Dublin aren’t the force of old but Galway must still be in the zone

Until last year, it had been a noose hanging around the neck of Galway footballers. Not since the All-Ireland semi-final of 1934 had the Tribesmen defeated Dublin in championship football. Seven clashes in between had resulted in seven defeats for the Connacht title holders.

But that poor sequence of results for Galway came to a glorious end in 2024. In a hard-fought All-Ireland quarter-final, the men in maroon held their nerve in a tight finish to carry the day on a 0-17 to 0-16 scoreline, with substitute Tomo Culhane landing the matchwinner.

Up to half-time, it appeared the Dubs were set to continue their dominance of this fixture, leading by 0-11 to 0-7. But Galway were not found wanting on the resumption with Player of the match Cillian McDaid and Shane Walsh ending up with ten points between them.

Unfortunately, that long-awaited triumph disappointingly didn’t lead to Galway delivering an All-Ireland title and having also lost the final against Kerry two years earlier, nobody could really be sure how Padraic Joyce’s team would bounce back from that agonising loss to Armagh.

Well, so far, so good. Galway captured a fourth Connacht title on the trot for the first time since 1967 despite the continuing injury woes afflicting both Walsh and Shane Comer, neither of whom are likely to be involved when Dublin roll into Salthill Saturday for the first round of the qualifiers.

Over 66,000 gathered in Croke Park last Sunday for Louth’s tumultuous win over Meath in the Leinster Final, but if the Dubs were still ruling the province, barely 25,000 would have been present. Having lost their first championship game in the province since 2010 when falling to Meath in the semi-final, Leinster football has come alive.

In retrospect, that 0-23 to 1-16 loss to the Royals was hardly the huge upset some commentators would have us believe. Since that defeat to Galway last year, five Dublin legends have retired – James McCarthy, Michael Fitzsimons, Cathal Mannion, Brian Fenton and Johnny McCaffrey – while they also had injury troubles which sidelined the likes of Eoin Murchan and Lee Gannon.

Pictured: Injured Galway players Damien Comer, and Shane Walsh are bystanders at the recent Connacht Football Final. Will their roles be any different against Dublin at Pearse Stadium on Saturday?