Dublin finally get just reward

By Tony Considine, Fraher Field

Monday, April 18, 2011

EVERYONE in hurling, no matter what county you follow, must congratulate Dublin’s hurlers on reaching their first league final since 1946.

Anthony Daly, Richard Stakelum and the management team deserve immense credit for their achievement. It’s fantastic for hurling, exactly what the game needs but it’s especially fantastic for Dublin hurling and a reward for all the hard work that’s been done there for the last few years.

A great final in prospect now, against Kilkenny.

Although in Waterford, we were tuned into what was happening in Cork. Even as Dublin were holding off that late challenge from Cork, Anthony Daly’s old Clare teammate Davy Fitzgerald was doing him a huge favour in Walsh Park holding off a late challenge from Galway.

It was an exciting finish to the league, everyone was on the edge of their seats in a lot of different venues.

Even as the drama was going on in Waterford and Cork we were hearing from Thurles about Wexford’s great performance — a draw with the All-Ireland champions giving them the point they needed, resulting in Offaly being condemned to relegation after losing against Kilkenny in Nowlan Park.

All in all then, a day full of drama.

The Waterford game was a beautiful one. Despite the conditions, the Waterford crowd really made the day special.

The Déise had little chance of reaching the final. They needed so much to go right for them but were there and created a fantastic atmosphere.

Fair dues to the players too, they didn’t let that crowd down. It wasn’t the swash-buckling Waterford team of old. This is a team that thrives on physicality, work rate and team spirit. The management team of Davy Fitzgerald, Pauric Fanning and Pat Bennett get those qualities out of the players. Those are the qualities Waterford had and, on the other side of the coin, the qualities Galway seemed to lack.

Nowhere was the Waterford spirit better exemplified than at number six, Brick Walsh. You also had Kevin Moran in midfield, Shane O’Sullivan at centre-forward, Shane Walsh at full-forward – all those lads led their lines brilliantly.

Throw in fellas like Pauric Mahony, Gavin Crotty, Phillip Mahony and there was a structure about Waterford’s play. Everyone seemed to know their job and everyone seemed determined to do that job to the best of their ability.

Make no mistake about it, Waterford were well worth this win. In fact they were far more than one point the better team.

Look at the players they were missing: Noel Connors, John Mullane, Eoin Kelly, Eoin Murphy, Declan Prendergast and Richie Foley.

Then consider how well they played yesterday. Very promising for the championship.

I was in the grounds early to see Galway doing their warm-up. I don’t know what they’ve been doing in training. Maybe the focus is still on the physical but their touch was poor and that carried into the game itself.

It wasn’t just their touch though.

The Achilles heel of Galway teams for so long was again evident, a poor defence. Holding your positions and letting your man roam is fine as long as he isn’t doing damage but Shane O’Sullivan at centre-forward and Shane Walsh at full-forward were both roaming, both doing damage and both were being given that space by their direct markers, Tony Óg Regan and Shane Kavanagh.

There were many reasons why Galway lost this game but a lax defence was the main one.

Galway were second to the ball on too many occasions and conceded soft frees as a result. They need to fix this before the championship.

In midfield, the two new guys, Barry Daly and Johnny Coen – two good players – looked good on the ball but didn’t work nearly hard enough when they weren’t in possession.

You need to do that at this level, or the team suffers. Galway suffered yesterday.

A lot of Galway players were playing their first game at this level for a long time so you make allowance for that but when your chance of making a league final is in your own hands you should go all out for it. Galway didn’t.

But you can feel the championship coming.

One little thing though. Would someone please tell the PA announcer at GAA games to be aware of what’s happening on the field and not to make an announcement just as a player is about to hit the ball?

It put Pauric Mahony off yesterday just as he was taking an important 65.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, April 18, 2011