Galway find rhythm in second half

Women's senior football final/Galway 3-9 Dublin 0-11: In direct contrast to last year's showpiece, yesterday's senior football final was as good an advertisement the women's game could have hoped for. Direct, free-flowing football was on the menu and in the end Dublin's slack marking was ruthlessly exposed.

The achievement of PJ Fahy's side is even more remarkable considering they were only crowned junior All-Ireland champions in 2002. Since then they have surpassed Mayo, beating them three times this year, as the leading team in Connacht, and now the whole country.

This morning Dublin must deal with defeat at the final hurdle for the second successive season.

"We played well. I can't ask for much more from the girls," said manager John O'Leary "They went at the game, they chased it. Galway got a couple of breaks, got the goal. You know, we hit the post, they hit the crossbar, we hit the crossbar. That's just football.

"They made the jersey proud and that's all I ever ask of them. This year's defeat is maybe a little bit easier to take because we lost playing football against a team that were just better on the day but sport is cruel and you just have to get up and walk again."

Whether O'Leary will walk with them for another championship season is unclear. Either way, he must switch his focus to International Rules as one of Pete McGrath's selectors.

Fahy was euphoric to have led Galway to the highest accolade with an attractive brand of football. But, most tellingly, they never panicked when the contest and occasion looked set to pass them by.

"We had this thing all year where we never lose our composure and we didn't," explained Fahy. "We always stayed in control. They are a special bunch of girls and my only regret is that I couldn't bring on 15 subs.

"Once we got going and got into a rhythm there was very good movement and that has all come from the training pitch. A lot of work was done by Richard Bowles and Mick O'Connell."

The manner in which they demolished Dublin down the closing stretch ensured there could be little doubt about who are the leading team in the land.

A disappointing attendance of 20,706, although subsequent reports suggested there were as many as 27,000, watched Galway take advantage of the acres of space behind the Dublin full-back line by scoring 2-7 in the second half.

Dublin dominated the opening half hour but only led by two points at the turn, mainly as a result of Niamh Duggan's calmly-taken goal on 26 minutes, which surprisingly was her only score of the day. It cancelled out the opposition's lightning start that saw them lead 0-7 to 0-1.

Dublin's Angie McNally clipped over two decent scores, while Mary Nevin was accurate from dead balls but it was the chances that went abegging that will be remembered, in particular Bernie Finlay hitting the post and Ashling McCormack's shot against the crossbar when two goals may have killed off the Galway challenge.

Still, Dublin continued to penetrate through the soft-centred middle - the early loss of centreback Aine Gilmore was a blow for Galway - early in the second half with Fiona Corcoran on the mark. However, Niamh Fahy's switch to defence shored things up.

The smart money was still on the classier-looking Dublin outfit, until Galway captain Annette Clarke's goal levelled matters on 35 minutes. Three minutes later inspirational substitute Gillian Joyce put them in front for the first time.

To their credit, Dublin responded via Nevin and McNally but the tide had turned. Lisa Cohill and Joyce pointed again before another replacement, Edel Concannon, punished some slack marking to claim goal number three. Game over.

Thereafter it was a cakewalk as Clarke staked a strong claim for player-of-the-match with another point to bring her contribution up to 1-3. Her main rival for the award, Joyce, had the last say with a free on the buzzer as Galway became the 10th county to win an All-Ireland title.

The contest was played at a fierce intensity which significantly Galway were able to keep up for longer periods.

For Fahy, a greyhound enthusiast who has no experience as a manager in the men's game, his decision making under pressure must be admired.

"Impact substitutions are very important. I'm not saying we didn't start with our best 15 but it's very important to finish with a strong 15," was his simple philosophy.

The proof is in the result as Galway rightly claimed the Brendan Martin Cup and in turn sent Dublin cruelly back to the drawing board for yet another year.

GALWAY: U Carroll; M O'Connell, R Stephens, A McDonagh; A Daly, A Gilmore, E Flaherty; A Clarke (capt, 1-3, one free), P Gleeson; L Cohill (0-2), N Fahy, N Duggan (1-0); G Conneally, L Joyce, M Delaney (0-1). Subs: E Concannon (1-0) for A Gilmore (23 mins), G Joyce (0-3, one free) for M Delaney (half-time), M Burke for M O'Connell (53 mins), F Wynne for G Conneally (58 mins), E O'Malley for P Gleeson.

DUBLIN: C O'Connor; S Farrelly, N Comyn, M Kavanagh; N McEvoy, L Keegan, G Fay; M Farrell (capt), F Corcoran (0-1); E Kelly, B Finlay (0-1), L Davey (0-1); A McCormack (0-1), A McNally (0-3), M Nevin (0-3, three frees). Subs: L Kelly for M Kavanagh (43 mins), S Ahern for E Kelly (47 mins), S McGrath for S Farrelly (49 mins), K Hopkins (0-1) for L Davey (54 mins), O Colreavy for M Farrell (58 mins).

Referee: Eugene O'Hare (Down).