Nicky English: Neither Dublin or Galway deserved victory

Rarely have two teams appeared more driven by the fear of losing than the desire of winning. It certainly felt that way in the end, as Dublin and Galway finished up a mostly subdued game in strangely passive style.

So it’s hardly a case of a draw being the fair result, it’s more a case of neither team deserving the win. That sometimes sounds harsh, but both teams certainly had their chances of winning – Galway earlier on, and Dublin at the end – only for their lack of winning instinct to get in the way.

More pertinently, perhaps, neither team showed any signal of being outright contenders for any of the major championship honours, even at this early stage. Then they can only improve in the replay, there’s definitely plenty of room for that.

I said before the game that previous form of both counties wouldn’t count for much here, and yet I’m certainly none the wiser as to what their true form actually is. At half-time I felt the game was there for the taking for either team, and so it proved a full-time as well. The strange thing is neither team appeared willing or able to actually take it.

It never felt like proper championship fare, either, and more like early season stuff – with the weather to go with it. It was certainly pedestrian at times, with lots of mistakes, some poor shooting, and only flashes of good hurling in between. All that contributed to a pretty dull atmosphere, and while the weather wasn’t to blame, it probably didn’t help.

Commanding position

Truth is both teams can say they left it behind. Galway will feel they missed far more goal chances, which could have put them in a far more commanding position in the first half.

Joe Canning

missed that open goal chance, Jason Flynn had a chance, and Cyril Donnellan had a sort of three-in-one goal chance, so overall Galway certainly presented the greater goal threat.

Dublin will also feel they came back from six points down, and controlled possession for much of the second half, but still they couldn't finish out the deal. And they would surely have been safe, had David Treacy not miss-hit that last free, to give Dublin a two-point cushion. It was costly, sure, and that's the one Treacy will remember, despite hitting so many of the others without a moment hesitation.

But they'd missed plenty of other chances, Danny Sutcliffe, and Dotsy O'Callaghan all missing chances, which ultimately cost them in the end. And Dublin only really had one half goal chance, that sort of shot in anger from Colm Cronin, towards the end of the first half, and otherwise didn't really test Colm Callanan in the Galway goal.

So I’d have expected both teams to be driving flat-out for the win over those last few minutes, when instead they acted as if avoiding defeat was all they wanted. That may actually represent a flaw in the make-up of both teams, which both managers will certainly want to address before the replay.

There was nearly a minute left on the clock, with a free awarded to Dublin, and yet both managers looked to the sideline, and started bringing on replacements, again as if happy to settle for the draw, and so the game just completely petered out.

Again, this also showed up the ludicrously unpredictable rule of additional time, just like we saw in the Limerick-Clare game last Sunday. Here, we had two minutes added on at the end of the first half, during which there was very little stoppage, and yet only two minutes as well, at the end of the second half, when there was clearly a lot more stoppage, with Iarla Tannian getting treatment, for an injury, for at least that much time. And that’s before we come to the substitutions.

Still, those two minutes of additional time were a complete non-event, as both teams effectively settled for the draw. That made no sense to me given what was at stake here, and the carrot of a Leinster semi-final against Laois or Offaly, versus going into a very tricky qualifier campaign.

Still, there's no doubt Mark Schutte has become Dublin's most potent scoring forward, and it was surprising that Galway left Johnny Coen on him for so long, especially as he was repeatedly fouling.

Yet there are still some questions about Dublin's set up, particularly Conal Keaney at centre back. Part of the idea there was to free up Chris Crummy to take on Johnny Glynn, but it still wasn't clear what exactly Keaney was bringing to Dublin. And the same with Liam Rushe, who played at wing forward. For too long Rushe played a peripheral role, and even though he did work his way into the game towards the end, he needs to be more central for longer than that.

Galway certainly have a great engine, but still play with too much teasing flashes of what might be. At several times in this game it looked as if they were ready to take off, blow Dublin away, and then it just didn’t happen. It’s not a case of questioning Galway’s desire, because they must have that. But they didn’t seem to be able to sustain their effort for long enough, and that has to be worry.

There was some worry too over Canning coming into the game, after he’d injured his hand, and once against his impact was limited: he still seems to be struggling with a bit of fitness, demonstrated in the way he hesitated when moving for a couple of balls. He can only improve for the replay.

Old failings

If anything it took Galway’s goal, very well struck by

Joseph Cooney

, to remind Dublin there were actually in a championship match. They certainly powered into it after that, particularly the likes of Sutcliffe and Schutte, and yet still some of Dublin’s old failings remained, such as missing scoring chances when presented to them.

Another issue I think this game showed up was the number of steps players were allowed to take. Whether or not that’s them trying to play into the new advantage rule I don’t know, but certainly players were taking more than four or five steps with the ball in hand, and getting away with it. It’s something to keep an eye on over the summer.

If there was any positive, however, it is the fact another game will almost certainly bring the teams on, given they are closely matched. With that in mind I’d hope they can make a better go of it in Tullamore next Saturday evening.