Galway 5-19
Dublin 1-18
Cathal Mannion and Joe Canning were the stand-out performers as Galway flexed their attacking muscle running out 13 point winners over Dublin.
The performance was a far cry from last week’s game in Croke Park, where it took a last-gasp point from Aidan Harte to force a replay.
No, this time around, it was far more straight forward.
Within the opening minute Galway sent out a statement of intent, Mannion finding the net after coursing through the Dublin defence.
He doubled his tally just moments later when he produced an identical finish to find the bottom corner once again and left a shell shocked Dublin scratching their heads.
Dublin were trailing by eight points within the opening 10 minutes, but were handed a lifeline when they were rightly awarded a penalty on 11 minutes.
David Treacy, unerring in last week’s game, stepped up and fired wide.
Only moments later, after a high lofted puck out, Mannion completed his hat-trick and all but wrapped up the Galway victory within 15 minutes.
Galway didn’t let up and continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over, some neat points points extending their lead before Dublin were thrown what seemed like a last chance to get back in the game.
Another penalty and another opportunity wasted, this time a superb save from Colm Callanan to deny Paul Ryan.
Dublin went in at the break trailing by 15 points, dead, buried and totally out of ideas.
After the restart, it was Joe Canning who would punish Dublin’s slow start and find the net from close range.
Challenges flew in all game and after a grapple between Canning and Dublin net minder Alan Nolan, it seemed like a red card was inevitable.
But, to their credit, both sides kept cool heads for the remaining 30 minutes and even a diligent Dublin effort wasn’t enough to claw back what proved an insurmountable deficit.
There would be one more goal courtesy of Canning, an exchange of points from both sides and an Eamonn Dillon consolation goal for Dublin to see the Tribesmen run out comfortable winners.
Lessons will have to be learned from a Dublin perspective, but take nothing away from this Galway side.
Their performance was nothing short of mesmerizing.
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