Galway minors edge marathon semi-final

Galway 0-23 Limerick 0-20 (after extra time)

RIVAL players were out on their feet; dropping like flies through sheer exhaustion; but it was the minor hurlers of Galway who found that little bit extra to pull a marathon All-Ireland semi-final out of the fire against gallant Munster champions Limerick at Croke Park on Sunday.

On a day when the much-touted Hawk Eye system of vetting scores malfunctioned – and to Limerick’s disadvantage – Mattie Murphy’s young charges showed great courage and resilience to book an All-Ireland final date with Waterford after displaying the greater staying power.

In the first goalless minor semi-final since 2005, Galway and Limerick still served up a battle royale with the teams level a staggering 15 times over the course of the 80 minutes and nothing separating them until the young Tribesmen significantly reeled off the last four points of the match in extra time.

The result keeps Galway’s remarkable manager Mattie Murphy on course for a unprecedented seventh triumph – he will hardly mind breaking his own record! – at this level as his young charges showed a major improvement on their sluggish quarter-final performance against Laois.

But the big talking point of Sunday’s high quality affair was Hawk Eye. The semi-final was barely a minute old when Limerick centre forward Barry Nash fired over a point, but after some hesitation referee Fergal Horgan sought the confirmation of the new GAA technology in relation to the score. The graphic on the big screen at Croke Park clearly showed a point, but then bafflingly ruled that Nash’s effort was a ‘miss’.

The fact that Hawk Eye was stood down for the subsequent All-Ireland senior semi-final only added to the controversy, leaving the Limerick minors feeling rightly aggrieved in a match where the margins were so tight and the outcome was in doubt until the closing minutes of extra time. Against that background, it comes as no surprise that the Shannonsiders are now appealing for a refixture.

Granted, Limerick’s final free in injury time which was expertly converted by impressive centre back Ronan Lynch to force a draw was highly questionable, but had Nash’s early point stood who knows what impact it would have had on the subsequent action. It marred an otherwise compelling encounter. Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.