Galway ... 1-14 Dublin ... 1-7 After several bright rehearsals Dublin returned to the main stage of hurling yesterday, and promptly forgot all their lines. All over the field players missed their cue or simply wandered out of the frame. In the end the whole performance crashed.
Well before the first half ended manager Marty Morris probably wanted to walk onto the middle of the field and shout "CUT". Dublin were that bad.
What kept him on the sideline was the realisation Galway weren't much better - and at least allowed the game to endure as a reasonable contest.In fact with around 15 minutes remaining Dublin trailed by just four points.
Conal Keaney swept in a penalty so that Galway were up 1-9 to 1-5, and both sides appeared genuine contenders for the victory. Only then did Galway's cream truly rise to the top, with three sparkling points from Kevin Broderick helping to weigh the eventual result strongly in Galway's favour.
Yet this was a game where quality always came out second best to mediocrity.
Conor Hayes will have come away from his first public outing as Galway manager with a victory, but not much more. Worse for Morris though, who will come away with even less than what he started with.
Whatever confidence Dublin may have gained from their Walsh Cup win over Kilkenny was lost somewhere on the road to Galway. Keaney of all people had his worst game in several weeks, and the forwards hardly ever connected as programmed. It was 24 minutes before Shane Martin put over the first Dublin point from play - and one of only four scores from play in their total.
Keith Wilson, who had a flyer at wing back, was about the only player who lived up to recent expectations. Kevin Flynn's free-taking was disappointing, the entire half forward line was shapeless, and overall the amount of squandered possession was unforgivable.
While Galway's scoring rate was a little more consistent, it was hardly better spread. Rory Gantley was in form from the start, sending a 20-metre free straight into the net on 20 minutes, and chipping over a sweet sideline shortly afterwards. Ollie Fahy made use of his chances too so it was no surprise that Galway led 1-7 to 0-4 at half time.
With the stiff wind in their backs for the second half a Dublin comeback couldn't be ruled out - but still they lacked direction. Their penalty too was fortunate if anything as Keith Horgan's run at goal could have been called back for over-carrying instead of a foul, with Ollie Canning the man to get in his way.
The offence hardly registers on Canning's overall contribution, however, as he was clearly the best player on the field. Without his consistent interventions the Galway defence would have been split wide apart on several occasions. Some of Galway's other old reliable names had a harder time, with Cathal Moore largely anonymous at centre forward.
For Hayes then the learning experience was well spread throughout the field.
"Well there was a bit of pressure on us," he said. "Home games against Dublin probably have more pressure than away games against say Kilkenny. And so it's always good to get a winning start. "But I was happy with the teamwork there in the second half. We didn't get a great start even though we had the wind, and should really have been a few more points up. So Dublin did come back at us, but we withheld it, and stuck to our man-marking jobs." Hayes, however, didn't seem particularly concerned about the limited heights reached by his team. "Well it was hurling for this time of year. We haven't played much yet at this level, whereas Dublin had. So we didn't expect to be sharp. We'd be confident enough now about six or seven positions after this, and we have those younger players in there as well."
For Morris, the only question afterwards was what went wrong: "We seemed to be a yard off the pace the whole way through," he said. "We were fumbling a lot as well, and not pulling off that first touch like some previous games. We also held on to possession a little bit too long rather than releasing it into the inside forward line. And we really struggled with the frees. But to win any game in the league you need 12 or 13 players at their very best, almost playing out of their skin. We had maybe seven or eight.
"It's still a high learning curve for me and the team. Today is a small setback yes, but it's not the end of the world."
GALWAY: D Howe; A Coen, L Hodgins, O Canning; T Og Regan, P Huban, A O'Donnell; A Kerins (0-2), G Glynn; R Gantley (1-4, three frees, one sideline), C Moore, K Broderick (0-3); K Burke (0-1), O Fahy (0-3), F Healy (0-1). Subs: S Kavanagh for Huban (27 mins), R Murray for Glynn (47 mins), E Donoghue for O'Donnell (68 mins), G Farragher for Healy (73 mins).
DUBLIN: B McLoughlin; K Elliot, D Spain, C Meehan; K Wilson, L Ryan, S Hiney; C Keaney (1-1, one free, one penalty), S Perkins; S McDonald, K O'Donoghue (0-2), T Moore; S Martin (0-1), L O'Donoghue (0-1), K Flynn (0-2, two frees). Subs: D Sweeney for Hiney (half time), J McGuirk for Moore (41 mins), K Horgan for McDonald (50 mins).
Referee: J Sexton (Limerick)
