Dublin v Galway

One problem for the Dubs is that they don't create many goal chances. More experienced sides like Tipp and Kilkenny find openings, and are able to pick out a delicate pass, and get in for these chances. Dublin so far aren't doing that.

Had they rattled the cobwebs a few times on Saturday, you wouldn't have Clash and Mossbags on here clinging to the fact that Galway only lost by six points.

Unfortunetely for them, Dublin were the better team in all areas of the pitch and to be fair to all, they were never going to lose that game. The missed frees, of course, were disheartening, but Galway did not look like a team who were capable of hurling with any of the top teams. It's back to the drawing board for them. An enthusiastic Clare side will be a match for them, and I expect a close contest like most between these sides. Although I note The Puke was shrewdly playing down Clare's chances on another thread.

Puke and L2TR are shrewd guys

Dublin were in complete control throughout this game. Galway got back to 5 points with the second (lucky) goal but were unable to push on. Dublin coped with what was thrown at them - even with 14 men. Dublin never had to up their game IMO - never had to step up a gear at all. I think its a bit disingenuous to be saying 'ah Galway had so many wides - if they got these they'd have won.' Dublin were far the better side in Parnell in the NHL and lost cos they had 19 wides.

Dublin have hurled Galway off the park twice in a few months. If you Galway lads want to kid youselves that a few wides cost ye the game then do so. I would be more looking at the poor performance, scoring only 9 times, the lack of heart, lack of pride and the fact that one player (Joe Gantley) could hold his head up after the game.

I agree Dublin have a problem with our lack of goals and the continued loss of Boland and maybe Brady v Kilkenny - as well as O'Dwyer - presents serious difficulties. But there was only one team in it on Saturday night - and they weren't wearing maroon!!!

With respect Jayo but not for the first time with regards to hurling your completely missing the point. It's precisely because Dublin were so dominant that Galways utter inepptitude from so many simple enough scoring chances meant that the fact the game was still live as a contest with less than 5 minutes to play says as much about Galways general uselessness as it does about a decent performance from Dublin. Thats not a dig against the Dublin team who are a very admirable side but there simply is no getting away from the fact that Galway on the day were dire beyond recognition.

Moss - Dublin can improve and will. This was an important game for us and it was never going to be swashbuckling. They just needed to get over the line and they did handily enough. I am not missing any point - I think people who are saying Galway could have won if they scored their frees are missing the point.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Well its the semi final of the Leinster C'ship with the Dubs facing Connaughts finest only hurling team. Can the Dubs beat the blue bloods? There is a story afoot that Galway are a traditional super power. Every year (much like our footballers) is their year ... Yet they have flattered to deceive. And when they do pull off a major win they bomb in the next game. They really aren't a hurling super power at all. If the Connolly family had been born in Clare then Galway hurling wouldn't even be on the map. All we hear is Joe this and Joe that yet he is living on past glories for 2/3 seasons now. Dublin - League Champions, yes, LEAGUE CHAMPIONS, should have no fear of this pretty ordinary talked up county. Galway have even gatecrashed the Walsh Cup before we put manners on them in the semi. Oh and we beat the Cats in the Final - again! Sigh!

No fear Dalo - lets get it on with the Cats in the Leinster Final!

My opening post! Some tongue in cheek - but there has to be some truth in it I'm afraid! Do Galway deserve the perennial 'hurling power' tag? Wexford and Offaly (both winners of Liam after Galway's last win away back in 1988) are no longer deemed to be 'powers' - more described as traditional hurling counties. Portumna and Athenry have served them well in the club scene (as Birr have for Offaly) and underage success has been regular but at senior level Galway constantly flatter to deceive. They might throw up one godd performance every few years but never deliver Liam. In truth Galway are around the level of Waterford and Clare.

Rather than repeat myself I'll direct to you back to my response to your opening post on this thread. The only people who consider Galway a 'power' or a scalp seem to be Dubs. None of the real hurling counties do or ever really did. Waterford are a couple of levels ahead of Clare btw. If you want to throw Galway in with another try Dublin. Galway upset the apple cart with their great breaktrough of the 80s but have reverted to type at senior ever since. That Golden dawn at least inspired other counties like Offaly,Clare, Wexford and now Dublin. Dublin still have some bit to go to emulate the acheivements of the brilliant sides mentioned above

No moss - as far as I can see Galway are always talked up as potential champs - bit like our footballers like I said.

Jayo will you stop going on about the second goal, lucky or not a goal that is scrambled over the line equals 3 points. A goal stuck in the top corner equals 3 points.

Moss Where now for this Galway team,can they regroup and come through the qualifiers....Clare is the ideal game to get the show back on the road..

Nothing like a defeat to the Dual Dubs to spur Galway on..

mullins wrote:Moss Where now for this Galway team,can they regroup and come through the qualifiers....Clare is the ideal game to get the show back on the road..

Nothing like a defeat to the Dual Dubs to spur Galway on..

Congratulations Mullins. I deem Dublin now to have finally joined the higher echelons of GAA and am happy to declare them an 'Official Dual County' (ODC). This is the Holy Grail of every Countys amition in the land and Dublin can now rub shoulders and feast along with it's fellow members of the ODC at the very top table, Galway Cork and Offaly.

Mullins man Galway hurling is in serious turmoil there is no other word for it. Your aware Im sure of the serious club rivalrys that exist in Galway hurling and the bitterness that ensues from this runs deep. The County team on a good day can paper over a lot of the cracks but after a bad day like Saturday I shudder to think what hidden malice might unearth itself from the creeks. Im already hearing rumours of coups, walk outs, resignations and the likes. We got a bit of luck with a home draw and a two week turnaround isn't a bad thing when players are out to redeem themselves as quickly as possible. All debate beyond that is more or less on hold. We are but one game away from hitting rock bottom. There is a school of thought that this would be a good thing in the longterm, maybe it would. A defeat to Clare and all Hell will break loose.

mossbags wrote:

mullins wrote:Moss Where now for this Galway team,can they regroup and come through the qualifiers....Clare is the ideal game to get the show back on the road..

Nothing like a defeat to the Dual Dubs to spur Galway on..

Congratulations Mullins. I deem Dublin now to have finally joined the higher echelons of GAA and am happy to declare them an 'Official Dual County' (ODC). This is the Holy Grail of every Countys amition in the land and Dublin can now rub shoulders and feast along with it's fellow members of the ODC at the very top table, Galway Cork and Offaly.

Mullins man Galway hurling is in serious turmoil there is no other word for it. Your aware Im sure of the serious club rivalrys that exist in Galway hurling and the bitterness that ensues from this runs deep. The County team on a good day can paper over a lot of the cracks but after a bad day like Saturday I shudder to think what hidden malice might unearth itself from the creeks. Im already hearing rumours of coups, walk outs, resignations and the likes. We got a bit of luck with a home draw and a two week turnaround isn't a bad thing when players are out to redeem themselves as

quickly as possible. All debate beyond that is more or less on hold. We are but one game away from hitting rock

bottom. There is a school of thought that this would be a good thing in the longterm, maybe it would. A defeat to Clare and all Hell will break loose.

Moss i never rated Mcintyre as a good manager,but after last year the way the team were playing in the championship pushing Tipp to the pin of their collar..

I thought he should at least get another year -but since Tipp beat you in the league in pearse stadium this year it just look's like the wheels are slowly falling off the wagon....

Can't see any coup or walkout within 2 weeks.....Sink or Swim

galway had no leaders and were rutherless if ollie canning was still playing galway might have pinched it we only see now how much he brought to that team , great to see david treacy back fit he played against his dad many a time another fine hurler

hurlingguru wrote:Jayo will you stop going on about the second goal, lucky or not a goal that is scrambled over the line equals 3 points. A goal stuck in the top corner equals 3 points.

Hey buck - leave Joe Sheridan out of this!!

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

hurlingguru wrote:Jayo will you stop going on about the second goal, lucky or not a goal that is scrambled over the line equals 3 points. A goal stuck in the top corner equals 3 points.

Hey buck - leave Joe Sheridan out of this!!

I forgot about that one scratch my previous comments.

Just as an observation I thought that the ref in the Dub-Galway match was far fussier than the Tipp-Clare one. He pulled for very minor trangressions which were not frees in the other match. Biggest problem with referees is their lack of consistency.

Real Kerry Fan wrote:Just as an observation I thought that the ref in the Dub-Galway match was far fussier than the Tipp-Clare one. He pulled for very minor trangressions which were not frees in the other match. Biggest problem with referees is their lack of consistency.

From where I was it looked like a lot of the frees Dublin were getting particularly in the first half were of the soft variety.
Galway had to work twice as hard to earn a free, not that it mattered much as the day that was in it our lads would probably have missed them anyway. Wadding is a rubbish ref summed up when Joe scored a point that was waved wide by some Maor who happened to be down around the goal at the time so the dozy umpires just went along with him and signalled for a wide. After relaizing the mistake the ref runs down and after a mini conference they embarass themselves even further by waving for a square ball no one bar Maguire an asses roar of the square. Pathetic really but it's a standard we've become accustomed to.
John Owens was the ref in Limerick and I think he has the best understanding of the game of any ref. He does get accused of letting things go but hes consistent enough at least

Figured I'd put this up for all the Moltoir groupies on here but for those who don't need to be dripfed their hurling analysis the main bullet point is this
'Ultimately, then, the key factor in deciding the games outcome was the fact that Dublin converted 60% of their shots into scores whereas for Galway the proportion was a miserable 28 per cent.'



DUBLIN ROLL ON AS GALWAY ROLL OVER

There was a lot of lazy journalism in media previews of last Saturdays Leinster hurling semi-final between Dublin and Galway. We were told that the league is different from the championship and that the fitness advantage enjoyed by Dublin in the league would no longer apply now that the championship was in full swing. We were also reminded of Dublins tendency in recent years to buckle under championship pressure whereas only a puck of the ball separated Galway from the eventual champions Tipperary in last years All-Ireland quarter-final.

All of this ignored several tell-tale signs that this year Dublin might be different and that the evidence emanating from Galways performances thus far this year was not particularly reassuring. It was apparent right from their first league game against Waterford that, apart from their physical fitness, Dublin had been working very hard on a game plan based on strong support running, use of the handpass to create space and targetted medium-length low balls.

There was also increasing evidence that Dublin were finally coming to grips with their legendary flakiness. This was apparent from their two televised Saturday night league games in Croke Park two high-profile events which brought an extra element of pressure to bear, especially since the opposition consisted of Tipperary and Kilkenny. Both games were tight going into the closing stages, due mainly to some woeful shooting by the Dublin forwards. In the past, heads would have gone down and the opposition would inevitably have won pulling up. However, against Tipperary Dublin kept their nerve and their noses in front while against Kilkenny they showed great temperament in hauling back a four-point Kilkenny lead in the last five minutes.

In their championship game against Offaly, Dublin found themselves in a similar situation as against Antrim last year. They had built up what looked like a commanding lead but then saw it almost totally eliminated by a powerful Offaly fightback. Last year Dublin failed to halt Antrim�s momentum, but this year they steadied the ship and put Offaly away in the closing minutes.

Two other key features of the new improved Dublin this year are the depth of their panel and, above all, the return to the fold of Conal Keaney who, virtually on his own, has moved the Dubs on to a new plane in the hurling firmament.

Galway, by contrast, had no form going into Saturdays game. Following a good league showing against Kilkenny they were hammered by Tipperary, were played off the field by Dublin but still managed to win courtesy of 19 wides on their opponents part and then lost to a very understrength Waterford team on a day when a good performance was needed in order to put them into the league final. This was followed by a rather underwhelming effort against Westmeath in the first round of the Leinster championship.

Another key difference going into last Saturdays game was that, while Dublin have a largely settled team (apart from injuries), the same could hardly be said of Galway. Only eight of the team which lined out in their last championship game of 2010 started against Dublin, and two of these were in different positions. This may help explain the lack of pattern and structure to Galways play on Saturday, whereas Dublin admirably stuck to their game plan right to the end. Thus, where Galway were running up blind alleys or lashing the ball in the general direction of Joe Canning, Dublin were using the hand pass to put players in space and directing good varied and low ball into their inside forwards.

The play statistics tell it all, with the Dublin full forward line making 81 plays compared with 50 for the Galway full backs, while the Dublin full backs had 79 plays to just 42 for the the Galway full forwards. Overall, Dublin dominated the play count, both in the first half (215/152) and in the second (236/171) for an overall balance of 451/323. This superiority in play counts is partly attributable to Dublins greater use of the handpass and their more effective use of the ball into the forwards, but it also reflects Dublins higher work rate and will to win which was apparent right through the game. This, again, is reflected in the puckout statistics. At this level, one expects the defending team to win about 60% of the oppositions puckouts. Last Saturday, not only did Dublin win two thirds of Galways puckouts, but they won 57 per cent of their own.

Yet, the wonder of hurling is that, despite all their territorial domination, Dublin ended up with exactly the same number of shots at goal as Galway (32 each). Ultimately, then, the key factor in deciding the games outcome was the fact that Dublin converted 60% of their shots into scores whereas for Galway the proportion was a miserable 28 per cent. In turn, this largely boils down to the contrast in shooting performance between Dublins Paul Ryan and Galways Joe Canning. Ryan was responsible for 18 of Dublins 32 shots at goal and nailed 13 of them (72%), with just two of the five misses constituting bad misses, in our estimation.

Canning essayed half (16) of Galways shots but only managed to convert four of them. Four of his shots were blocked or saved while six of his other eight misses were bad misses, in our view. If Joe had matched Ryans strike rate (which in itself was probably inferior to Joes normal success rate) he would have added eight or nine points to Galways final score enough to comfortably bridge the gap between the teams at the end.

However, one should not put all the blame for this defeat on Joe Cannings shoulders. Where was Damian Hayes, who didnt play the ball until the 24th minute and only managed four plays in all before being taken off late in the game? anna Ryan had his first play in the 26th minute and didnt play the ball even once again before being substituted at half time. Aongus Callanans first play came in the 29th minute but he still lasted until the 66th minute despite playing the ball just three more times in the interim.

All the major performances in this game came on the Dublin side. Liam Rushe was well ahead of everyone else with 53 quality points (based on our system of rating plays on a scale of 1-5) from 24 plays. He was particularly dominant in the first half where he earned 36 points from 15 plays. This was a marvellous performance from a man who only celebrated his 21st birthday on the day of the game. Not too far behind were Conal Keaney with 47 quality points from 21 plays, and Simon Lambert with 45 points, also from 21 plays. One cannot readily remember a substitute having such an impact on a game as Lambert had here. Other key players for Dublin were Peter Kelly (37/17), Alan McCrabbe (33/17); John McCaffrey (32/15) and Dotsy O Callaghan (32/12).

There was one blemish in Anthony Dalys sideline management on the day, and that was his failure of replace the ineffective Ryan ODwyer. ODwyer was clearly affected by the ear injury which he suffered early in the game (and which subsequently was shown to be quite serious) and never got into the game, making just three plays before being red carded in the 57th minute. This left Dublin a man short during the final 16 minutes, for much of which the game was in the melting pot.

Whereas seven Dublin players obtained 30 or more quality points, only two Galway players managed to get into this category - Joe Gantley (35/16) and Shane Kavanagh (31/14). Tony g Regan also deserves an honourable mention with 29/12.

Dublin now go into the Leinster final without the services of Toms Brady, Ryan ODwyer and David Treacy (in addition to long-term injury victim Stephen Hiney) but should have Joey Boland back. This will be a test of their reserve strength (which thus far has risen to the challenge as required). They are certainly in a better place than Galway, who now face a stiff test from a rejuvenated Clare in poor psychological condition, not helped by the ringing condemnations to which they have been subjected from within their own county.

Play statistics (plays/quality points):

DUBLIN (211/451): Maguire G (7/19); Corcoran N (10/20); Brady T (1/2); Gough O (11/20); McCaffrey J (15/32), Kelly P (17/37); Durkin S (12/22); Rushe L (24/53), McCrabbe A (17/33); McCormack C (10/20), O Dwyer R (3/5), Keaney C (21/47); Carton P (7/16); O Callaghan D (12/32), Ryan P (10/25); Lambert S (21/45); Plunkett (5/, Treacy D (1/1); O Brien M (4/7); O Dwyer D (3/7).

GALWAY (154/323): Skehill J (7/16); Joyce D (8/15); Collins D (8/17); Moore F (8/18); Kavanagh S (14/31); Regan T (12/29); Cullinane A (13/24); Burke D (14/27); Daly B (9/18); Gantley J (16/35); Donnellan C (10/17); Ryan E (1/3); Hayes D (4/10); Canning J (9/21); Callanan A (4/5); Kerins A (6/14); Barry D (5/10); Hynes K (3/7); Harte A (1/2); Coen J (2/4).

Galway's goose was cooked when the Portumna lads quit hurling for the county.....

Dublin now a real force to be reckoned with

MOST of the focus was on Galway after their poor performance against the Dubs last Saturday but is the point being missed?

Could it be that Dublin are developing into something really special? Last Saturday was their 13th game of the season (Walsh Cup, NHL, Leinster SHC), of which they have won 10, drawn two and lost one (against Galway in the NHL, when they shot 19 wides).

Also, wasn't there an uncanny similarity about how last Saturday's game followed much the same pattern as the league final? Galway and Kilkenny each led Dublin by 1-1 to 0-2 early on; both were restricted to 1-2 for the full half; Dublin scored 0-11 against Kilkenny and 0-12 against Galway in the first half.

Kilkenny cut the deficit to six points in the second half; Galway cut it to five. Kilkenny were restricted to eight scores, Galway to nine. Kilkenny and Galway each scored only twice in the final 15 minutes.

It suggests that Dublin are one mighty force right now, which adds immeasurably to the sense of anticipation for the big rematch with the Cats on Sunday week.

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