Replays are always different
That’s what the wise old sages of hurling and football tell us at least.
And if Dublin or Galway are to progress any further in the Leinster Championship, then their performances in Croke Park will simply not suffice in the cauldron of Tullamore on Saturday at 4.45pm.
Both sides would be devoured by a Kilkenny or a Tipperary at their peak on last week’s below-par displays.
So we’ve taken a look at six key areas that may decide Saturday’s encounter
Dublin
Goals
Anthony Daly’s side struggled for goals during his six-year spell in the capital, and their lack of an inside forward who could raise one or two green flags per game probably cost them a place in an All-Ireland final in 2013.
Scoring 0-20 last week would have won most games in the last five years, but hoping to score that many points every day is unsustainable without a little help from a major now and then.
David Treacy is excellent from placed balls but he along with Mark Schutte and Dotsy O’Callaghan need to at least test Colm Callanan and get Galway on the back foot.
Paul Ryan is a wonderful finisher if he gets the chance, which may tempt Dublin boss Ger Cunningham to give him a starting berth.
One in and one out
It seems unlikely that Peter Kelly will be able to play any role in the game in Tullamore after the hamstring injury suffered last week.
His absence could make for a very difficult afternoon if Joe Canning is planted on the edge of the square. Mikey Carton will need all the help he can get to curb the Portumna man if Galway decide to go direct, although Carton did well when introduced and was impressive during the league.
Ger Cunningham will at least be able to call upon Paul Schutte after recovering from an ankle injury and his return should at least go some way to counteracting Kelly’s expected absence but Dublin are vulnerable and Galway showed that last week.
Play for the entire 70 minutes
Dublin’s best spell of last week’s drawn game came in the minutes after conceding a goal. It seemed to wake them up from the stupor they appeared to be contained in and they pushed Galway to be just within a point of the Tribesmen at half-time.
Dublin cannot afford to sleepwalk for the best part of 20 minutes on Saturday as Galway are unlikely to find Alan Nolan in such fine form as he was last week.
Teams such as Kilkenny and Tipperary maintain concentration for an entire 70 minutes. Taking a mental ‘nap’ for five minutes is fatal.
Galway
A win is a win is a win
Nine games and counting in the Championship and yet only Laois beaten in that time since the 2012 All-Ireland final.
Anthony Cunningham needs a win, of any description, not only for himself but for a county that has slipped back alarmingly in stature since that near miss against Kilkenny.
The positives they will take is the amount of goal chances created, while they must be disappointed that with Dublin missing two of their first three full-backs for the most of the game, they still could not engineer a win.
Joe Canning and Cyril Donnellan
Cyril Donnellan gave Conal Keaney one of his toughest days in Croke Park for a long time and the Galway man really should have scored more than just 0-3 as he cut the Dublin defence open from centre-forward.
If his radar is turned on to seek and destroy again Dublin will need to try and crowd him out around the middle or at least block up the central channel.
Joe Canning was Galway’s top scorer with 0-6 but just a single point from play.
Anthony Cunningham appears to have almost given up on trying to get the Portumna man to score from open play, and is content to let him fire over the frees.
If Canning can even manage 0-3 from play, along with whatever he gets from frees, then that could be the not-so secret to victory.
Tullamore
Galway must feel some sense of grievance that the game is not in Salthill. The county has been treated with less than full respect by the Leinster Council, and a win in Tullamore would be a nice way to let the blazers know of their displeasure.
Ger Cunningham equally must feel some sense of anxiety for his Dublin side as they are a team that have been mixed on their travels, and Croke Park is a comfort blanket for supporters if not the players themselves.
If nothing more the atmosphere should improve the hurling and help the players realise that they are very much in a championship battle-something that almost seemed forgotten among the empty echo of Croke Park last week.
