All the ingredients are there for another Leinster cracker
It has been a less than memorable start to the 2010 campaign in both Leinster and Munster, and hopefully those two counties have started a new trend.
The challenge now though is can they repeat it? I think they can, and the fact that the replay is on in Portlaoise makes it even more likely. There were 25,260 in Croke Park on Sunday and you’d hardly have noticed them. But put the same number into any provincial venue and you have an atmosphere — that’s what I expect this evening, plenty of vocal fans backing their own.
Though O’Moore Park is almost in Offaly’s backyard, I think it will suit Galway, their defence especially. It’s a tighter pitch, a lot less space, so you can expect that the Offaly forwards won’t get the room they got in Croke Park. At the time of writing I don’t know the makeup of that Galway defence, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few changes, forced or not — John Lee is due a game, for example.
But this is a good Offaly forward line. You have Shane Dooley, the man who scored the equalising point, Joe Bergin, Rory Hanniffy, Joe Brady, Brian Carroll, Derek Molloy (until his injury) all impressed me. All are capable of scoring, and all are capable of winning their own ball, something which is hugely important in the modern game. That forward line is going to take minding, again.
Where Offaly will have to improve is in the middle of the field. Brendan Murphy and Dylan Hayden are good hurlers, but this sector was controlled by Ger Farragher and David Burke in the drawn game and it made a difference.
If Offaly can gain parity there (and Kevin Brady did make a difference last week when he was introduced), and especially with that aforementioned forward line, we’ll really be in for a game.
To the Galway team, and while their forwards got some criticism last week, I thought they played as well as they were allowed play.
Iarla Tannian did his best in the corner, Damien Hayes worked very hard and Joe Canning also did well, even though being well marked by David Kenny.
The problem for Galway, however are the injury doubts all week over Canning and Hayes. If those two don’t make it, or aren’t fully fit, then Galway are in trouble here. They have Kevin Hynes and Niall Healy to come in, and both impressed last week, but the two Portumna guys work so well together.
To sum up: many of this Galway team has been around for a while — five of those who started last Sunday played in the All-Ireland final of 2005.
Unlike Offaly, this is not a team in transition, this is a team with ambition — they have to win, for themselves more than for anyone else. On that basis I’m going for them, but Offaly surprised a lot of us last week, and they could do so again.
