Galway 5-23 Offaly 3-15:AN ERRATIC old hotch-potch of a game that won't do much to alter the sleeping patterns of either Brian Cody or Anthony Daly. Galway were safely out the other side of it by half-time yet few in Portlaoise were confusing them for contenders afterwards, the snazzy scoreline notwithstanding.
It will be rare Anthony Cunningham’s side will meet an opposition in so generous a mood as Offaly were yesterday, rarer still that they’ll appear so unconvincing in running up a 15-point win.
But then we’re talking here about a game that was a custard pie in the face of logic at times. A game in which we saw three goals before we saw a point and in which every Galway forward got on the scoresheet before Joe Canning managed to, yet still he finished the game as the winners’ top scorer thanks in part to a succession of pointed 65s. A day where all but two of the eight goals came from pretty basic mistakes. Barnum and Bailey would have had their heads in their hands at some of the slapstick on show.
“Every step you make in the championship there’s going to be an improvement and you have to improve with that,” admitted Ollie Baker once the smoke had cleared.
“Take the early goals away from it, we hurled with them toe to toe. I know you can’t cancel out the goals but we were every bit as good as them for the first 33 minutes. We gave away three simple mistakes and they punished us every time.”
The inherent truth in the Offaly manager’s analysis is what will have kept the Galway bonfires unlit last night. His side got off to a calamitous start, gifting Galway corner-forward Conor Cooney two nigh-on identical goals within 30 seconds of each other. For both of them, Cooney got the jump on Offaly full-back David Kenny and forced him into an error before stitching a couple of classy finishes past James Dempsey.
By the 10th minute, Galway had 3-1 on the board – the point a patently wide effort from Cyril Donnellan and the third goal the result of another defensive howler, this time a spill on his own line from Dempsey that David Burke shunted over the line.
In other words, each of Galway’s opening scores was wholly preventable and on another day Baker’s side might have led comfortably by the middle of the first half.
As it was, they were still only a point down on 17 minutes despite all the horror. With Shane Dooley the focus of just about every attack and Conor Mahon chipping in with a couple of points from midfield, they had every right to consider themselves a force in the game.
Dooley’s first goal had been just as comical as both of Cooney’s, a fluffed clearance from James Skehill leaving him with an empty net into which to clip an angled shot.
When first Derek Morkan and then Joe Bergin flashed over towering points soon after, it meant Offaly had presented their worst possible face to the world, yet still only trailed by 3-1 to 1-6. And even as Galway began to assert themselves through the fizz and force of Donnellan and Iarla Tannion, Offaly still had no definitive cause to feel the day was beyond them until the fourth Galway goal just before half-time.
The purest goal of the game, it came at the end of a pinball attack that featured a lovely flick from Conor Cooney and a killer pass from David Burke. The upshot was that Damien Hayes found himself clear on goal and once he did the necessary, it wiped all doubt from the outcome. A Canning point a minute later put Galway 4-11 to 1-10 ahead at the break and Offaly went to the dressing room with fight broken and will zapped.
It made the second half a non-event. Canning, who was never really a factor in general play, got out the wheelbarrow in the second half and filled it with handy scores from placed balls. He pointed three 65s in a row soon after the break to push the Galway lead out to 15 points and although Dooley kept his end up for Offaly for the rest of the game, there was never much prospect of anything other than a double-digit tonking.
“We can only play what’s in front of us,” said Cunningham afterwards. “We’d be hoping to improve majorly between now and the next day. We have three weeks, with a full round of club championship games next weekend in Galway. After that we have two solid weeks to prepare for either Dublin or Kilkenny.”
Any thoughts on who that might turn out to be? “I think Dublin will be a lot closer than people are giving them credit for. Anthony Daly has been training all year with this match in mind and he has all his players back fit. It’ll be some match here in Portlaoise next Saturday night. I think we might wander down to have a look at it.”
When he does, it will look like almost a different sport to what was on show yesterday. Though Galway have plenty to recommend them – some of their movement in attack is pretty thoughtful and their finishing once the goal chances were presented to them was lethal – the fact that they needed such a large dollop of Offaly’s help here can’t bode especially well for the Leinster final.
GALWAY: J Skehill; N Donoghue, K Hynes, F Moore; J Cooney, T Óg Regan, J Coen; I Tannian (0-2), A Smith; D Burke (1-1), N Burke (0-1), C Donnellan (0-3); D Hayes (1-3), J Canning (0-11, 0-5 frees, 0-4 65s), C Cooney (2-0). Subs: P Gordon for Donoghue (31 mins), J Glynn for N Burke (49), J Regan (0-1) for J Cooney (55), T Haran (0-1) for Tannian (60), D Glennon (1-0) for Donnellan (63 mins).
OFFALY: J Dempsey; D Morkan (0-1), D Kenny, D Franks; D Horan, R Hanniffy, J Rigney; C Mahon (0-2), K Brady; J Bergin (0-2), C Egan (0-2), B Murphy; S Dooley (2-7, 1-4 frees, 0-1 65), C Parlon, B Carroll. Subs: C Hernon for Egan (temp), 32-35 mins; D Molloy (1-1) for Franks (half-time); C McDonald for Kenny (43 mins); S Ryan for Carroll (48 mins); Hernon for Mahon (55 mins).
Referee: C McAllister (Cork).
