Galway ‘won’t be getting carried away’

There have been so many false dawns by the Tribesmen down through the years that Galway hurling folk must be afraid to look out the window this morning.

Galway fans know how frustrating it can be to get excited by promising young players. Yesterday, eight of last year’s victorious U-21 team started and two more came off the bench as they took the League champions apart.

The key factor was that they stood up to Dublin physically and then sprayed the ball around and picked off some wonderful scores. Niall Burke hit 0-10, five of them from play, and Conor Cooney landed four, while another member of that victorious U-21 team, Niall Donoghue, looked a class act at wing-back.

Any wonder then that Antony Cunningham, who guided them to that All-Ireland U-21 win over Dublin along with Tom Helebert and Mattie Kenny, was anxious to play down the win.

Dublin were lethargic and looked like a squad in heavy training, although manager Anthony Daly said afterwards they were doing no more than any other county.

Yet, it’s hard to explain their laboured stick work and their lack of serious bite in the 50-50 exchanges, most of which were won by fired-up Tribesmen.

It was hard to pick out a Dublin player who had the better of his man, while in contrast Galway had top performers all over the pitch, none more so than centre-forward Niall Burke.

It’s easy to see why so many in Galway are excited about the Oranmore-Maree clubman who is still U-21 this year. He is not another Joe Canning but he is very effective in open play with a good eye for the posts, and has an excellent strike from placed balls.

Conor Cooney always looked sharp as helped himself to four points from play, while his St Thomas clubmate James Regan gave another indication of his ability with three points.

“We are delighted, a new management and practically a new team and to get over the line the first day out is great.

“We have worked hard for the last couple of months but we probably have a lot to do .

“It was a typical first game of the league, with the first touch off slightly. But it was great to get over the physical battle, that was what pleased us most as Dublin are a very physical side. But it is no more than two points and we won’t be getting carried away,” said Cunningham.

Anthony Daly, clutching a DVD in his hand which will not make pleasant viewing, struggled to pinpoint the dismal showing by the champions.

“The way it seemed on the day was the Galway boys wanted the 50-50 balls more than we did. Why that is I don’t know. Everything seemed right during the week. We were happy with the preparation and we were happy with ourselves coming into it.

“It just didn’t happen for us. I’ll have a look at the DVD and see what the story is. It was a poor performance. You couldn’t call it anything else,” said Daly.

Dublin managed only a point from play in the second-half — debutant midfielder Danny Sutcliffe got it after 40 minutes — and they couldn’t find a platform to counter as Galway kept winning the tight battles around the field. Dublin were in trouble when they trailed by 0-9 to 0-8 at the interval having played with the wind.

But even Paul Ryan was off target with a few frees, while it took a superb interjection from impressive Galway skipper Fergal Moore to deny debutant Shane Stapleton a goal after 21 minutes.

David Collins was commanding at full-back for Galway and delivered some quality ball from a defence where two more U-21s Declan Connly and Ger O’Halloran were well on top.

Dublin were chasing the game from the moment Niall Burke won the first ball against Joey Boland and pointed after 28 seconds and the crowd of 3,241 witnessed some fine points being picked off.

Points from Sutcliffe and Ryan in response to efforts from Regan and Burke after the restart ensured the holders stayed in touch. But then Galway took control with David Burke and Cyril Donnellan dominant in midfield and the home attack reveled in the supply of quick ball.

They outscored the holders by 0-7 to 0-1 from 44th to 58th minute and Dublin never looked like getting a goal against a Galway defence that contested every challenge with vigour and closed out the game with authority.

Scorers for Galway: N Burke 0-10 (3fs, 2 65); C Cooney 0-4, J Regan 0-3, C Donnellan, I Tannian, D Hayes 0-1 each.

Scorers for Dublin: P Ryan 0-6 (5fs, 1 65), C McCormack, R O’Dwyer (2fs) 0-2 each, S Durkin, D Sutcliffe, L Rushe 0-1 each.

Subs for Galway: J Coen for Daly, (34), E Ryan for Donnellan (59), B Burke for J Regan(62), J Cooney for C Cooney (70).

Subs for Dublin: A McCrabbe for Rushe (35), D O’Dwyer for Stapleton (45), S Lambert for Treacy (49), M O’Brien for Boland (50), E Dillon for Ryan (59).