Galway hurlers bid to improve on surprising poor record against Waterford

By John McIntyre

SOMETIMES, statistics can be hard to get your head around, especially when they turn up surprising results.

Take the hurling rivalry between Galway and Waterford, for instance. There is this assumption that the Tribesmen generally hold the whip hand in these encounters, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The reality is that in 11 championship battles between the counties, Waterford have come up trumps in them all bar that glorious afternoon in September of 2017 when Galway broke that long cycle of defeats in the All-Ireland final.

The previous April at Pearse Stadium, the Tribesmen had ignited their season when defeating the Deise (2-22 to 2-19) in a National League quarter-final after falling ten-points behind early in the second-half.

Two Tom Devine goals in quick succession looked to have left Galway with a hopeless task, but inspired by Joe Canning and substitute Niall Burke, together with late points from Padraic Mannion and Aidan Harte, Waterford were gradually overhauled.

Those two stirring victories in 2017, however, haven’t signalled a Galway dominance over the men from the South East in the interim. In fact, the old order has been restored as Waterford have come out on top in the teams’ two subsequent league meetings.

In March of 2019, it was their turn to overhaul a second-half deficit in a league semi-final at Nowlan Park. Galway had most of the hard work done when leading by 0-17 to 1-11 after 50 minutes, especially as their opponents would lose Mikey Kearney to a red card soon afterwards.

But it didn’t pan out that way as Waterford rallied for a 1-18 to 0-19 victory, with the sight of Joe Canning belong stretched off with a leg injury late on only adding to the Westerners’ gloom.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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