Dublin 0-22 0-14 Galway.
Dublin cruised by Galway in the Allianz National League, and as frustrated as Pádraic Joyce might have been, he will have taken huge positives from the fact that he seems to have unearthed a real talent in the forward line.
Galway have been riddled with injuries throughout this league campaign, so if they were to just maintain their Division One status they would regard that as a great success and rightly so.
Coming up against the All-Ireland champions you normally need every weapon in your arsenal but the Tribesmen were still without their star players like Shane Walsh, Sean Kelly, and Damien Comer.
Former Mayo star Lee Keegan said that the goal today would be to get a good performance, and as long as they focus on that, then they will leave the game with the confidence of knowing that they can mix it with the best, and their big players are still to come back.
Early in the game it didn’t look like that performance was going to come, as the Dubs cruised to a five point lead, largely thanks to the influence of Sean Bugler and Con O’Callaghan.
Killian McGinnis was a late addition to the starting team but took his opportunity well, kicking two points in the first half, and the champions were looking strong, especially with the wind on their backs.
However, slowly, almost in increments, Galway started to climb their way back into this game largely thanks to young Cillian O’Curraoin who kept the scoreboard ticking with his accuracy from free kicks, and players like Johnny McGrath and Johnny Heaney started to do damage with their powerful running game.
O’Curraoin had already impressed for his county in the FBD league, but with the injuries piling up, he has seen a lot of action in the league, and you either sink or swim when you are thrown into the deep end, and this sharp shooter swam.
Conor Gleeson was able to find his kick outs with relative ease, as the home side started finding lots of space around the middle of the park and they went in at half time four points down, but it was difficult to tell if it was because Dublin weren’t out of second gear, or because Galway were growing in momentum and will continue that trend in the second half.
The former proved to be the case as Galway did come out swinging and the impressive Ó Curraoin continued to shine, kicking two brilliants points from play early in the half, but Dublin always kept them at arms length on the scoreboard.
Ciaran Kilkenny got more and more involved with the play, and Dessie Farrell started to run the bench bringing on All-Stars like Jack McCaffrey, Colm Basquel, and Paul Mannion while the Connacht side were depleted in terms of their squad depth.
In the end Dublin finished the stronger side, and didn’t have to tap too much into their reserves to get over the line, but Galway showed the grit of a team that is just down on their luck, but not down on themselves, as they never stopped chasing, working and fighting.
The arrival of Cillian Ó Curraoin in particular will be the biggest plus to come out of this performance for Joyce, because the long list of injuries that he has seem to mostly be to the forwards.
Playing u20 football last year, the young full forward has seized his opportunity, and what better way to impress than kicking eight points against the reigning All-Ireland champions.
However, the present belonged to Dublin, and the likes of Bugler and O’Callaghan who are very much in their prime and firing on all cylinders.
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