Were it not for Gizzy Lyng’s mishit last-gasp free, last weekend’s Leinster hurling semi-finals would have been an exact replica of 2007’s, with Dublin’s brave effort again coming up short and Offaly being blown away by Kilkenny after putting in a decent first half showing.

The Faithful County certainly fought like demons and defended well for 35 minutes in Port Laoise, but as often happens in situations like this, there was no foresight or direction in the plentiful supply of ball they put into the forwards which was gratefully mopped up by the Kilkenny defenders. Brian Carroll missing a couple of frees when they desperately needed scores and Brendan Murphy’s no-show didn’t help, and the Cats’ goal just before half time was the killer blow. Still, Offaly did play some good hurling, they have a lot of new faces, and Diarmuid Horan and Michael Verney in particular looked like good prospects.

It is likely that a draw was the best possible result for whichever team emerges from the other side of the draw, as both Dublin and Wexford clearly need another game to get their hurling up to speed. It is hard to know to what extent Dublin’s first-half dominance was due to Wexford’s awfulness but they did show the effects of some good coaching, with their strong challenging for balls in the air, good support play, and a lot of well-directed ball into the forwards. However, you cannot coach craft and experience, and when Wexford began to exert serious pressure in the second half, the Dubs lost their composure big-time.

Much has already been made of Dublin’s 19 wides, but in addition to that they had three shots blocked, four dropped into the Wexford goalie and one hit the post. Including scores, Dublin essayed 45 shots in all at the Wexford goal during the course of the game. Of the 18 shots that went wide (one wide was not a shot), 13 could be classed as bad wides. These include the two terrible goal misses by John Kelly (little coaching in evidence there) and Jamie Burke. In fact, Damien Fitzhenry did not get one shot to save in the whole game. Wexford did not have as many wide shots as Dublin (13), but their ratio of bad wides was even higher, with eleven in this category.

Appropriately for a drawn game, the total number of plays (apart from frees, sidelines and puckouts) was almost the same for both sides, with Dublin shading it at 175-173. Predictably, Dublin dominated the first half 84-71 while the situation was reversed in the second period 102-91. However, total plays (which include hooks, blocks, short passes and pucks without pressure) only tell part of the story. In the first half, there were 40 good or excellent plays by Dublin and only 19 by Wexford. In the second half, Dublin had almost the same number of good/excellent plays (39) whereas Wexford more than doubled theirs, to 47.

The biggest second-half improvement for Wexford came from David Redmond, who played the ball just once in the first half and twelve times after the change of ends, when he went on a roving mission around the middle of the field. Overall, Wexford’s busiest player was, not surprisingly, Mick Jacob with 18, followed by Darren Stamp and Eoin Quigley with 15 each. Strangely, most of Quigley’s plays came in the first half, but he still got the score of the match with his late equaliser, a wonderful example of a player taking responsibility on his shoulders. Wexford’s next busiest players were David Redmond with 13 and Gizzy Lyng and Stephen Banville with 12 each. Banville might not look like much of a hurler, but he still caused Dublin – and Stephen Hiney in particular – a lot of discomfort last Saturday.

By far the busiest hurler on the field, and man of the match in this writer’s view, was Dublin’s Simon Lambert who played the ball no less than 25 times during his 60 minutes on the field. Most of these were straighforward enough plays, but he was constantly on the ball and moving it along to good effect. One wonders why he was called ashore, as he did not appear to ship any injury. Perhaps the mentors were trying to protect such a raw young player, but his withdrawal certainly did not help the Dublin cause. Indeed, a number of other decisions on the Dublin sideline seemed strange. The substitution of John Kelly was definitely a mistake. His shooting might have been terrible, but his strength and size were a constant thorn in the side of the Wexford defence, and they were much more comfortable after he went off. One wonders also why Jamie Burke was left on the field until almost the very end, as his impact on the game was minimal, with just five plays in total.

Dublin’s second busiest player was Ronan Fallon with 17 plays, most of which were of good quality. Fallon is clearly still finding his way back after his long lay-off, and experienced a lot of problems against Eoin Quigley, but this extra game will undoubtedly do him a power of good. Just behind him in terms of plays was the excellent Tomás Brady with 16, followed by John McCaffrey (14), Joey Boland (13), Dotsy O’Callaghan (12) and Ross O’Carroll (11). This was the best game An Moltóir has seen O’Carroll play in a Dublin shirt. Big, strong and lively, he could have a good future on this showing.

It will be interesting to see how Dublin react to playing at headquarters next Sunday, when quite likely they will be greatly outnumbered by Wexford in terms of support. They are in a classic Catch 22 situation. They need experience and craft in order to win games, but you need to win games to get experience and craft. They have about ten good players, but they really need to find a few more if they are to make the top grade. How they miss Conal Keaney at this crucial phase of their development! One other area they need to improve on next Sunday is their ability to win their own puckouts. Last Saturday, Wexford won 60% of their own puckouts (many of them well-directed efforts by Damien Fitzhenry) while Dublin only won 43% of theirs. In a tight game, such differences can ultimately prove crucial.