Galway 4-20 Leitrim 0-9
This was painful. Another summer afternoon when the impossible and widening gap between the elite teams and the rest was vividly demonstrated.
A crowd of 4,749 turned up on an overcast Salthill afternoon to watch Leitrim’s well-organised resistance gradually and then totally dissolve in the face of relentless maroon pressure.
What more could Andy Moran and Leitrim do here? They set out in a mood of ferocious determination, they kept the game tight for the first 20 minutes, when the scoreboard read 0-5 to 0-4 and they kicked a couple of gorgeous early points. But it was clear that they were burning serious reserves of energy just to break up a series of patient Galway attacks and it was clear, too, that Galway's intensity would not waver.
This was a cursory run-out for Galway and it confirmed a few things. Paul Conroy is in All-Star conversations in this early part of the season. Pádraic Joyce had the luxury of retiring his veteran midfielder in the final quarter but not before the locals saw another display of judicious score-taking, traditional high fielding clever attacking play. Conroy's full recovery from the double leg break is one of the brighter stories of maroon football in recent years and he is at the heart of this revivifying season.
Elsewhere, Seán Kelly may be the answer to Galway’s full back uncertainty but the Moycullen man has a play-anywhere quality to his game. As Leitrim’s forward-play disintegrated in the second half, he became the game’s most vivid figure, initiating attacks and driving Galway forward as a host of replacements sought to make their case long after the contest had been decided.
All four goals came courtesy of the Galway bench – two of them for the excellent Patrick Kelly. The final score of the game was a slickly worked move finished to the net by Owen Gallagher.
By then, the Leitrim collective were dead on their feet, spent after the efforts of repelling Galway in the first quarter and also hit by Galway's suffocating work-rate, led by Kieran Molloy.
Leitrim faced into what was a de facto mission impossible with a clear game plan and an admirable spirit. For the first 15 minutes, they did their best to live with the Division Two beaten finalists. They had Donal Wrynn operating on a slide-rule between midfield and full forward and the Fenagh man played both supplier and recipient in the first half and kicked Leitrim's first point.
It was 0-3 apiece after a Ryan O’Rourke free in the 13th minute. O’Rourke and his namesake and cousin Riordan led a lively Leitrim forward unit and the Leitrim defence worked savagely to try and blunt Galway’s glittering attack line.
The most interesting match-up featured Damien Comer and Donal Casey, the Leitrim full back who made light of an early ankle injury to harass and shadow the Annaghdown man all over the field. Comer operated in a deep-lying role and was happy to play a ball-winning and carrying role.
He hadn't scored from play when he was replaced in the final quarter but the afternoon underlined the impressive spread of scoring potential through the squad, with Cillian McDaid landing three terrific first-half strikes before Kelly, Niall Daly and Gallagher all hit goals in the second half.
Despite the substance behind the opening quarter, Leitrim simply ran out of gas. Their starting 15 registered 0-6 over the 73 minutes. They did some good things here but Galway’s physical supremacy told a grim story over the last ten minutes, when they ran riot. There was no sense of Galway trying to stitch it into the smaller county but rather of a squad with ambitions exhorting themselves to maintain standards. Sterner tests await. For Leitrim the fabled summer of 1994 has never felt further away.
GALWAY: 1 C Gleeson; 4 J Glynn, 3 S Kelly, 2 L Silke; 5 D McHugh, 6 J Daly (0-1), 7 K Molloy; 8 P Conroy (0-2), 11 M Tierney (0-1); 10 F O'Laoi (0-1), 14 D Comer, 9 C McDaid (0-3); 12 J Heaney (0-1), 13 R Finnerty (0-3, one mark), 15 S Walsh (0-6, five frees).
Subs: P Kelly (2-1) for F O'Laoi (28 mins, inj), F O'Laoi for 6 D McHugh (h-t), O Gallagher (1-0) for F O'Laoi (50), N Daly (1-0) for M Tierney (51), T Culhane for D Comer (57), D Connelly (0-1) for 8 P Conroy (61).
LEITRIM: 1 B Flynn; 17 C Reynolds, 4 P Maguire, 2 M Diffley; 6 S Quinn, 3 D Casey, 7 D Bruen; 8 D Wrynn (0-1), 9 P Dolan; 10 C Dolan (0-1), 11 M Plunkett, 24 C Cullen (0-1); 13 Ryan O'Rourke (0-2, one free), 14 S Moran, 12 Riordan O'Rourke (0-1).
Subs: T Prior (0-1) for C Cullen (33 mins), K Beirne (0-2) for S Moran (h-t), D McGovern for C Dolan (38), C McGloin for S Quinn (47), E Sweeney for M Plunkett (57).
Referee: P Faloon (Down).
