Galway looked poised to perhaps pull off their most unlikely win of the season when substitute Evan Niland dropped a spectacular long-range shot just over the crossbar to level Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final for only the fifth time with four minutes left.
Outscored by 0-17 to 0-8 between the 18th and 51st minute by a well-oiled Limerick side, Galway gamely dug deep, rode their luck at times, and capitalised on some poor finishing to give themselves a shot at redemption for that 2018 All-Ireland final defeat.
When the chips were down, though, Limerick impressively had an answer to Galway’s rally, as Tom Morrissey cemented his claims for Man of the Match honours with three of his side’s last four scores.
For the sixth time in the match, Limerick were able to conjure up an instant reply to a Galway score, albeit Gearóid Hegarty was fortunate to escape censure for a push on Padraic Mannion in the run up.
Adrian Breen then doubled Limerick’s lead after a sloppy clearance, but Fintan Burke did cut the gap back to one with Galway’s fifth successful sideline cut of the game.
Galway’s scoring options had been limited though as both Joe Canning (concussion ) and Cathal Mannion (hamstring ) were no longer involved, and Shane O’Neill’s side could not create any more scoring chances.
In his first year in charge, O'Neill, who had high hopes of overcoming his own county to advance to the final, said the team was "gutted".
"As the game was going on it could have gone either way. We were down five at one stage and came back again, which is testament to the character of the boys and they just dug it out and kept going and going," he said.
"We are just immensely proud of what they achieved there with that performance," O'Neill said.
Earlier, Canning’s quartet of majestic sideline cuts almost disguised the fact that the Galway forwards were finding shooting space a lot harder to come by. Nothing more could be asked of either Conor Whelan or Brian Concannon, but Galway desperately needed more inspiration from their starting middle eight, who could only contribute 0-2 from play in stark comparison to Limerick’s 0-14.
Hegarty, in particular, was a massive thorn in Galway’s side in the first half, grabbing three important points after John Kiely’s troops made a nervy start which allowed Galway to clinically move into a 0-7 to 0-2 lead early on.
Whelan and Concannon were heavily involved as Canning punished Limerick’s indiscretions, but Galway were struggling to have any impact on Nicky Quaid’s restarts, while Eanna Murphy had seen three of his stolen in the first quarter alone.
Five points in six minutes after the water break hinted that Limerick were hitting their stride, as Diarmuid Byrnes and Kyle Hayes thundered into the contest. The match was turned around to such an extent that Limerick had opened up a 0-15 to 0-11 lead when Declan Hannon got on the end of a slick move, but again Galway countered with the last two scores of the half through sub Adrian Tuohey and Canning’s third sideline of the half.
Limerick managed to create more scoring chances in every quarter and the third saw Galway’s creativity drop alarmingly, as Joseph Cooney, now playing in the forwards, was the only man in maroon to score from play.
Galway needed Eanna Murphy to stay sharp to deny both Seamus Flanagan and Hayes on 42 minutes, but the strength of Limerick’s bench soon became a factor as Peter Casey sniped a brace of points to stretch the Munster champions lead to five.
Spurred on by an inspirational score by Whelan, Galway hit four of the next five scores to keep them very much in the hunt, but again Murphy was called upon to keep out David Reidy’s sharp drive after the defence was exposed again.
Then Galway lost Canning. An unfortunate collision with Joseph Cooney left the Portumna man in obvious distress, but after a long stoppage Niland showed remarkable composure to fire over a long-range free before Whelan again split the posts.
In an ideal world, the maroon fanatics in a capacity crowd may well have given Galway the energy boost needed to fashion a scarcely deserved victory. In the unfortunate reality, Limerick were able to find another gear to seal the win, pressing home their statistical and physical dominance when it mattered most.
LIMERICK: N Quaid; S Finn, D Morrissey, B Nash; D Byrnes (0-3, 1f ), D Hannon (0-1 ), K Hayes; D O’Donovan, W O’Donoghue; G Hegarty (0-4 ), C Lynch (0-2 ), T Morrissey (0-6, 1f ); A Gillane (0-6, 5fs ), S Flanagan (0-2 ), G Mulcahy. Subs: P Casey (0-2 ) for Mulcahy (40m ); D Reidy for O’Donovan (52m ); A Breen (0-1 ) for Flanagan (62m ); P O’Loughlin for Hannon (74m ); P Ryan for A Gillane (77m ).
GALWAY: E Murphy; S Loftus, Daithí Burke, A Harte; S Cooney, G McInerney, J Cooney (0-1 ); P Mannion, J Coen; David Burke, C Cooney, C Mannion (0-1 ); B Concannon (0-3 ), J Canning (0-12, 8fs, 4 ‘sl ), C Whelan (0-3 ). Subs: A Tuohey (0-1 ) for C Mannion (24m ); F Burke (0-1, a ‘sl ) for David Burke (35m ); J Flynn for C Cooney (45m ); S Linnane for S Cooney (52m ); E Niland (0-2, 1f ) for J Canning (69m ).
REFEREE: J Owens (Wexford ).
