By Pádraic Ó Ciardha

What a difference a year makes. For the second time in 12 months, Limerick got the better of Galway in an All-Ireland semi-final but the manner of the defeats and the feelings they triggered couldn’t be more different.

While Henry Shefflin didn’t exactly set the world on fire during his first year in charge of the Tribesmen, last year’s performance against Limerick, where they pushed the All-Ireland champions all they way, was cause for plenty of optimism as the Kilkenny great got the most out of his team in their biggest game of the year to that point.

Saturday’s collapse against the Treaty men has left Galway and Shefflin firmly back at square one, however, with the manager acknowledging the scale of the improvement needed as he spoke to the media in the aftermath of the 2-24 to 1-18 defeat.

“I think as a collective, you’d have to be disappointed. I spoke during the week and I said I felt we were a better place this year to really attack this game and go at it. I just think the body of work that we did all year set us up nice for that so we’re very disappointed now to be heading back down the road because we brought a lot of fight with last year and that fight just kind of went out of us during the second half a little bit which is very disappointing,” said Shefflin.

“It is funny, at this moment in time, it feels very disappointing because obviously last year we stood here and we were very proud of our performance and pushed them really, really hard. That is why we felt we had a right chance today. It’s disappointing, right disappointing. It just feels like this year wasn’t good. But when you reflect on it, I think we’d more patches of good play and especially that first 20 minutes was very good play. It is just, I hate using the word, the inconsistency of that, was hurting us.

“I definitely see this year there was better play during the year, but it is all about results. That is what I came to Galway to do, to get results and we haven’t got any for the second year, so it is very disappointing.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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