Under-21 Hurling All-Ireland Final/Galway 5-11 Dublin 0-12:Well if you're going to rain on somebody's parade, you might as well do it in style and yesterday, for the opening 15 minutes of this under-21 hurling final, Galway inflicted a deluge on Dublin.
It was hard to watch in one sense, but instructive in another. Galway were stunning when they needed to be and impressive the rest of the time.
Three goals between the eighth and the 13th minutes should have ended the game as a contest. Dublin rallied, though, when Galway paused for breath and stitched a few points into the business of reducing the margin.
However, a Galway goal late in the half from the excellent Kerril Wade put an end to any skyblue daydreams about resurrection and glory.
Galway's long tradition of minor level success is finally bearing success higher up the food chain. Two under-21 titles in three years isn't unprecedented, but the quality of yesterday's performance and the unflustered manner in which minor success was built upon must augur well for Galway.
Most of the advance billing went to Joe Canning, whose prowess was denied to Ger Loughnane this year - thus whetting the public appetite for further viewings of the wunderkind.
Galway, knowing that Dublin were as likely to be dazzled and distracted as the rest of the populace, used Canning mainly as an exotic decoy and let his companeros Conor Kavanagh and Wade do most of the damage.
That damage was shipped early and often as Galway toyed and pawed with the Dublin full- back line. Wade and Canning had given Galway an early lead with two fine points wrapped either side of an Alan McCrabbe free and then the roof fell in.
Galway were pressuring Dublin down the right wing, where they would find plenty of reason to continue pressing as the game went on. A crossed ball squirted out of the square to Kavanagh, who finished coolly and quickly to the Dublin net.
Dublin were still reeling when they got hit with more debris. A long ball floated in behind a panicky full-back line and Seán Glynn pulled a judicious groundstroke to the back of the net.
There was still a sliver of hope for Dublin and when Diarmuid Connolly scored a fine point from out under the Hogan Stand there was a chance that his colleagues might rise again to their Leinster final form.
Wade and Finian Coone replied with sharp scores though and then the Dublin defence failed to clear a ball which lingered in their left corner and Kavanagh suddenly emerged from the thicket and punished those who hesitated.
Canning added another point seconds later. Just under 13 minutes gone and Galway led 3-5 to 0-2 and looked superb all around the field.
Oddly, Dublin scored the next five points of the game, most of their defiance coming once again from McCrabbe, who did well in midfield and carried the game to Galway when he could.
He stuck over two points from frees and another from play before John McCaffrey benefited from more of McCrabbe's work to take another point.
The fifth in the sequence was hit by Peadar Carton, whose number came up on the GAA's discipline lottery on Saturday, permitting him to play yesterday.
The week of legalistic toing and froing can't have served him well, however. He was subdued yesterday and must have wished somewhere in his heart that all and sundry had taken his original two-month suspension on the chin.
As Dublin began to dream, Galway reawoke and a mischievous lobbed handpass from Glynn hung momentarily above the Dublin defence before Wade rose to pull on it to the net.
Galway's fourth goal was the final score of the first half and was a chilling way to dispatch the young Dubs to their tea and oranges.
Dublin battled gamely after the break, but Galway were too strong, too alert and too physical at the back and even Dublin's pressure merely served to showcase the excellence of Gerard Mahon and John Lee in the spine of the Galway defence.
Lee at one stage indulged himself with a 60-yard solo run up the middle of the field - a spectacle as demoralising for Dublin as any of the Galway goals.
As a contest it ended early and the highlight of the final minutes was the hunger of Galway sub Noel Kelly, who was introduced in the 59th minute for Kavanagh, but still managed to lace a goal and a point into a Dublin full-back line which must have been hoping Kavanagh's departure would bring some moments of reprieve.
A long hard day for Dublin hurling, but one which capped an encouraging year.
A fine day for Galway at the end of an otherwise dispiriting summer.
GALWAY: J Skehill; A Leech, G Mahon, C O'Donovan; M Ryan, J Lee, A Keary; K Kilkenny (0-1), D Kennedy; S Glynn (1-0), K Hynes, F Coone (0-2); C Kavanagh (2-0), J Canning (0-3, one sideline), K Wade (1-4, two frees). Subs: B Hanley for Glynn (30 mins); A Harte for Kennedy (56); J Greene for Coone (58); N Kelly (1-1) for Kavanagh (59); P Loughnane for Leech (60).
DUBLIN: P Curtin; R Drumgoole, P Callaghan, D Webster; K Dunne, T Brady, J Boland; A McCrabbe (0-9 seven frees) , J McCaffrey (0-1); E Moran, D Connolly (0-1), S Durkin; P Carton (0-1), D O'Dwyer, R O'Carroll. Subs: M McGarry for Webster (17 mins); I Fleming for O'Carroll, S Lehane for Connolly (both 48).
Referee: J Ryan ( Tipperary).
