Tribesmen only come to life when game done and dusted

Waterford 1-30

Galway 3-20

IN a way, it might have been better if Galway hadn’t tantalisingly teased us about how things could have worked out so differently during their unexpected final quarter resurgence in this spell-binding All-Ireland hurling qualifier at Semple Stadium, Thurles on Sunday.

Nobody wants to see their team beaten out the gate, but if that had been the Tribesmen’s fate – and for three quarters of the game it looked the only outcome – the result would have been more palatable to digest on the basis that the men in maroon just ran into a vastly superior force on the day.

Instead, Galway belatedly showed what they had in their locker in astonishingly reducing a yawning 16-point deficit to just three points by the 70th minute. They had all the momentum as 14-man Waterford were clinging on for dear life.

Nearly seven minutes of injury-time remained on the clock and the 4,400 sundrenched attendance stood on the brink of witnessing the greatest comeback in the history of inter-county hurling.

But typical of the inconsistency which continues to scourge Galway at the top level, their grandstand finish stalled and, significantly, Waterford somehow found the necessary reserves of stamina and character to land four of the last five scores.

On the balance of play, any outcome other than a Waterford victory would have been a travesty. They hurled Galway off the park for 55 minutes with their searing pace and support lines of running leaving their opponents chasing shadows.

A measure of Waterford’s dominance in the opening half, for instance, was that their half-back line of Calum Lyons, Shane Bennett and Kieran Bennett scored more from play than the entire Galway forward sector.

All over the field, Waterford’s hard running saw them carve open their opponents at will. Galway had no answers and not even their most die-hard supporter could argue against the merits of the Deise’s interval lead of a dozen points, 1-18 to 0-9.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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