Dublin may rue absentees

GAELIC GAMES/Galway v Dublin:THREE NAMES absent from the Dublin under-21 teamsheet have severely dented their chances of progress to the All-Ireland final.

Rory O’Carroll is off playing football having become the senior full back this year, while Shane Stapleton and David Treacy saw their seasons end prematurely due to cruciate knee ligament injuries.

O’Carroll was the linchpin at centre back, Stapleton took the frees and Treacy is an excellent forward. David Quinn and Ciarán Brennan are decent replacements in attack and their challenge has not been completely ruined by the loss of admittedly important players, especially if Liam Rushe can catch fire at full forward.

“Treacy and Stapleton are two huge losses,” said captain Oisín Gough. “They’re very unfortunate. Two serious cruciate injuries in a week basically. The mood in the camp wasn’t great after we heard. It was a huge blow, Shane would be our main free-taker and Treacy our main scoring threat.

“We just have to solider on. We’ve lads pushing to get in, so it’s going to be a big mix up for the six forwards against Galway.”

Galway only field two seniors in their line-up with captain David Burke at centre back and Richie Cummins at corner forward but there are plenty of decent prospects keen to graduate to the main stage next season. But, for the first time in three years, there is no Joe Canning to rely on for scores.

“This year we would have a better balance all over the field. Last year, we were counting on one player up front to get all the scores,” said Burke. “But in fairness to the young lads that have come though, they’re playing well and they’re fighting for places.”

It should be a decent scrap but Dublin can hardly expect to be losing players of such calibre to injury and expect to survive.

They will probably struggle to be strong enough too if they keep losing the likes of the O’Carroll brothers to football.

They are a talented group and will hold pace but, when Galway kick into the home straight, Dublin may lack the resources to cross the bridge from provincial success to All-Ireland contenders.

DUBLIN: F McGarry; R Walsh, D Kelly, O Gough; R O’Loughlin, M Quilty, P Kelly; C Clinton, P Buckeridge; D Quinn, D Plunkett, B O’Rorke; C Brennan, L Rushe, N McMorrow.

GALWAY: C Finnegan; D Connolly, P Gordon, G O’Halloran; S Óg Linnane, D Burke, N Donoghue; J Coen, B Daly; J Regan, N Quinn, E Forde; R Cummins, G Burke, G Kelly.

Referee: J O’Mahony (Westmeath).