Galway 1-20

Tipperary 1-18

ON the law of averages alone, the fabled modern-day hurling rivalry between Galway and Tipperary was due to serve up a sub-standard championship collision and Saturday evening’s All-Ireland quarter-final at the Gaelic Grounds was it.

But that will be of little concern to the Galway camp after resurrecting their Liam McCarthy Cup ambitions thanks to a display laced with grit and heart to set up a third All-Ireland semi-final clash in four years with champions Limerick at Croke Park in early July.

Having suffered a stomach-churning last-gasp loss to Kilkenny in the Leinster Final, this was a difficult assignment for Galway, but they displayed great mental strength in shaking that deflating experience from their system in time to record a hat-trick of championship wins over Tipperary for the first time ever.

The result was everything. Having been criticised for the team’s frustrating inconsistencies in their Leinster campaign, Galway delivered a more even display in this high-stakes clash where they had no safety net for the first time this summer.

For the third match in a row, the Tribesmen were involved in a hairy finale, but after the Leinster semi-final draw with Dublin and the subsequent defeat to Kilkenny, this time they were the ones who were finally celebrating in front of a big crowd of 34,180.

Overall, Galway were significantly the better team, and the wonder is that they didn’t win by more. Tactically, they successfully set up to ensure it didn’t turn into a free-flowing struggle for supremacy, but 17 wides and spurned goal chances contributed to keeping an out-of-sorts Tipperary in the hunt.

The sense of foreboding that the Munster championship was in a different league to its Leinster counterpart would only have been sharpened by Clare beating Dublin out the gate in the first quarter-final on Saturday evening, but it proved misplaced in terms of Galway’s fortunes.

After leading by 0-10 to 0-7 after an error-ridden opening half, Galway had their most clinical period in the third quarter as they stretched their lead out to eight points by the 50th minute. A smartly taken Conor Whelan goal seconds after the resumption gave Henry Shefflin’s team fresh energy and with Cianan Fahy thundering into the game on the forty, you’d be thinking most of the hard work was done.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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