Leinster quarter-final replay.

If anyone saw Saturday’s annihilation coming, well they don’t know Galway hurling intimately. Sure, the county’s flagship team has often tormented supporters with wild fluctuations in form down through the years, but Saturday’s dismantling of Dublin was still utterly unexpected. Nobody could have foreseen that they would gallop into an 18-point lead and barely 19 minutes on the clock, least of Ger Cunningham’s men who were simply wiped out by that early blitz.

Galway had been competitive and hard-working in the drawn encounter, but they raised the intensity notches several notches in Tullamore and also clearly went for the early kill. Dublin just didn’t know what hit them and by the time they had belatedly re-arranged their forces, their provincial title aspirations were already in tatters.

The catalyst for Galway’s devastating opening-quarter scoring spree was the magnificent Cathal Mannion who took the Dublin defence to the cleaners and had rattled up a Roy of the rovers style hat-trick inside 11 minutes. The Ahascragh/Fohenagh player looks the real deal and set the standard for the team’s most compelling display since the Leinster final of 2012.

But all over the field, Galway laid down the early markers as their combination of skill, pace, sharpness and aggression – having eight players yellow carded summed up their attitude – left Dublin chasing shadows during that ruthless demonstration of finishing. Understandably, they couldn’t sustain that level of purpose or commitment for the entire 70 minutes as the contest was over with indecent haste.

Though it remains difficult not to join the chorus line singing Galway’s praises, but there is little to be gained from blowing them up, especially as there was a somewhat freakish aspect to them opening up such a substantial lead early on. They had first use of the strong wind and went about their business with a real cutting edge, only to be aided by a negligent opposition sideline which was much too slow reacting in trying to halt the flow of scores through their uprights.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.