Hurlers’ mix of the old and new off to flying league start

Date Published: {J}

Galway 0-20

Dublin 0-13

STEPHEN GLENNON AT PEARSE STADIUM

HUSH now! Before the tankards are raised and the fireworks lit, let’s keep this Galway victory in perspective and not be heard uttering shoddy remarks about “a new dawn” and what have you. Yes, Galway were impressive – delightfully so – but as the management was quick to surmise afterwards, one swallow doesn’t make a summer, particularly a Galway one.

Still, those cladding the maroon and white among the 3,241 crowd will have left Pearse with far more optimism than when they had entered the grounds. It was ‘touch and go’ if a new-look Galway side would make home advantage tell against reigning National League champions Dublin in this NHL opener, but this they did and in somewhat emphatic fashion.

To the fore was newcomer Niall Burke, tallying a remarkable 0-10 on the day – five from play – and he literally ran the Galway forward unit with all the skill of an experienced ship captain who had spent all his life negotiating choppy waters. His guidance and endeavour was certainly required in the absence of the injured Joe Canning.

Burke, though, simply typified the ethos of the Galway performance. It was certainly fresh and snappy and while there is a great deal of work to be done yet in terms of up-skilling their overall game, there were definite shadings of a Galway brand of hurling to be seen here.

From the off, the Tribesmen all but bossed this encounter and although Dublin came close to parity on a couple of occasions, it was Anthony Cunningham’s charges who led from start to finish. The key period, arguably, was between the 48th and 60th minutes when the home side hit five unanswered points to take a commanding 0-18 to 0-11 lead.

Burke had initiated that sequence following good work from the hardworking Iarla Tannian, who, himself, deservedly landed one of his own shortly after. Conor Cooney then took his total to four for the afternoon, before Damien Hayes and James Regan brought this productive epoch to a close.

That said, by the same token, it beggared belief how referee Diarmuid Kirwan did not award Dublin a penalty when Ryan O’Dwyer was taken down – clearly so – by a retreating Galway defence on 56 minutes. A goal, at this stage, may have rallied Dublin to mount a late challenge.

In any event, the game was as good as done and dusted after that and although O’Dwyer landed two frees in the dying minutes, these were cancelled out by two Burke points from play and a ’65. It capped off a clinical performance by both the Oranmore/Maree centre-forward and Galway.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.