Galway - 3-12 Roscommon -1-8: This year, it is Roscommon who will embark on the tour of Ireland. Yesterday in Hyde Park, John Tobin's young team threw their best at the All-Ireland champions without ever approaching the highs of 12 months ago.
If Galway were spooked at the idea of facing the only county to beat them in that Bank of Ireland championship run, then they hid it well. There was a clinical aspect to this exercise that bore all the hallmarks of John O'Mahony's lectures.
The speed with which Galway transformed a tough and uncompromising match into a gentle summer exhibition was the most discomforting aspect for those who would argue the toss for Roscommon. Hundreds had already begun streaming down the narrow lanes that lead from the ground when the visiting crowd began cheering Galway's prolonged sequence in possession in a period reminiscent of the Meath-Kerry debacle late last summer.
Both O'Mahony and his players could probably have done without the vocal jubilation; they have a dense forest to negotiate yet, with a visit to Castlebar next on the agenda.
Derek Savage left Hyde Park yesterday evening in some bother while Pauric Joyce will be sore for a few days after receiving robust attention from Francie Grehan and company once he began to shimmer, making the godly look everyday.
Alan Nolan, Roscommon's wing forward turned full back, found that his experience playing against Joyce took a while to tumble into outright nightmare but after the first half hour, he was in deep trouble. It was hard to fault the young Gaels man and John Tobin would have tried an alternative shadow man had the truth not been that Joyce is, at times, quite unstoppable.
He was central to all three Galway goals. The first was the least stylish but most important. In what was the champions' most direct move since the throw-in, Kevin Walsh transferred a quick ball for Michael Donellan, who played in Ja Fallon after a sharp burst from centrefield. Fallon floated a ball for Joyce to take at speed and Roscommon's goalkeeper Derek Thompson dragged him to the dust as he was about to shoot.
Savage dispatched the penalty with Sheareresque sang-froid.
The goal seemed to liberate Galway from the restrictive and hurried game pattern that Roscommon had successfully implemented. For the first 30 minutes, they denied the champions the space to move the ball through the centre and, increasingly, they opted for speculative shots from distance. The penalty was the first time Roscommon were breached.
That strike seemed to embolden the champions, however, and from Joyce's stylish kick after the restart, it was a case of panache doing down old-fashioned work ethic.
Alan Kerins came on and promptly fisted a goal on 55 minutes from a Joyce cross and then six minutes later, the dual player received a gorgeous pass from Declan Meehan and rolled his second strike under Thompson.
That score cancelled out the half-promise of one of Roscommon's famous revivals. On 51 minutes, Alan Keane, labouring with a heavily-strapped leg, advanced from the Galway goal to collect a weak shot from Gary Cox but spilled the ball into the path of Paul Noone, who gratefully swept up for a goal. That theoretically put Roscommon back in touch, trailing by 1-5 to 1-9, but even had Kerins not timed his goal streak so perfectly, it is doubtful that home glory would have materialised.
For Galway were just shutting all avenues down. It was an accomplished afternoon for the back six, with Meehan and De Paor galloping forward with good results.
Kieran Fitzgerald also ventured downfield to finish one of his team's more operatic points.
Roscommon managed a single point from play from their starting forwards and on normal days Alan Keane does not gift goals. Once Roscommon failed to strangle Galway for lack of space, they began to doubt and attempts to disturb the champions' Zen with a physical show distracted only themselves.
Denis Gavin and Raymond Cox refused to flag despite interminable Galway pressure and Gary Cox was industrious at half-forward but not potent enough to manage a score.
In the last quarter, the only concern for Galway seemed to be how to take their scores and at times, the flow of their attack was bewitching. But for all the customary elan, it was the quietly constant Joe Bergin who merited most attention. The languid Mountbellew man drifted back into the territory Tommy Joyce patrolled so effectively last year and delivered a thoughtful series of passes for his forward colleagues to poeticise.
Frankie Dolan made a late cameo and sent bustling over three consolation points. That the last arrived from a penalty which he sent ballooning over the bar more or less summed up the home team's day and prompted the wry and inevitable observation from the terraces: "Ah, Miscued."
The home team have more in them than this and will prove a tricky, test for the county that draws them in the qualifiers. The bad news for all the pretenders is that the All-Ireland champions are only beginning to stretch.
HOW THEY LINED OUT
GALWAY: 1.A Keane; 2. K Fitzgerald, 3. G Fahey, 4. R Fahey; 5. D Meehan, 6. T Mannion, 7. S De Paor; 8. K Walsh, 9. M Donnellan; 10. P Clancy, 11. J Fallon, 12. J Bergin; 13. D Savage, 14. P Joyce, 15. M Clancy.
Substitutes: A Kerins for D Savage (48 mins inj), T Joyce for M Clancy (63 mins), T Meehan for K R Fahey (70 mins) K Comer for K Fitzgerald (70 mins).
ROSCOMMON: 1. D Thompson, 2. D Gavin, 3. A Nolan, 4. R Cox; 5. A McPadden, 6. F Grehan, 7. P Noone; 8. S O'Neill, 9. F O'Donnell; 10. G Cox, 11, S Lohan, 12. J Hanly; 13. N Dineen, 14. J Dunning, 15. G Lohan.
Substitutes: F Dolan for G Lohan (46 mins), N O'Donoughue for S Lohan (60 mins).
