Cathal Mannion left to plough lonely furrow for disappointing Galway
Cathal Mannion's scoring share stood at 31% coming into Croke Park. Significant, but not immediately suggesting an over-reliance. Skip ahead to the 59th minute of the Leinster final and Mannion found himself carrying an entire county on his back.
With no Galway score from play across the preceding 37 minutes, his five frees were their sole, insufficient source of nourishment in the interim. Two of those frees he won himself.
His was the sole name on the Galway scoresheet between the 17th and 59th minute. That's 42 minutes of a Leinster final where just one player is finding the target.
Conor Whelan foraged and fashioned assists in the opening half, while there was the rare threatening flash from Kevin Cooney when fed early doors. But, on the whole, Galway from midfield up offered Mannion and nothing else. His 0-11 total was two greater than the 1-6 of the 14 other starters combined. Collective abjectness.
'In terms of the way we wanted to play, we just didn't from the start of the game,' said Micheál Donoghue, stating the blindingly obvious.
'They set up with maybe their six dropping off as a sweeper and we really struggled with that. When we pushed up and figured that out, then we started being a bit more dominant in our own half-back line.
'The reliance on Cathal, he showed how important he is again today to us. I think maybe in the first half, we were lorrying it from too far out and Huw Lawlor was dominant.
'The positives, and we have to take the positives out of it, are when we did get it going and working it through the lines, we were better.'
Hurling for 11 minutes late on is hardly a positive. Within that, the switch of Cathal Mannion to permanent inside station, Gavin Lee to midfield, Seán Linnane to wing-back, and Cianan Fahy to centre-back might - and should - get a second runout in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
A multitude of problems remain. There is no other half-forward ball-winner besides Whelan. Galway didn't win a long puckout until the 19th minute. 22 shots from play in 74 minutes is beyond unacceptable. Galway have not won a championship game at Croke Park since the 2020 Leinster semi-final. Their last nine trips delivered eight defeats and one draw.
'In the build-up, people are saying 'we're back, we're back' and that we have big opportunities. The disappointing thing is when you see what they did do for a 10-12 minute period, that's what we'll try and build on as we move forward,' Donoghue continued.
'The disappointment of today and I suppose the narrative will be that it's probably similar to previous years and previous teams. But look, we know what we have in the squad and we'll try and take the positives out of it as we move forward.'
Tipp are their likely quarter-final opponents, as they were in 2020 and '23. Galway won both.
'Look, huge challenge again. We know it's going to be a big task but we still have full faith and trust in the group that we can bounce back.'
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