Galway down and out

Galway bowed out of the Senior Hurling Championship yesterday, but not without one hell of a fight in a titanic struggle against the reigning All Ireland Champions Limerick. I was not able to attend in person as I was attending Wedding celebrations for the weekend, but I was lucky enough to watch the game. Those present at the game were treated to a feast of hurling and JP McManus and his guest Bill Murray certainly enjoyed the match if the television pictures were anything to go by. Bill is in town to take part in JP's annual golf Pro Am at Adare Manor

JP always manages to attract the world's best golf players and many well known others from other worlds of television, football and singing - Kenny Dalglish, Jamie Dornan, Alan Hansen, Niall Horan, John Terry, Andriy Shevchenko, Harry Redknapp, AP McCoy and Bill Murray to name a few will tee it up at Adare Manor this week.

Now, back to the Hurling, as that is what this post intends to be about, but old muggins here is partial to the occasional meandering thought.

Limerick to win at a canter

Little chance was being given to my own county man before the ball was thrown in my the referee yesterday at 3:30pm, and watching the first ten minutes, one could see their point, as Galway amassed wide after wide after wide and although Limerick too squandered a few chances, they now had the scoreboard ticking along nicely and led by five points in the early stages. Indeed some of the 52,215 present might have been wondering whether they would see a match or an exhibition from Limerick.

Galway soon answered that question though, as they sparked into life and although they continued to register uncharacteristic wides they managed to narrow the margin and kept in touch with Limerick and the pundits and the Limericks players and management were starting to see that they would not be winning this one at a canter and they were going to be made to work hard for every inch tooth and nail until the final whistle.

Galway fought back well and probably deserved to be a little closer than four points off at half time with Galway training by 0-16 to 0-12. It would have been interesting to hear what was said in both dressing rooms at half time, as the game roared back into life in the second half and when Concannon pulled a ball out of the sky and finished quickly and with aplomb, it looked like maybe just maybe it might be Galway's day. Not long after Joseph Cooney scored a point worthy of winning any match and I started to believe, but Limerick had more in the tank and had pure quality sitting on the bench ready to come in. When called upon the Limerick bench delivered big time, especially David Reidy who fired over three quick rapid fire points making him almost undroppable for the final.

Those three points were the difference in the end, but in all honesty, I thought Galway were probably worthy of a draw, but their shooting let them down on many occasions and they clocked up an unacceptable 17 wides. This allied with the strength of the Limerick bench proved to be the difference in the end, but all of Galway's hurlers can walk away from that game with their heads held high, as they gave us an epic game of hurling and gave all Galway people something to shout about for 70 long Summer minutes. Well done lads, there may well be an All Ireland win in ye within the next few years and Limerick are not as far ahead as some people may have thought.

What Galway's manager had to say

Ex Kilkenny hurler and hurling legend Henry Sheflin or King Henry as they call him in his native Kilkenny is Galway's senior hurling manager and he had this to say after the match:

“We couldn’t seem to get that bit of momentum to get that two or three points in-a-row,” Shefflin said. “When we got the goal we got ahead but we never got that bit of a gap. Our shooting efficiency let us down.

“We knew we’d have to take a lot of shots from range and you’re hoping they go over and we coughed up a few silly points in the first half too.

“All of those things come back to bite you a little bit. Limerick are true champions. We really went at them. It was only in that last phase, and their bench obviously made a bit of an impact. I haven’t looked at the numbers yet but they don’t matter when it’s all over but I’m sure the shooting efficiency will be low."

“I think Limerick’s bench seemed to sync a bit more seamless [that ours]; they’re obviously further down the line. That played a part and our shooting just needed to be on the money and it was just a little bit off.”

He finished by saying:

“When we went down to Limerick in the National League we thought there was something in this group and I think we can say that again today. All the players put in a massive effort to play in a coliseum like that and when they reflect on it that I hope they enjoyed the occasion because that’s very important.”

In Conclusion

Scores win games. From Limerick's 44 shots on goal, they scored 27, which translates to 61% efficiency. Galway actually created 3 additional shots, however, of their 47, they only converted 22, one of them being a goal, which meant their efficiency was only 47% and that was the difference. I even noticed during the game that the Galway forwards were sometimes shooting while a little off balance, whereas Limerick almost always waited more patiently until an opening presented itself. I also thought Limerick were afforded a bit more time by the Galway halfback line to get their shots off than the Limerick halfback line gave to Galway's forwards.

Something else I noticed was that Conor Whelan had a quiet game by his standards and again those are the little things that can count against you when all is said and done. It is hard to see anything other than a Limerick three in a row, but you never know when a Kilkenny team managed by Brian Cody come to Croke Park. The elder stateman has seen it all before and will take encouragement from Limerick's two draws with Clare in this year's championship, as well as how close Galway came to beating them yesterday.

One thing is for sure though, it is going to be very strange having an All Ireland final in July and it will be even stranger when September rolls around, and there are none!

These photos are not my own and were sourced here:

https://www.jpmcmanusproam.com/

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/gaa/hurling/limerick-galway-highlights-reaction-fullmatch-23086617

Thanks as always for stopping by everyone.

Peace Out