Galway show mettle in semis thriller

Date Published: 17-Aug-2010

Cork 1-17 Galway 3-11

Eoghan Cormican

in Nowlan Park

SUCH was the ebb and flow nature of this All Ireland senior camogie semi-final that the reaction of the Galway players at the half and full time whistle could not have been more contrasting at Nowlan Park on Saturday.

Prior to the interval Galway had been hit for six consecutive points and as they filtered of the field of play trailing the All Ireland champions, heads firmly rooted towards the ground, it appeared as if Galway’s wait for the O’Duffy Cup would extend into its fifteenth year.

Forty five minutes later the women in the maroon and white exhumed both disgust and disappointment at the game’s end, clearly aggrieved over referee Karl O’Brien’s refusal to award Therese Maher a free three minutes into injury time.

It was to their credit, that they had not only clawed their way back into the contest, but put themselves in a position to claim the spoils with the finishing line just inches from their grasp. Unfortunately, from a Galway prospective, the man in the middle was not prepared to award Galway the free which would have ultimately decided the outcome.

In retrospect, it was a tie neither side deserved to lose.Poor refereeing aside, without a shadow of a doubt this was the camoige game of the year crammed with honesty, passion and no little skill between two sides determined to be in Croke Park on September 12.

Akin to a pulsating novel, this one grabbed and held the attention of the 3,000 or so audience from beginning to end. In fairness, Galway delivered a superb display of courage, commitment and a steely resolve not to yield against an opposition with a reputation for grinding out important results.