Gallant Galway just fall short against Tipperary

Tipperary 2-19

Galway 2-18

THIS was cruel. An undeserved fate for a Galway hurling team which was heroic in adversity in trying to repeat last year’s All-Ireland semi-final triumph over Tipperary. They fell agonisingly short in the end, but unlike other big-day defeats there are no grounds for recriminations this time.

The Galway players emptied the energy tanks and brought a savage work ethic to the battleground at Croke Park last Sunday. They also had a marked superiority in the physical exchanges and forced much of the pace in another gripping encounter which didn’t quite reach the heights of the teams’ 2015 spectacular.

None of that will be much consolation to the Galway camp this week, as the squad and management struggle to come to terms with a gut-wrenching defeat which didn’t look likely for much of the game until two Tipperary goals in less than three minutes turned the semi-final on its head.

Even though the timing of those twin blows from substitute John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer and John McGrath would have ripped the heart out of most teams, Galway never wilted, bravely replied with two points and were on the hunt for an equaliser when referee Barry Kelly blew the final whistle.

But we will never know what would have happened in the second half if Galway hadn’t been dealt two injury hammer blows just before the break. Joe Canning, who had opened the scoring with a trademark point, and Adrian Tuohy were both forced to retire with hamstring and shoulder injuries respectively.

Losing Tuohy, who had been an integral part of a magnificent defensive effort, was bad enough but to see Canning limping off was an incalculable setback, together with the resulting disruption it caused. Yet Galway never sought refuge in their misfortune and displayed admirable resolve to the finish.

Two experienced players, Andy Smith and Cyril Donnellan, were introduced for the second-half with the big positional switch seeing Johnny Coen being reunited with his corner back role. This was a serious level of upheaval, but you wouldn’t have thought it the manner in which Galway kept their focus and continued to seriously unsettle the Munster champions.

In the build up to the semi-final, all we were hearing from Tipperary was their failure to deliver as a team in last year’s encounter and their desire to set the record straight. That motivation should have resulted in a highly-charged display, but they had unnecessarily put themselves under pressure and almost paid the price for it.

In fact, it was Galway who appeared the hungrier and more fired up. Building on their quarter-final win over Clare, they seized the initiative almost from the start with a cracking goal from the impressive Conor Cooney in the seventh minute throwing down the gauntlet to Tipperary.

Though the pre-match favourites responded with their best period of the match, outscoring Galway by seven points to one to take a 0-9 to 1-3 lead after 15 minutes, Tipperary just as quickly lost their rhythm and were in real trouble as the Tribesmen raised six white flags without reply.

Full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune.