Galway hurlers fall into a hole

Tipperary 3-25

Galway 4-13

A tough fortnight for the Galway hurlers couldn’t have ended any worse than it did at Semple Stadium last Saturday evening. From looking the likely winners of an epic contest with less than 20 minutes remaining, they were eventually left washed up by an extraordinary and unexpected Tipperary tidal wave which turned this All-Ireland qualifier on its head.

Nobody saw the home team’s dramatic resurgence – or more precisely, the extent of it – coming from a 4-12 to 1-15 deficit, but in one swoop Tipperary banished all their demons with a brilliant final quarter-surge which saw them go from being in serious trouble to emerging scarcely believable nine-point winners.

Significant leads are no longer sacred on hurling fields – Galway proved that with their late heroics in the drawn Leinster semi-final against Kilkenny – but what Tipperary achieved in Thurles before a crowd of 18, 467 has raised the bar again in terms of how teams can turn matches around. Under serious pressure and trailing by six points after 52 minutes, they just caught fire from there to the finish to leave gallant Galway in a state of shock and trying to rationalise how they finished so far adrift at the finish.

Tired limbs and minds, no doubt, made a significant contribution to Galway’s late collapse – following their two tough battles with Kilkenny in a week, some of the team were clearly out on their feet in the closing stages. They deserved better than losing by nine points as for nearly two thirds of the match, the men in maroon were grappling successfully with a demanding schedule.

Not many had given the Tribesmen a genuine chance of upsetting the odds. Pundits and critics like to pigeon hole Galway in terms of their lack of consistency, being devoid of onfield leadership and mental frailties, but none of those perceived flaws were evident in Thurles for large tracts of an enthralling encounter . . . it’s just that, ultimately, they hadn’t the energy to keep Tipperary at bay.

Battle fatigue leads to mistakes, poor decision making and compromises levels of desire, and all those traits were evident in Galway’s play down the home stretch. With Tipperary’s hurling finally beginning to flow and several of the home team, notably Padraic Maher and Seamus Callanan, finishing in a blaze of glory, Anthony Cunningham’s charges were simply swept away. There can be no argument with losing the closing 20 minutes by 2-10 to 0-1 – a mind-boggling turnaround of 15 points.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.