GALWAY 3-22 DUBLIN 0-16
Dublin’s minor hurling dream was crushed by Galway in Saturday afternoon’s All-Ireland MHC semi-final at Croke Park.
The game turned against Dublin in favour of theTribesmen towards the conclusion of the opening half and the wheels fell off altogether in the second-half to end Dublin’s very promising journey.
The first-half was very evenly balanced with the long direct ball to Luke Swan paying dividends for Mike Connolly’s men at times.
Dublin were winning more than their share of possession while at the back the defence looked secure with the likes of Kevin Byrne getting through a lot of work.
It was a half that was dominated by the freetaking of the respective side’s deadball experts.
There was only eight points from play, as well as a late, late Galway goal, in the opening half as Dublin’s Liam Dunneand Galway’s O’Shea scored 12 placed balls between them.
The sides looked to be heading to the interval break on level terms but in the last action Galway struck for goal when Niall Collins beat keeper Jack Lambert from close range to give his side a 1-10 to 0-10 half-time advantage.
Galway full-forward Donal O’Shea, son of former Tipperary manager Eamon, hit 0-12 in total, all from deadball as Galway began to put distance between the sides as the second-half progressed as Dublin failed to showcase their true ability.
Galway moved 1-14 to 0-12 clear soon after the restart but then hit a quickfire 2-3 in the next 10 minutes to effectively decide the game.
Any lack of concentration or carelessness in the Dublin display was punished as Adam Brett scored Galway’s second goal and Dean Reilly swept home the third a minute later.
Liam Dunne and subs Aaron O’Toole and Daragh McLoughney grabbed late points for Dublin but Galway had their day’s work done.
SCORERS - Galway: D O’Shea 0-12 (0-12f), D Reilly 1-3, N Collins 1-2, A Brett 1-1, D Kilcommins 0-2, J O’Donoghue, O Flannery (St Thomas) 0-1 each. Dublin: L Dunne 0-10 (0-9f, 0-1 '65'), C Murray, P Christie, C Foley, D Purcell, A O’Toole, D McLoughney 0-1 each.
GALWAY: P Rabbitte; M Flynn, S Jennings, O Salmon; E Duggan, S Heary, S Quirke; J O’Donoghue, O Flannery (St Thomas); D Kilcommins, S McDonagh, A Brett; D Reilly, D O’Shea, N Collins. Subs: O Flannery (Pádraig Pearses) for McDonagh (41), K Creaven for Collins (52), C Cunningham for O Flannery (St Thomas, 57), I cGlynn for Duggan (58), C Keane for Reilly (61).
DUBLIN: J Lambert; F Murphy, E Carney, K Byrne; C Hogan, A O’Neill, I O’hEithir; D Leavy, D Power; C Foley, P Christie, C Murray; L Dunne, L Swan, D Purcell. Subs: S Fenton for Purcell (40), D McLoughney for Christie (47), A O’Toole for Murray (49), S Foran for Hogan (57).
REF: P Murphy (Carlow).