Galway - Dublin, NFL Div1, Pearse Stadium, Feb 15th

[An Fear Rua]

final score?

[Minder]

Galway 3-12 Dublin 0-13

[RedandGreenSniper]

Galway 3-12, Dublin 0-13.

Took a run up to this game as I was expecting a cracker. Didn't get one because Dublin were woeful. Forwards were absolutely appaling and its amazing they managed 13 points. Bernard Brogan was the only threat, he kicked six points, four were frees. David Henry with a point was the only other Dublin forward to score. Whelan kicked three points from midfield. Keaney kicked two frees but offered nothing from play.

For Galway there was a great spread of scorers, Meehan hit 1-3 - the goal was a penalty and one free; Armstrong kicked 1-2, Bane 0-4, Conroy 1-1 and PJ 0-2.

Number of observations

Joyce still has it, set up the move for the penalty with a great pass to Conroy before he was fouled and did wonderfully well with the assist for Conroy's goal. Generally very creative.

BUT much of this was because Ger Brennan didn't even try to makr him. Seems to think he's a bit of a libero with no marking responsibilities. Very, very loose and a major weakness for Dublin if that continues.

Meehan, whilst not being top class, showed good leadership and looks a more mature and responsible player than two years ago. Wonderful assist for Sean Armstrong's goal.

With Meehan and Joyce playing well, players like Bane and Armstrong (and Nickey Joyce when he returns) will thrive playing off them.

Galway's forward movement was a sight to behold. While Dublin were shockingly loose, they did have serious bodies behind the ball in the first half but Galway's ability to pick them open was top, top class.

They're kickpassing ability and willingness to use this option was great too. So comfortable kicking the ball - lessons for Mayo there!

Problems remain at midfield. Gary O'Donnell was taken off in the first half, Mark Lydon (who started at wing-forward) wasn't much better when moved out and Joe Bergin is someway of his best yet.

Defensively it is hard to rate Galway because Dublin had no penetration. But Hanley was commanding and composed at full-back, Bradshaw is a great man to have driving forward and Faherty's kick outs, particularly into a strong wind in the second half, were very good.

Dublin? Whelan tried. Defensively they were a mess. Full-back line all in trouble. Hubbbard taken off in first-half. Cullen poor, Brennan ate. Jayo taken off at half-time which meant in the second half the forward line was Henry, Tiernan Diamond, James Brogan; Keaney, Kevin Bonner and Bernard Brogan. Very limited.

Pat Gilroy has a lot of work to do. Liam Sammon's Galway are shoo-ins for Connacht I think and I'm not stiring!

[Hound]

Very disappointing for Dublin. Looked pretty good in the first quarter, pity about the two missed goal chances. Cahill had hard luck, but Flynn's was a terrible effort. The penalty (very poor decision by the ref IMO) got Galway going and after that they were by a distance the better team.

Whelan was easily Dublin's best player, the rest of them played largley  as if they'd never seen each other before.

We're putting all our eggs into the championship basket once again. I would have liked a good league run to build momentum.

I'm pretty sure the management picked what they think is the strongest team available for both games. The intention was to have a good league run. Its not like we've better players on the bench who are being rotated to give other lads a chance to stake their claim.

At the moment our team is: Cluxton - Cahill - Whelan - Brogan - Keaney. Alan Brogan to come in and then somehow we've to fill 9 gaps!!

[Barney]

Sammon's Galway are shoo-ins for Connacht I think and I'm not stiring!

Sniper it sickens me to agree with you but none of the other teams in Connacht are anywhere close to the Tribesmen.

They have put in 5 years of hard patient work to get to where they are today. In my opinion the All Ireland is between Kerry, Tyrone and Galway.

[GaillimhIarthair]

Sammon's Galway are shoo-ins for Connacht I think and I'm not stiring!

Sniper it sickens me to agree with you but none of the other teams in Connacht are anywhere close to the Tribesmen.

They have put in 5 years of hard patient work to get to where they are today. In my opinion the All Ireland is between Kerry, Tyrone and Galway.

I'm getting very uneasy with all this love and admiration from ye Mayo lads 

Being honest Barney, we have made very good progress to date under Sammon and are ticking over nicely at the moment, BUT we will need to be in the full of our health, injury free and have a good few breaks go our way to beat either Tyrone or Kerry if we meet either of them later in the year.

Cant judge us on yesterdays result as Dublin were very poor, especially their backs.  The latiitude they gave our forwards at times was hard to believe.  Our next outing is up in Omagh so that should give us a better indication of where we are at progress wise with this team. 

[thejuice]

Have to say Galway looked impressive yesterday. Joyce is still as good as ever. Think they're favourites for Connacht but its never that clear cut, you know Mayo wont make it easy for them.

[IolarCoisCuain]

Do any of the local Dublin stations broadcast the league games? If they don't, that must make Dublin unique in not having local radio broadcasts of county games.

[SLIGONIAN]

Have to say Galway looked impressive yesterday. Joyce is still as good as ever. Think they're favourites for Connacht but its never that clear cut, you know Mayo wont make it easy for them.

Galway play us first in Markievicz, With a Galway man Kevin Walsh in charge and us in alot better shape than last yr I dont think were just going to roll over for them but no doubt theyre good. Just dont right us completely off, id say we will turn up for starters, I know Galway will be favourites and rightly so in all seriousness.

I watched them online yday and they looked sharp but the dubs werent great.

[INDIANA]

Very disappointing for Dublin. Looked pretty good in the first quarter, pity about the two missed goal chances. Cahill had hard luck, but Flynn's was a terrible effort. The penalty (very poor decision by the ref IMO) got Galway going and after that they were by a distance the better team.

Whelan was easily Dublin's best player, the rest of them played largley  as if they'd never seen each other before.

We're putting all our eggs into the championship basket once again. I would have liked a good league run to build momentum.

I'm pretty sure the management picked what they think is the strongest team available for both games. The intention was to have a good league run. Its not like we've better players on the bench who are being rotated to give other lads a chance to stake their claim.

At the moment our team is: Cluxton - Cahill - Whelan - Brogan - Keaney. Alan Brogan to come in and then somehow we've to fill 9 gaps!!

I don't agree Hound. Why isn't Stephen O Shaughnessy starting? Why isn't Shane starting? Why not play Paddy Andrews up front?Can't believe Cahill couldn't see Flynn on his inside, couldn't have missed had he squared it. I don't think we've any interest in the league, certainly from the reports I'm hearing we don't .Wrong Aproach in my view. We made Galway look like allstars yesterday. Galway have an awful lot of ability and natural ball players but they are not in Kerry or Tyrone's league yet. They may will be in the next 2 years . But we were hammered out the gate yesterday. Pat O Neill never had a laissez faire attitude to the league, those days we used to get to league finals regularly.

[mouview]

Wouldn't be too worried about Tyrone (which is not the same thing as saying we'll beat them). Kerry are Galway's big bogey team and will be the team to beat again this year, I don't think we're yet equipped to do so. The Tyrone clash under lights in a couple of weeks time will be one to look forward to. Not too worried either about the Provincial title either, only that to lose it may hinder momentum. The 1/4 finals have long being Galway's provincial final, a win here is a minimum this year. Yesterday was a good result for Sammon, set against how poor the Dubs were. A number of players are now starting to nail down places incl. Bane (much criticised by me in the past) and Paul Conroy; Gary O'Donnell must be very bad when he made the maligned Fiachra look good when he came on!! Midfield still needs a bit of work as Joe can be very loose in his use and distribution of the ball. Backs starting to settle and Bradshaw was very good yesterday. As for Dublin, Gilroy knows that he has a lot to do. Only Whelan looked well up for it and he's not getting any younger now. Shane Ryan is grossly unfit; Sherlock is surely finished. The backs were very slack and didn't seem to know who they had to pick up.

Oh yeah, first time I've seen Galway beat Dublin in a competitive match - if you live long enough you'll see evverything.

[Tubberman]

Oh yeah, first time I've seen Galway beat Dublin in a competitive match - if you live long enough you'll see evverything.

God I hope so... that's what keeps us Mayo fans going 

[RedandGreenSniper]

Very disappointing for Dublin. Looked pretty good in the first quarter, pity about the two missed goal chances. Cahill had hard luck, but Flynn's was a terrible effort. The penalty (very poor decision by the ref IMO) got Galway going and after that they were by a distance the better team.

Whelan was easily Dublin's best player, the rest of them played largley  as if they'd never seen each other before.

We're putting all our eggs into the championship basket once again. I would have liked a good league run to build momentum.

I'm pretty sure the management picked what they think is the strongest team available for both games. The intention was to have a good league run. Its not like we've better players on the bench who are being rotated to give other lads a chance to stake their claim.

At the moment our team is: Cluxton - Cahill - Whelan - Brogan - Keaney. Alan Brogan to come in and then somehow we've to fill 9 gaps!!

Hound you're right about the two goal chances - Cahill's was well saved, even though some reports said it hit the bar. Flynn's effort was poor but, on the same token, Gareth Bradshaw did the same at the other end - shot right down the keepers throat. The penalty looked outside the area from my view (opposite the stand) but that Conroy got so close to goal after winning the ball in the corner with two Dubs on him is a poor reflection on the defending. Bastick was one and I think Andrews was the other. I'd agree with the team you have there except for Keaney, he's way to inconsistent.

Wouldn't be too worried about Tyrone (which is not the same thing as saying we'll beat them). Kerry are Galway's big bogey team and will be the team to beat again this year, I don't think we're yet equipped to do so. The Tyrone clash under lights in a couple of weeks time will be one to look forward to. Not too worried either about the Provincial title either, only that to lose it may hinder momentum. The 1/4 finals have long being Galway's provincial final, a win here is a minimum this year. 

Mouview ye have serious potential and are one of the few teams capable of challenging Tyrone and Kerry. However, while Sammon's open football philosophy is a joy to watch and great for the game in ways, from yer own selfish point of view I was amazed how advanced the midfield and the half-backs were at times in the second half when comfortably in front. Often it was just two Dublin inside men against two Galway defenders and massive open country in front. Other teams may take advantage more so than Dublin. With the greatest respect is Sammon a bit to pure a footballing man?

[mouview]

Ya, I prefer defenders to defend as much as possible. Not too worried about 'pure' football to be honest, it won us 2 AIs fairly recently! Seriously, if a team is good enough it will win, regardless of its method of play. To repeat, we have to beat Kerry; Galway don't have the same fear of Tyrone, even though they have a good c'ship record against us, as the boys from down south.

[Hound]

I don't agree Hound. Why isn't Stephen O Shaughnessy starting? Why isn't Shane starting? Why not play Paddy Andrews up front?Can't believe Cahill couldn't see Flynn on his inside, couldn't have missed had he squared it. I don't think we've any interest in the league, certainly from the reports I'm hearing we don't .Wrong Aproach in my view. We made Galway look like allstars yesterday. Galway have an awful lot of ability and natural ball players but they are not in Kerry or Tyrone's league yet. They may will be in the next 2 years . But we were hammered out the gate yesterday. Pat O Neill never had a laissez faire attitude to the league, those days we used to get to league finals regularly.

Well I don't think we're any different from Galway, Tyrone, Kerry etc in our approach. A bit of experimentation in the line-up perhaps, but go out to win the game if at all possible.

Shocko: I can only assume the mgt team rate Hubbard and even Murray ahead of him. But I presume he'll get a start shortly.
Shane: Certainly hasnt done himself justice in either of his two substitute appearances - not that Flynn or McConnell have done anything either.

Pat O'Neill was a long way from a perfect manager and made plenty of mistakes before he finally got over the line, with in my opinion, a superior group of players. Easier to get into the NFL knockout stages in them days too.

Bit of pressure on now. Lose away to Donegal and we're staring relegation in the face, which nobody will want.
I think its fair to say Pat O'Neill had a fair better squad of players than the current crop.