BLUES CRUISE FOR TRIBE

Galway ease their way to glory despite late Dubs surge

- BY KARL O'KANE

MICHEÁL DONOGHUE'S return to a packed Parnell Park yesterday ended up with echoes of 2017 as Galway eased through to a Leinster Final meeting against Kilkenny in a fortnight.

This current Galway side are well off Donoghue's All-Ireland winning outfit, but just as the Tribe did eight years ago, they picked off long range points galore to win here and rarely threatened a goal.

In 2017, Galway pointed their way to a first Liam MacCarthy Cup in 29 years.

Donoghue later moved on and took up a new post in Dublin for two years, which ended last August, before he returned to his native Galway a few weeks later.

Whatever knowledge Donoghue accumulated of the Dublin players and how to set-up at Parnell Park paid off here. Galway hit 29 points, with 21 of them coming from play via 10 different scores.

They destroyed Dublin in the second half as the capital side struggled to win their own puck out into a strong breeze and against Galway's larger quota of big, physically strong players.

Conor Whelan led the charge at the start of the second half from wing-forward, winning a series of puckouts and scoring three points - and it was only two late Dublin goals that put a gloss on the scoreline.