Galway maintain control throughout but Offaly grit keeps defeat respectable
Cathal Mannion scored 1-8 for Galway in the victory over Offaly. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
The floodgates were open, but Galway couldn’t quite find the desire or the cruelty required to completely drown their neighbours from the other side of the Shannon.
Had they needed to, they probably could have.
The half-time score of 0-9 to 0-6 in Galway’s favour here was more than a little deceptive, and when Cathal Mannion rifled over a free and then slammed the sliotar into the top corner of the net within 60 seconds of the restart, the earthquake warning sirens were sounding all across St. Brendan’s Park.
The Tribesmen had hurled into a strong wind for the opening 35 minutes and yet their control of the game all across the pitch was total.
Aaron Niland, Colm Molloy and Jason Rabbitte were impressive up front, Cathal Mannion popped up in the right place all over the pitch while the central defensive axis of Cillian Trayers and Daithà Burke was again very strong, albeit aided by Offaly’s over-reliance on high ball into outnumbered inside forwards.
Any possession more than 50 metres out from the Offaly goal was outside of scoring range, and yet Galway had no difficulty in working the ball inside that arc and setting up good chances for those inside men to fill their boots. Add in eight first half wides, and it could have been much worse than it was.
For Offaly, it felt as if the option of hitting the ball up into the grey sky to land around the Galway's full back line with snow on it compelled them to do exactly that – and with Daithà Burke dropping back to cover off his colleagues in that sector, Galway had the extra man, they earned their turnovers, and methodically they took those possessions and moved the ball up the field with care and thought, leaving Offaly chasing shadows.
0-9 to 0-6 became 1-10 to 0-6 in the opening minute of the second half and Offaly supporters who watched their team lose out by 18 points to Tipperary three weeks ago in their previous home game must have feared something similar.
It never happened, through a combination of the Faithful men’s grit and stubbornness and Galway’s lack of intensity. Galway fell into the familiar trap of going long into contests rather than working the ball through the lines to restrict the number of good scoring chances that came their way, while Offaly saw Brian Duignan come into the game, hitting three of his four points in that second half.
Duignan also had another goal chance that he flashed into the side netting, and had he found the target, there might have been some drama in the closing stages, with Offaly briefly cutting the lead to six points on a couple of occasions.
That was to be as close as they got, and when Conor Whelan had a chance to find the net at the other end to add gloss to the scoreboard, the Kinvara man was ruthless in his finish at the end of his first appearance of the season, another good news story for Micheál Donoghue and the Galway support.
The imminent arrival of a humming Limerick team to Tullamore next Sunday will make it a lot harder for Offaly fans to feel good this week.
A Screeney 0-7 (0-5f), B Duignan 0-4, J Clancy 0-2, T Guinan 0-1, D Shirley 0-1, O Kelly 0-1, L Watkins 0-1, C Spain 0-1.
C Mannion 1-8 (0-5f), C Whelan 1-1, A Niland 0-3, J Rabbitte 0-3, C Molloy 0-3, T Monaghan 0-2, C Fahy 0-1, S O’Halloran 0-1, C Trayers 0-1.
L Hoare; B Kavanagh, B Conneely, P Taaffe; J Clancy, K Sampson, D Shirley; C King, T Guinan; O Kelly, C Doyle, D Bourke; E Cahill, B Duignan, A Screeney.
D Nally for Cahill (18), L Watkins for Doyle (half-time), C Spain for King (59), L Nolan for Guinan (64), C Cleary (68).
S O’Halloran; J Ryan, C Trayers, R Glennon; P Mannion, D Burke, TJ Brennan; G Lee, C Daniels; T Killeen, C Mannion, A Niland; C Molloy, J Rabbitte, T Monaghan.
C Fahy for Lee (25), C Whelan for Niland (51), S Murphy for Ryan (54), D McLoughlin for Burke (65).
Johnny Murphy (Limerick).
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