Shane Dowling has questioned why Galway persisted with leaving Jason Rabbitte isolated in attack during their All-Ireland SHC final defeat to Limerick.

The tactic worked to great effect in previous games, but John Kiely's side had their homework done on the youngster as they ran out comfortable winners at Croke Park.

"I've probably been the most critical of the Galway set-up over the last couple of weeks, the way they play with just Jason Rabbitte up top," the former Limerick sharpshooter said on The Sunday Game.

"I always thought, when they came up against this, I didn't know where the answers were going to come from. I mean, they had eight points at half-time. They got a penalty with the last puck of game, if that didn't happen was it 14 points they'd have been beaten by?

"I think Micheál Donoghue deserves massive credit for getting Galway to win a Leinster final, for bringing them from where they came from. I'm just not sure that you can play with one man in 60 yards towards the Limerick goal.

"And I have to say, Jason Rabbitte deserves some credit. He still did well, he kept them in the game. But as soon as that was nullified, they went with the running game and just got turned over.

I'd say it's food for thought, maybe to go back and see, 'Is this something we can work with this year?' It worked - somewhat - for Micheál this year, maybe up until the biggest day of all. I'm not sure that that's going to work."

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