Galway power past Dubs to land Leinster title

Galway claimed their first Leinster Senior Hurling Championship title since 2018 with an emphatic 4-29 to 4-15 win over Dublin at Croke Park.

Micheál Donoghue's side were better from start to finish and had 11 different scorers with Tom Monaghan starring with seven points from play, but they had big performances throughout.

While Dublin enjoyed a better second quarter to the game when getting to within one, they just couldn't get anything going consistently in the second period and never really threatened to mount a charge as they were being out-hustled around the middle.

Galway were quicker, sharper and much more intense from the throw-in with Conor Whelan landing the first of his three first-half scores within seconds.

The Tribesmen were enjoying a fine spread of scores early with seven to Dublin's three after 10 minutes as Jason Rabbitte - who played in last week's All-Ireland's U20 final defeat by Clare - proved a menace at full-forward while Aaron Niland was on song from frees.

Dublin were their own worst enemy early and will be disappointed with a goal they conceded after 12 minutes when a slack pass was easily gathered by Whelan around midfield and he set Rory Burke away to set Darragh Neary up for the easiest of finishes.

However, Burke injured himself in the process and his withdrawal seemed to upset the rhythm of the Galway attack as Dublin began to get into the game with Brendan Kenny clipping over a fine score from out on the sideline.

Six was the gap when the Dubs landed three scores in a row though the Burkes, Donal and Conor, before they grabbed a goal of their own as Liam Rushe sent an excellent ball down the right channel and Cathal O Riain was able to turn and break for goal, sending an unstoppable shot to the net.

Galway steadied and outscored Dublin by six points to three in the closing stages to take a 1-15 to 1-11 lead into the break.

The Tribesmen again started better in the second period with Whelan and the excellent Tom Monaghan pointing as Dublin just couldn't get any flow into their game, hitting a succession on aimless high balls into their forwards the Galway defence was dealing with for the most part.

The gap was gradually growing with Cathal Mannion landing a sideline, while Ronan Glennon, Monaghan and Niland continued to find their range.

The gap was out to nine when Dublin were given a 56th-minute lifeline as Conor Whelan was shown a black card for preventing a goalscoring opportunity when taking out Hohn Hetherton and Donal Burke drilled home the penalty, but the Dubs couldn;t build upon this.

Instead, Galway got a penalty of their own in similar circumstances when Conor Cooney was taken out by Andrew Dunphy and Niland drilled home, before Cooney got his goal minutes later.

That was that and while there was a flurry of goals in stoppage time with O'Rian and Whitely netting either side of John Fleming, it was Galway's day who now move straight into an All-Ireland semi-final, while Dublin must now face Clare in the quarters.