Kenny eyes room for improvement in Donal Burke to reach ‘top, top, top’ level despite massive 18-point Tribe haul
Dublin 3-29 Galway 0-19
Dublin’s Dónal Burke scores a point as Galway’s Stephen Barrett closes in during the Walsh Cup Group A clash at Parnell Park. Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
January 17 2022 02:30 AM
Henry Shefflin looked slightly bemused.
In Parnell Park yesterday, a venue where Galway have endured a couple of rough days, they suffered their first defeat of Shefflin’s tenure.
Dublin, playing an unseasonably sharp blend of hurling, won by all of 19 points. Galway, meanwhile, looked as though mired in the slog of winter.
January isn’t the place where seasons are made or broken.
But one of the lines of questioning Shefflin faced afterwards was whether he felt he was justifying his appointment.
Bit harsh, surely?
“It was a very disappointing day,” he admitted. “But to be fair we’re doing a lot of chopping and changing.
“Dublin,” Shefflin added, “were definitely further down the road.
“Look, it’s about learning and growing and taking these defeats and we will not panic yet.
“Are we disappointed inside? Of course we’re disappointed.”
Not that Shefflin sought one, but here was a damp blanket to throw over the sizzling hype of his presence in Galway, his addition to the ranks of inter-county manager-dom.
“Last week,” as he noted, “there was a bit of excitement around things and a bit of expectation that had built.”
One Walsh Cup result won’t kill that buzz. But at the very least, it gave Shefflin an early-season marker. And yet the likelihood is that if yesterday sprung any surprises, it was more to do with the slickness of Galway’s opposition, rather than the absence of any real cohesion or energy from their own play. Indeed, Shefflin clocked Dublin’s performance as executed at “championship pace”.
Certainly, their movement was crisp. They worked the ball out from the back with impressive fluidity and more often than not, took clever options in attack.
“That’s something we’ve been working on for quite a while,” Mattie Kenny (left) noted afterwards. “The days when things are going well for ya, it looks that bit easier.
“I suppose in the depths of championship, that’s when you need composure to play like that.”
Still, a 19-point Walsh Cup victory in January is a 19-point victory. Dublin hit 3-29 to add to the 2-27 they scored against Antrim last week and Kenny used all 25 outfield players on his panel.
Beforehand, he made three changes to the starting 15, each one beefing Dublin up. Newly-installed captain Eoghan O’Donnell started his first game since the hamstring injury that forced him to miss all bar the opening three minutes of last year’s Leinster final, and devoured everything around him.
Chris Crummey played as a deep midfielder/puck-out target and took the fight to Galway at every turn. And Dónal Burke, ghosting between little pockets of space along the Galway ‘65’, scored 0-18 (9f, 1 ’65).
“His game is in a good place,” Kenny explained. “But there’s still more room for him to improve to get to the top, top, top level. And he knows that.”
All things considered, Dublin go to Offaly on Sunday in good fettle after a positive start to 2022.
“It’s not about winning or losing today,” Kenny insisted. “It’s about getting out and getting game-time into some of those players.”
SCORERS – Dublin: D Burke 0-18 (9f, 1 ’65); C Crummey 1-2; R McBride 1-1; C O’Sullivan 0-3; P Crummey 1-0; C Burke, F Whitely, C O’Callaghan, J Malone, J Hertherton 0-1 each. Galway: E Niland 0-5 (2f); C Mannion, D O’Shea (3f) 0-3 each; N Burke 0-2; S Loftus, R Glennon, T Monaghan, C Caulfield, C Fahy, R Glennon 0-1 each.
DUBLIN – S Brennan; A Dunphy, E O’Donnell, P Smyth; J Madden, D Gray, J Bellew; C Burke, C Crummey; R McBride, F Whitely, D Burke; C O’Sullivan, C Currie, A Mellett. Subs: C O’Callaghan for Madden (h-t), R Smith for Gray (37), R Hayes for Mellett (46), A Considine for Whitely (47), D Keogh (52), P Crummey for Currie (55), J Hetherton for McBride (57), J Malone for O’Sullivan (57), S Moran for Dunphy (62), L Walsh for Bellew (66).
GALWAY – E Murphy; S Barrett, D Morrissey, J Grealish; S Blehane, G McInerney, TJ Brennan; C Walsh, S Loftus; R Glennon, N Burke, C Fahy; E Niland, K Cooney, D O’Shea. Subs: G McInerney for Blehane (30), C Mannion for Walsh (h-t), T Monaghan for O’Shea (45), J Hastings for Fahy (52), C Caufield for Glennon (56), T Killeen for Brennan (58), I McGlynn for Barrett (66).
REF – S Cleere (Kilkenny)
