Croke Park is far worse hunting ground for Galway than Thurles

Inside Track with John McIntyre

GALWAY hurling supporters have an understandable complex about Semple Stadium, but we hear little or nothing about Croke Park in the same context. The bottom line is that the Tribesmen have fallen short in far more big matches at GAA headquarters than they ever did in Thurles.

Look at the number of All-Ireland finals that Galway have lost in modern times alone – they have been defeated in ten since 1980 – but, more pertinent, is their poor record at Croke Park in the wake of the county’s championship triumph over Waterford in 2017. Apart from beating Wexford in the 2020 Leinster semi-final, Galway haven’t won another game there.

They drew with both Kilkenny and Clare in 2018, before winning the replays in Thurles; lost the subsequent All-Ireland final to Limerick; were beaten by the Cats in the 2020 Leinster final; fell to Limerick a few weeks later in the All-Ireland semi-final; stumbled to Dublin in last year’s Leinster semi-final and have now lost both of their matches – against Kilkenny and Limerick – at Croker in 2022.

It’s only food for thought after Galway’s latest defeat – gallant though it was – at the venue on Sunday. One way or the other, they will have loads of regrets over losing a semi-final that Henry Shefflin’s team were given little chance of winning. The challengers fought heroically to the bitter end but were undone by a poor conversion rate.

Most of the rest, Galway had got right. They left everything out on the field; tied up some of Limerick’s big hitters; and produced some sparkling hurling of their own; but the wides – 19 in total – ultimately crucified them. True, Limerick had their own woes in front of the posts, but their timing didn’t seem to be as bad.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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