Daly content as Rushe’s late goal rescues Dubs
Dublin will be in the relegation play-off on April 15 after their draw against Tipperary in Croke Park on Saturday consigned them to finishing in the bottom two.
On the other hand, Tipperary’s home fixture with Cork in six days appears to be a winner-takes-all clash, with the victors securing a league semi-final spot.
Liam Rushe’s injury-time goal, which might have been blown up for over-stepping on the player’s part, and was pointed out by Declan Ryan to have been scored over the allotted amount of additional time, secured Dublin’s first point of the campaign in an exciting game.
It seemed a just result, though, and Daly was delighted to get something out of a game that looked beyond Dublin thanks to a late Tipperary points spree, led by the excellent Brian O’Meara.
With Waterford still in with a shout of avoiding the relegation play-off, Galway could raise objections to Dublin’s plans to put out a second team but Daly is determined to give front-line players a rest.
“Fellas need a break,” he said. “We may have a look at a few lads that weren’t in the 26 today.
“We badly need to freshen up, I feel. We had three savage tussles, more intense than normal, league games. And Croke Park adds to that as well.”
Daly feels the relegation play-off could be a blessing in disguise for Dublin as they gear up for the Leinster championship.
“We know we face the relegation final on April 15 so in some ways that might be more intense than a league semi-final.
“It’ll be a great pre-run for the championship and hopefully we’ll have a few more bodies available because the bodies are getting thin.”
With just four of last year’s All-Ireland team starting (captain Paul Curran and Conor O’Mahony, who were named in the team, both struck down with a stomach bug beforehand), Declan Ryan was happy with the performance, if not the result.
“We would have settled for it 10 or 15 minutes into the second half when we went a few points down. The guys battled back well and it looked like we had the game won.
“The end result was disappointing, from our point of view. We could have done with the two points and it makes the Cork game a knockout, effectively, in the last round.”
Ryan didn’t mind admitting one of his defenders could have stopped Rushe from scoring the goal by whatever means necessary.
“I thought someone might have caught him and pulled him down or something! It didn’t happen anyway. We will have to get a bit more cynical in our back line maybe!”
Tipperary, though, were guilty of a couple of cynical tackles in the opening half, with Thomas Stapleton and John Coghlan picking up yellow cards for them.
The visitors had four to their name by half-time as Dublin bossed the possession and territory stakes.
That they didn’t go into the interval ahead — they trailed 0-7 to 0-9 — was largely down to their erratic shooting which saw them hit eight wides.
Darren Gleeson was also a reason, stopping an Eamon Dillon shot and then snuffing out another threat. Dublin deservedly went ahead four minutes into the second half when, after levelling up matters, substitute David Treacy rattled the net.
It was his second touch of the game, his first having produced a point, and with his third he was on the mark again in the 44th minute. Dublin managed to go two points ahead with eight minutes to go via Ryan O’Dwyer but Tipperary responded by stringing together three scores to go ahead, O’Meara and replacement John O’Brien thorns in the 2011 league champions’ defence.
With his second point, substitute Niall McMorrow brought the sides level for a ninth time but then O’Brien, Shane McGrath and O’Meara extended Tipperary’s lead to three in the first minute of injury time.
Rushe’s intervention ensured the spoils were shared but Tipperary can be relatively content.
While the emphasis under Eamon O’Shea’s coaching was to find space to win the ball, there’s been a sort of sea change with forwards now asked to win more primary ball, which will obviously take time to bed in.
52 points in two games shows they’re going the right way about it, even if there was no sniff of a goal on Saturday.
“We didn’t get enough ball in around the danger area quick enough. In fairness to Dublin, they play a defensive style of game. It is something we can work on in training.”
Scorers for Dublin: L Rushe, D Treacy 1-2 each, A McCrabbe (2fs) 0-3, D Sutcliffe, R O’Dwyer, N McMorrow 0-2 each, J McCaffrey, D O’Callaghan 0-1 each.
Scorers for Tipperary: P Bourke (5fs) 0-6, B O’Meara 0-5, N McGrath (2fs) 0-4, J O’Brien 0-2, B Maher, S Bourke, J Ryan, S McGrath 0-1 each.
Subs for Dublin: D Treacy for Dillon (ht), S Stapleton for Lambert (52), N McMorrow for O’Callaghan (55), M O’Brien for Schutte (inj 58).
Subs for Tipperary: J O’Brien for S Bourke (ht), D Young for Coghlan (46), J Ryan for P Bourke (48), S McGrath for Woodlock (59), T Hammersley for O’Neill (70).
Referee: Brian Gavin (Offaly).
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