Galway stop the rot with gritty draw against Dublin

GALWAY 1-17

DUBLIN 0-20

TWO and a half years of hurling purgatory may be coming to an end for Galway if the positive signs from Sunday’s Leinster championship quarter-final at Croke Park prove a reliable guide to the team’s prospects for the remainder of 2015.

It was far from a blemish-free display from the Tribesmen in a match of moderate intensity and quality, but the men in maroon will be grateful for small mercies after their struggles since the drawn All-Ireland final of 2012. In a way on Sunday, Galway probably stopped the rot.

Certainly, for a squad which carried little supporter confidence behind it and was also badly hit by injuries, Galway showed no shortage of pluck or industry against Dublin. It was as if the players were determined to make a stand against all their critics who have labelled them as inconsistent and untrustworthy.

In a nutshell, Galway were better than most neutrals had anticipated and Dublin were worse. It made for a scrappy and, at times, disjointed contest, but there was never any doubting the spirit of Anthony Cunningham’s charges on the day and they kept soldering to the very end.

Having appeared on the brink of defeat for much of the second-half, Galway should derive significant confidence and momentum from surviving an uneven effort against a Dublin team which struggled to cope with the mantle of favouritism and lacked the overall spark of some of their league outings.

The Galway supporters may have travelled in small numbers, but those that made the journey to GAA headquarters will have departed Dublin with hopes raised that the county’s flagship hurling team has turned a corner, as well as approaching Saturday’s replay in Tullamore (4.45pm) with renewed optimism.

Given that Galway fielded three championship rookies in defence and were missing key performers in Conor Cooney, David Burke, who did make a late entry as a substitute, and Daithi Burke, their selected line out had plenty to prove, but with the high-energy Cyril Donnellan setting the tone, they weren’t found wanting.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.