Galway survive get big scare from the Dubs

Galway 0-26

Dublin 2-19

THIS mad cap of a second half at Pearse Stadium on Saturday evening will have helped to dampen some of the hype about the All-Ireland hurling champions. It’s to be welcomed too as a growing number of observers were starting to classify Galway as unbeatable.

That scenario obviously remains a possibility in this year’s championship, but for a county which has claimed only five All-Ireland senior titles in its history, prematurely canonising the present Galway team is fraught with risk – at least, from a traditional perspective.

There was actually something of a downbeat mood in and around the Galway dressing room after just edging past a spirited and mobile Dublin outfit in front of almost 10,000 in Salthill.  And if we interpret that body language correctly, it was almost as if there was a sudden realisation in the camp that perhaps they are not so far ahead of the chasing pack after all.

Sure, there were mitigating factors for Galway’s least convincing display of the championship so far. They were missing a number of key players – including the iconic Joe Canning – had already secured their passage to the Leinster final and were also playing for the third time in a fortnight; but making too many excuses is not a defence great teams tend to fall back on.

If the opening-half of this final round-robin encounter resembled what amounted to platonic hurling, the action on the resumption was much-more full-bloodied as a couple of substitutes stoked Dublin’s energy and fire while, at the same time, Galway behaved like men who thought the job was done, carrying a comfortable 0-15 to 0-8 lead into the second half.

Ultimately, points from team captain David Burke and the accurate Jason Flynn, who certainly made the most of his recall to the attack, got Galway over the line, but they were made to look ordinary at times, especially when their backs were ran at. It just shows that even a team as talented as the Tribesmen are vulnerable when their normal levels of commitment and concentration dip.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune