Louth undone by Canning hat-trick as season ends with defeat
Nicky Rackard Cup Louth 0-20 Roscommon 4-17 (Full report)
Louth's ambitions of finishing the season on a high with a win at home to Roscommon, were blown out of the water on Saturday at Downdallshill, during a 10 minute second-half spell when the visitors hit an unanswered 2-4 to turn a five-point deficit into a five-point lead. There was no way back for Louth after that.
Three second half goals, two from Sean Canning, cemented Roscommon's win and, coupled with Armagh's defeat of Sligo, booked the Rossies place in the Nicky Rackard Cup final where they will face Mayo.
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The 42
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Photograph: Leah Scholes/INPHO Donegal were 10 points up when Murphy came off against Cavan on Sunday and seven clear when he come off against Down in the Ulster semi-final. But he was on the pitch for every minute of the Tyrone match and stayed on well into extra-time against Armagh. Watch how long he's on the pitch against Mayo – that will tell you how long McGuinness needs him to be orchestrating things. Dublin are short on those players now. This happens in all sport when a great team falls away. The first to go are the most experienced guys, yet you're usually okay for a season or two when that happens because the fellahs that fill in were champing at the bit for years to get their chance. But the problem is that the wave that comes behind that isn't as good. Also, because so many people have moved on, there's a different culture now. Standards slip, no matter how hard everyone tries. When you watched Dublin's shooting the other day, that's what jumped out most of all. They had 18 wides, they dropped a few short and hit the post as well. What struck me about it was that they were making two mistakes that you never associate with Dublin teams. The first was they weren't steadying themselves to take their kick. Not everyone is a Bernard Brogan or a Diarmuid Connolly who could just stroke over a lovely score on the run without thinking about it. But go back to when Dublin were in their pomp and watch the likes of Paddy Andrews, Dean Rock and these lads – they always took a split-second to get their technique right and to make sure they were balanced when they were kicking. Some of those wides on Sunday from Dublin were from shots that were rushed or shots that didn't have enough care taken over them. Dublin's Cormac Costello reacts to a missed chance in Sunday's game against Armagh. Photograph: James Crombie/INPHO These are good players kicking – the likes of Seán Bugler, Cormac Costello, Colm Basquel. But if they're not making sure of straightforward chances like the ones they missed, it tells you they probably aren't under huge pressure to keep their place in the team. The other mistake they were making was rushing to try to kick two-pointers. In fairness, the Dubs aren't the only team suffering from the two-point trap. Time and again, you see teams going for shots that probably aren't there because they've fooled themselves into thinking that's the only way back into the game now. So many teams and players are rushing this stuff. Who is going to stop them? Not Dessie Farrell or Pádraic Joyce going mad 60 yards away on the sideline, that's for sure. It needs to be someone on the pitch, someone with a clear sense of where they are on the pitch, what sort of time is left on the clock, who is flagging on the opposition side and who is the best choice for the shot on your own side. That game sense has to come from the players who are deep in the middle of it all. It's like the scene in Skyfall when James Bond is meeting the new Q in an art gallery. 'Every now and then the trigger has to be pulled,' Q says. 'Or not pulled,' Bond replies. When it came right down to it on Sunday, Dublin weren't that far off Armagh in general play. But the All-Ireland champions had Grugan making them tick, whereas Dublin were without Con O'Callaghan's leadership and his feel for how to manage a game. And it showed.
