Ballyboden’s Ross McGarry takes on the Galway defence in Pearse Stadium Photos by Mark McDonagh
‘We just have to put our heads down and get back to work’
THE Dublin Footballers saw themselves relegated to Division 2 for 2027 after a defeat to Galway in Pearse Stadium last Sunday with the final score reading 0-20 to 1-15.
There were several local players in the squad with Ballyboden St Enda’s trio Hugh O Sullivan, Ross McGarry and Alex Gavin starting while Niall Scully of Templeogue Synge Street also made the starting XV.
Dublin would actually put in an extremely solid performance in the first half with a massive save from O’Sullivan preventing a Rob Finnerty penalty from being converted at the stroke of half time.
It appeared to trigger Dublin tempers however with a scuffle breaking out at halftime and manager Ger Brennan receiving a red card for his involvement.
Despite going into the break up by 0-12 to 0-07, but it appeared that they had been rattled going into the break and both teams would have a player temporarily dismissed with black cards for the scuffle upon the resumption of the second half, Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne being the Dublin man involved.
From this point onwards old issues came back to haunt the Dubs as the team began to kick over a series of wides, Galway on the other hand found a burst of momentum with Finnerty and Oisin Mac Donnacha both kicking frees and Paul Conroy managing a two pointer to bring the deficit to just two points by the 46th minute.
Things would get worse again for Dublin as O’Cofaigh Byrne would receive a second booking at the start of the final quarter which left them a man down for the remainder of the game.
They appeared to respond positively to this with Killian McGinnis managing to score the only goal on the day shortly after but the numerical advantage of Galway would be very apparent in the closing minutes.
Rob Finnerty, Liam O Conghaile and Cian Hernon and kicked over scores with Hernon eventually leveling the sides in the 66th minute.
From there Galway would go on to win the game rather handily. Dublin kept the ball for the last 90 seconds or so of the match, refusing to take a shot and waiting until the last 20 seconds or so to attempt an ambitious two pointer which ended up going wide, not close to the target.
With no time left on the clock the referee blew the whistle, confirming Galway’s survival and Dublin’s relegation to Division 2.
Ger Brennan spoke about the team’s league campaign this year.
“In terms of the league as a whole I think there’s an awful lot of green shoots there.
‘Between some of the personnel that we’ve managed to unearth and some of the guys from last year have gotten more game time this season.
‘You can see their development and that’s a huge positive. From Round 1 to Round 7 there’s a lot of positives but ultimately if you only win two games you’re playing with fire and we are down to Division 2.”
Brennan was also asked whether he felt the league campaign adequately prepared the squad for championship in four weeks time.
“Certainly so, we’ve done that. We just have to put our heads down and get back to work and try to improve.
‘The last three performances saw some wonderful positives in terms of how we played and just getting that bit of concentration, to extend it over 70 minutes to ensure that we are there or thereabouts when the final whistle goes.”
