DUBLIN 2-25 GALWAY 2-13

The famine is over! Dublin are the Leinster senior hurling champions for the first time since 1961 following their stunning provincial final victory over Galway in Croke Park on Sunday.
Colleges victories, memorable wins in the Walsh Cup, minor and U21 successes, National League glories and the occasional big scalp in the SHC all came to a crescendo with Dublin’s emphatic defeat of the Tiribesmen on Sunday.
Paul Ryan was the scorer-in-chief for Anthony Daly’s men finishing with a personal tally of 2-7 (2-4 from play) as his clinical edge helped separate the sides.
But all over the park there were heroes for the boys in blue with the likes of Gary Maguire, Peter Kelly, Michael Carton, Liam Rushe, Conal Keaney and David O’Callaghan maintaining their rich vein of form.
However, it was not just them as Dublin rose to every challenge as it presented itself as Galway looked to their perennial superhero Joe Canning to perform a Houdini Act.
By the interval Dublin led 1-12 to 0-7 after some really enterprising and confident hurling.
The goal arrived in the 25th minute when Paul Ryan highlighted his clinical edge when driving for goal when a point was by far the handier option.
It was typical of the day for the Ballyboden St Enda’s man who exhibited a midas touch all afternoon particularly his second half goal which illustrated great cunning close to goal.
Galway restarted the second half with points from Canning (two) but vitally, as they did all day, Dublin responded, showing great mettle.
Ryan put over a point from play and a free before he drove home Dublin’s second goal.
Galway rallied for a period in the second half but Dublin were focussed on delivering the first Leinster SHC and the Bob O’Keeffe trophy for the county for the first time since 1961 as Dublin’s subs, not for the first time, made a match-winning impact off the bench.
On several occasions in the second half Dublin goalkeeper Maguire showed great reflexes to keep any potential Galway revival at bay while at the other end the Dubs concluded with flair to topple Galway to and now defeat both of last year’s All-Ireland SHC finalists as they prepare for an All-Ireland semi in five weeks’ time.

SCORERS – Dublin: P Ryan 2-7 (0-4f), D O’Callaghan 0-4, R O’Dwyer 0-3, J McCaffrey, J Boland, C Keaney, C McCormack 0-2 each, M Carton, D Sutcliffe, S Lambert 0-1 each. Galway: J Canning 1-7 (0-4f), D Burke 1-0, C Cooney 0-2, I Tannian, J Regan, A Harte, J Glynn 0-1 each.
DUBLIN: G Maguire; N Corcoran, P Schutte, P Kelly; S Hiney, L Rushe, M Carton; J McCaffrey, J Boland; C Keaney, R O’Dwyer, D Sutcliffe; D Treacy, P Ryan, D O’Callaghan. Subs: C McCormack for Treacy (53), O Gough for P Schutte (inj 55), S Durkin for McCaffrey (57), M Schutte for O’Callaghan (60), S Lambert for O’Dwyer (67).
GALWAY: J Skehill; F Moore, K Hynes, J Cooney; J Coen, S Kavanagh, D Collins; I Tannian, J Regan; D Burke, C Cooney, C Donnellan; J Canning, D Glennon, N Burke. Subs: A Smith for Regan (22), A Harte for Tannian (ht), D Hayes for Donnellan (ht), J Glynn for Glennon (45), A Callanan for J Cooney (63).
REF: J Ryan (Tipperary).
ATT: 36,657