Dublin’s slide back into the Leinster football pack continues: What we learned from the GAA weekend

Dublin’s slide back into the Leinster football pack continues

On the mountain route into Aughrim on Sunday the gorse bushes were already blooming golden on either side of the road, always a sign summer is in air. For a long time inside Echelon Park, where Wicklow were playing Dublin for a place in the Leinster football semi-final, it felt like there was revolution in the air too.

Wicklow had never beaten Dublin in the league or championship. In the end they fell short by two points, 2-16 to 2-14, leaving behind a dozen scoring chances, and twice rallying from apparently game-changing situations. Rarely have Dublin played this badly and somehow found a way to win. Rarer still have Wicklow played this well and somehow found a way to lose.

So the county with 63 Leinster titles to Wicklow’s none progress to the semi-finals to face reigning champions Louth. Wicklow manager Oisín McConville afterwards spoke of his team’s heroics, perhaps sensing they may not get a better chance to beat Dublin for many more summers to come. Or perhaps they will.

Because even in their moment of victory, it was clear Dublin’s slide back into the Leinster football pack continues – while their rivals also gain ground of their own. Last year, Dublin beat Wicklow by nine points. In their meeting before that, the margin was 23.

One of the largest cheers of the afternoon came when Meath’s defeat to Westmeath was announced over the PA. Presumably mostly from the Dublin supporters. But after Louth’s convincing win over Wexford, Dublin suddenly have a formidable task immediately ahead of them. And they face it with their manager Ger Brennan still serving a sideline suspension until into the Sam Maguire stages.

Meanwhile Westmeath’s confidence is now soaring, and Kildare feel like they’re improving too, after grinding down Laois. Four teams left in the Leinster football championship, and while all four will feel it might still be their summer to bloom again, Dublin will need to stem the wilt. Ian O’Riordan

Goal-shy Cork could struggle to beat Limerick on points

On Sunday, Cork and Tipperary nearly conspired to produce a championship match without a goal for just the second time in 125 years. The last time it happened was in 2016, a pig of a match in which Cork played a sweeper behind the full-back line; before that Cork and Tipp hadn’t held each other goalless since 1901.

The two championship games between Cork and Tipperary last summer produced eight goals in total, but the staggering thing about the game on Sunday was how little goal threat both teams generated. Tipperary found the net with their first shot at goal in the 71st minute, while Alan Connolly missed with Cork’s only goal attempt eight minutes earlier.

The outstanding William Buckley put his hands to his head after he landed his second point late in the first half, belatedly realising that a goal chance was on offer if he had taken a couple of paces with the ball. Otherwise, though, Cork didn’t threaten to break through.

John McGrath and Brian Hayes were the most consistent goal scoring threats for Tipp and Cork last year – both as finishers and creators – and it was significant that both of them were subdued on Sunday.

In Cork’s case, though, goalscoring had been their point of difference for the last two years and this year that hasn’t necessarily been the case. In the league they scored nine goals against the two teams that were relegated – Waterford and Offaly – but failed to score a goal against Tipp and Limerick in the regulation matches.

The only day that they threatened to really cut loose was when they scored three goals against Kilkenny, missed a penalty and created another five goalscoring chances. In the League final against Limerick their only goal was a gift from a defensive cock-up.

Ben O’Connor was asked if he was concerned about this trend and he answered with typically spiky pragmatism. “Not if we can score enough points,” he said. “That’s a sharp answer for you. Once we’re winning on points, I don’t care if we don’t get a goal for the rest of the year, once we can score more points than the opposition.

“Obviously, we’d like to get four or five goals a game but, look, it didn’t happen today, it hasn’t happened the last couple of days, but some day it will.”

Trying to beat Limerick on Sunday with points alone will be tricky. Denis Walsh

Galway’s novel tactical approach adds intrigue

It’s no surprise that the sheer unKilkennyness of Saturday’s 15-point defeat away to Galway is what most people have fixated on. Every team gets a beating here and then but generations of the black and amber empire have been built on never walking into a second ambush without the tools to repel it. It’s going to take a while to overcome – and maybe this season is already a beaten docket.

Slightly lost though has been Galway’s tactical approach to setting up their team. All managers try to create some sort of space in their forward line but very few clear the area like Micheál Donohue’s new-look side. They sometimes leave just two players in the opposition half and frequently drop that to just one, flooding their own half with numbers. It’s very hard to play against, as Kilkenny have twice found out in the past couple of months.

The flipside is that it’s not that easy to play, either. It worked well for Galway on Saturday but there will definitely be times when it breaks down. Leaving one forward up to compete in a 50/50 battle is (and the clue is in the name here) only going to work half the time. It takes a lot of patience and try, try, try again.

“It does,” said Donoghue on Saturday. “And that is the key word, ‘patience’ in it. We’re fortunate that with the forwards we have, we can rotate a good bit and everyone is fairly comfortable inside in it. The lads are working really well with Frannie [Forde] on the pitch. It is maybe gone beyond its infancy, but it is working very well.”

It isn’t just the players who have to be patient. One feature of the system is that Galway often have to play the ball laterally in defence if the first long ball isn’t on, purely to give more players time to get up into the other half. It doesn’t always play well with the ‘Will-ye-feckin’-drive-it’ elements in the stands.

“Totally – and you saw once or twice when we got turned over there was a reaction from the crowd. That’s just the way it is. We know we can improve on it and we have to improve on it and perfect it a little bit more.” Malachy Clerkin

Bennett brilliance gives Waterford a shot

The highest scorer across all games in the Munster and Leinster senior hurling championships on the opening weekend was a player on a losing team – Stephen Bennett. The Ballsaggart man delivered one of the all-time great championship performances with a haul of 3-12 in Waterford’s defeat to Clare at Cusack Park. Of that tally, two goals came from open play, one goal from a penalty and his dozen points all from frees.

The 30-year-old was faultless from placed balls and did not register a single wide from a free all afternoon.

The concern for Waterford is that they looked too reliant on Bennett for scores. He posted 2-5 of their first-half tally of 2-8. They finished the game with just six scorers – including two subs.

However, if Bennett can maintain such scoring form over the coming weeks, it gives Waterford a shot at a top three finish.

“It’s not even the scores, it’s his physical presence, his workrate. He’s an absolute warrior,” said Waterford manager Peter Queally after Sunday’s game.

“And again, I’m probably saying this the last two years, if people knew what he puts his body through and to be able to go out there and put in a performance like he did and work his butt off like he did there today, he’s an incredible player.” Gordon Manning

Cork’s happy hunting ground at Semple Stadium

On Sunday, Cork made the trip to Tipp, favoured to turn around the harrowing verdict of last year’s All-Ireland final after a more encouraging league campaign than the All-Ireland champions. So, it turned out with a 0-29 to 1-22 victory.

There would have been further cause for optimism and that lay in Cork’s extraordinary record against Tipperary since the provincial round-robin structure was introduced. They have now lost just once in that seven-fixture sequence, a home match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 2019.

It has always been asserted that Cork hurlers love playing in Semple Stadium and they have every reason when facing their neighbours. They are unbeaten there in 10 years of championship and during the round-robin era have won three and drawn one of their four matches against Tipperary in Thurles.

This would be explicable if Cork had simply been in a dominant era but the county has not won an All-Ireland in 21 years and has lost three finals since the advent of the round robin in 2018.

Tipperary, though have lifted Liam MacCarthy twice over this period – in 2019 and last year, beating Cork en route in both years.

When neutral venues are taken into account, the picture shifts again. The counties have played two All-Ireland matches in Croke Park, last year and previously (outside the immediate window) in 2014. On both occasions, Cork were Munster champions and were soundly beaten by Tipp in disappointing contests.

Even when the round robin was suspended during Covid in 2020 and 2021, the counties met in Limerick and Tipperary emerged triumphant.

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