Galway 1-20 Tipperary 1-18
Henry Shefflin called for “pure grit” from his Galway players and he certainly got that much at least.
There was nothing too polished about this All-Ireland quarter-final but Shefflin was determined that the game wouldn’t be played on Tipperary’s terms, though Liam Cahill’s side played their part in that respect too as they were well short of the team we saw in the early stages of the Munster Championship.
Having led by 0-10 to 0-7 at half-time after Conor Whelan had blown three goal chances, Galway doubled their advantage seconds into the second half as Whelan finally put one away and then pulled eight clear by the 51st minute, a lead that certainly didn’t flatter them at that stage.
“Were we eight?” wondered Shefflin afterwards. “I wasn’t aware of that actually. I knew we went the minutes without scoring. Yeah, it was probably different to what we normally do.
“But we probably wanted the game to be a bit tight and tense. We were in Tullamore last weekend and Tipp just blitzed Offaly.
“And we knew they’d be coming out and they’d be saying, ‘They’re probably hurting a little bit from the Leinster final, they’re wondering, let’s go at them’.
“And that’s why we wanted it to turn into a bit of a grit and a battle and to be fair the lads used the ball very well and obviously the lads inside looked very threatening.
“I felt at one stage we were going to push on and to be fair to Tipp and Liam Cahill and his management team and what they’ve done, they’ve been a serious hurling team this year and they responded like you would expect.”
It was certainly the most important win of Shefflin’s brief inter-county managerial career as questions would have been asked as to the direction this project was taking had they bowed out here on the back of blowing the Leinster final in dramatic fashion against Kilkenny two weeks earlier.
“It took a couple of days for lads to get over it,” Shefflin explained. “They were a little bit quiet but by the Thursday night and Friday night, we trained again on Sunday. By the Sunday, it was well flushed out of the system.
“We knew whatever was going to happen today, we were going to give a good performance and I think we did that. And we could have obviously hurled a bit better. But just for pure grit, determination, I think it was very, very strong.”
In front of 34,180 at the TUS Gaelic Grounds, there was little to recommend this game for long periods, particularly in the first half, with the sides tied at 0-6 each by the 24th minute.
Galway looked the better side though and started to make it count on the scoreboard as they hit four without reply at that stage, albeit in a period in which they missed those three goal chances.
Whelan finally put that right on the restart and then built a healthy lead but a scoring lull allowed Tipp to reel them in and when sub John McGrath whipped the ball to the net after Jake Morris’s delivery bobbled around the penalty area in the 63rd minute, the momentum appeared to be going in only one direction with the deficit back to a minimum.
But Galway wrestled it back and drew another fine save from Rhys Shelly through Cianan Fahy, while sub Tom Monaghan chipped in with 0-3 as they saw it out with reasonable comfort in the end.
Albeit a two-point margin that flattered Tipperary, it maintained the closeness of this rivalry, with 11 of their last 12 Championship meetings from 1993 on decided by three points or less, a 2014 qualifier tie being the exception.
For just the second time ever, the All-Ireland hurling semi-final line-up matches that of the year before and having come the longer route, Galway must go through Limerick, who had to draw on all of their reserves to beat them by three points last year.
“Whoever won tonight was going to be massive underdogs heading into that,” Shefflin admitted. “Limerick are just a phenomenal team for a long period of time now.
“For this evening, we're happy enough that we get there. We get the chance. We'll just have to see if we can make some improvements, get some confidence from tonight and improve things a little bit and go at the challenge because it is a massive challenge.
“At least we're there.”
GALWAY: Eanna MURPHY 7; Darren MORRISSEY 8, Gearoid McINERNEY 7, Jack GREALISH 7; Cathal MANNION 8, Daithi BURKE (0-1) 8, Padraic MANNION 7; Sean LINNANE 7, Joseph COONEY (0-1) 8; Brian CONCANNON 6, Cianan FAHY (0-2) 7, Ronan GLENNON (0-1) 6; Conor WHELAN (1-4) 8, Kevin COONEY 6, Evan NILAND (0-8, 0-7f) 7.
Subs: Tom Monaghan (0-3) for Glennon (49), Conor Cooney for Concannon (55), Jason Flynn for Kevin Cooney (62), Fintan Burke for McInerney (64), Liam Collins for Fahy (70+3).
TIPPERARY: Rhys SHELLY 8; Cathal BARRETT 5, Michael BREEN (0-1) 7, Eoghan CONNOLLY 7; Bryan O’MARA 6, Ronan MAHER (0-1) 7, Dan McCORMACK 6; Conor STAKELUM 6, Noel McGRATH 6; Alan TYNAN (0-2) 7, Jason FORDE (0-10, 0-8f) 7, Seamus KENNEDY (0-2) 7; Jake MORRIS 6, Seamus CALLANAN 5, Mark KEHOE 5.
Subs: Conor Bowe for Kehoe (HT), Gearoid O’Connor (0-1) for Callanan (HT), Johnny Ryan (0-1) for Stakelum (50), John McGrath (1-0) for McGrath (53), Jack Ryan for Tynan (70+1).
REFEREE: Colm Lyons (Cork).
QUOTE ME ON THAT
“When you manage or play for Tipperary, you expect to win, like, and you expect to win playing with a bit of identity and our identity wasn’t there today.”
Tipperary manager, Liam Cahill.
STAR MAN - Conor Whelan (Galway)
Not quite as his clinical best as it was only from his fourth goal opportunity that he rattled the Tipperary twines, but he still finished with 1-4 and troubled the Tipp defence throughout.
AN OTHER - Seamus Callanan (Tipperary)
Hit his 40th goal in Championship hurling seven days earlier but was withdrawn at half-time after a poor showing. Could it be the last we see of one of the game’s greatest gunslingers?
UP NEXT
GALWAY: All-Ireland semi-final v Limerick, July 8.
TIPPERARY: Their season is over.
