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Another surprise result. University of Galway 1-10 TU Dublin 2-8

Was up at it. Big shock alright. Trinity just hung in there. Few minutes left and they were 2 points down when one of their players tried a point attempt from way out. Ball went high in the air but dropped well short into the keeper. Nobody near him. Under no real pressure. He caught the ball into his stomach but let it slip through his arms and he fumbled it into the net. Huge howler. Galway had a late free from almost straight in front of the posts to take it to extra time but Ryan O'Donoghue kicked it against the post and it went wide. Bad miss really as there wasn't a drop of wind out tonight.

It's hard to keep up with the name changes, but I don't think TU Dublin is Trinity. Isn't it the former DIT ?

You're correct. The name changes have me confused.

Another surprise result. University of Galway 1-10 TU Dublin 2-8

Was up at it. Big shock alright. Trinity just hung in there. Few minutes left and they were 2 points down when one of their players tried a point attempt from way out. Ball went high in the air but dropped well short into the keeper. Nobody near him. Under no real pressure. He caught the ball into his stomach but let it slip through his arms and he fumbled it into the net. Huge howler. Galway had a late free from almost straight in front of the posts to take it to extra time but Ryan O'Donoghue kicked it against the post and it went wide. Bad miss really as there wasn't a drop of wind out tonight.

Back in for another go.

Extremely soft free given by McQuillan for a foul on O'Brien reduced the gap to one. Just when Derry thought they had a huge turnover. Seemed like a big momentum changer. Reminded me of the late very soft free Kerry got in last year's final at almost the same point in the game. That also negated a big turnover.

That said Derry kept Kerry scoreless for 15 minutes earlier in the 2nd half but they wasted quite a few chances to extend their lead up to 4, 5 or 6 up. I'd say they will have plenty regrets after this one unfortunately.

Phone footage from the crowd of the stamp/foot rake going around. From the reverse angle. Not good. I think the intent is fairly clear. I get the desperation to win but that kind of stuff goes over the line. IMO of course. Hitting a player a hard shoulder is part of the game. Stamping on an injured body part isn't. Can't believe this even needs to be pointed out.

Injuries finally caught up with them year. No Silke or Molloy before a ball was kicked. Dylan McHugh barely played in championship. That's half of last year's starting defence gone. Patrick Kelly another who started last year's All-Ireland final who missed the entire championship through injury. Finnerty was in and out with niggles all year. The injuries to Comer and Kelly finished them though. No team can afford to lose their best two players like that. While they both started neither was anywhere near right. Whatever chance they had went once they blew the Armagh game. Maybe a week off could have got them fitter but once they had to tog out again this week it was going to be very tough. Those two fit and I'm relatively confident they would have beaten Mayo. Whether there would have been anything left in the tank for next week is another story.

Walsh's poor form a big problem also. His free taking was excellent last year but he missed a scatter of frees this year. The two he missed in front of the posts with the wind at his back in the first half yesterday were criminal. He seemed distracted and out of sorts all year. Needs to sort his head out as he's no spring chicken any more. Heaney never really got going this year. Ian Burke looked increasingly ineffectual. His lack of physicality and pace standing out in the tougher games. All he does is recycle the ball back out the field. Not really enough these days. Tierney had his moments but very up and down. Still young though and will be a big player going forward.

On the plus side Galway have two good corner-backs for the first time in a very long time. If anything McGrath was even better than Glynn this year. He done a right job on some very good forwards and was on his way to an All-Star nomination but probably won't get one now. Maher a great find in midfield. Young Sweeney good for the most part. Cooke got better and better as the year went on. Despite a couple bad turnovers in the 2nd half yesterday. Will he even be available next year though? He's often abroad due to work. The management will definitely want him around. Our finishing was poor enough this year. Lost count of how many goal chances we butchered. I counted 6 good goal chances over last two games against Mayo and 0 goals actually scored. Combine that with a serious dip in the free taking this year and Galway have been leaving far too many scores behind them.

Galway were actually stronger last year.

Everyone was fit and available last year. Apart from Cooke who came back.

Silke and Molloy missing before a ball was kicked this year. Comer, Finnerty, McHugh, Patrick Kelly have been battling knocks all year. Sean Kelly on one good leg today. Unfortunately it caught up with us eventually. Even if we had sneaked a win today we would have been struggling next week.

Home "advantage " doesn't really exist in Connacht.

Definitely not. I'd say Galway probably have a better record in Castlebar and The Hyde than they do in Salthill.

Conroy clipped murnin's heels. It was a definite free. The second or third last one they scored from wasn't a free mind you...

Just watched it frame by frame there. Not much evidence he tripped him. If anything it looked like he tripped himself.

Anyone claiming Murnin wasn't fouled is talking through their holes. He was exhausted and going nowhere and the defender decided to slap the seem around him from the back anyway.

Rather than Murnin or McQuillan (who tried his level best to get Galway an equaliser) turn your ire on Cooke who decided to play the completely unnecessary ball in the first place or the defender who let it hop over him for Murnin to run onto.

Exactly, McQuillan has been woeful for years and as soon as Armagh scored the free kick to go one up, I nearly knew that he would give Galway another chance. He should be known as The Equaliser as his entire career has been based on bringing the team that is behind back into it. It would have been disgraceful if Galway had scored that last free kick to equalise as he played over a minute and a half added time when there were no stoppages within the 3 minutes injury time. Galway should be looking at why they left Kelly on the field clearly injured for about 3-4 minutes before they replaced him, I had just presumed that they had used up all of their subs when they didn't take off a player clearly not able to walk properly.

Jaysus lads. McKay went in like an utter lunatic. Armagh defenders never learn. When there's a half chance to mel a man they go for it every time.

He actually leveled his own team mate along with the Galway lad.

Last Armagh one def not free.

Wasn't even close to a free. Knew he had no support up with him so just fell over. Couldn't believe his luck I'd say.

Galway made a solid balls of that. 2nd probably the worst position to finish even ahead of 3rd given how the groups finished. Out now again next weekend with Kelly and Comer carrying knocks. Some of the frees Armagh got down the stretch were ridiculously soft. I reckon 2 of their last 3 points weren't frees at all.

Was always surprised that Gallagher didn't get more chances. Always thought he looked useful off the bench at least. Was a strong runner and could take a score. Played regularly during the first half of last year's league but wasn't used much after that. Wasn't even getting off the bench this year and then disappeared from the bench altogether. Not surprise I guess that he was either dropped off or left the panel. But I thought there was a player there. As a bench option at least.

It was a very passive and pedestrian performance by our lads for the most part.
I thought we had begun to get into it before the sending off.
Once that happened we took control.
Maher & Comer were immense off the bench.
Finnerty off early injured and Walsh was hobbling for the whole second half before being taken off.
An eight point win flatters us - albeit we did have at least four goal chances whilst not coughing up any at the other end.
We'll take the win and move on.

Knocks beginning to pile up a bit now. Was always a risk in this format. Probably Cooke's best game since he came back as well.

I don't think it was the fact that it was Ulster teams though that we were beating and non Ulster Donegal were losing to.
I think it was Donegal kept meeting one of the big 3 whereas we mainly avoided them til the semi or final.
Likewise Galway got to the final last year avoiding Dublin, Kerry and Mayo.

Galway beat Mayo last year. I feel like I'm on crazy pills how often this is overlooked to suit some spurious point.