The Galway senior hurlers bowed out of the All-Ireland championship on Sunday after suffering an agonising 0-27 to 1-21 defeat at the hands of reigning champions Limerick.
The crowd of 52,215 in Croke Park were treated to a superb contest in which the teams were level 10 times before John Kiely’s side prevailed.
After an engaging opening half in which Galway’s endeavour was not rewarded enough on the scoreboard, Limerick led by four, but when Brian Concannon snuck in behind Mike Casey to collect David Burke’s long pass from midfield and unleash a wonderful shot to net, the contest suddenly took on a new and more compelling complexion.
Unlike the 2020 semi-final in which a Limerick win was only ever in doubt in the very late stages, Galway were really threatening to end Limerick's 14 match unbeaten streak in the championship. Three times in the second period Galway took the lead, but every time Limerick were swiftly back on level terms, as Diarmaid Byrnes’ long range frees proved invaluable.
Despite the excellence throughout of Padraic Mannion, Tom Monaghan, Joseph Cooney, and David Burke, Galway came up short in the end as Limerick’s bench played a pivotal role in the closing minutes, with David Reidy contributing three points.
A deflated Galway manager Henry Shefflin, proud of the performance, realised this was an opportunity missed.
“From a management point of view and a group point of view, we said we wanted to do ourselves proud on the field today and I think we achieved that,” Shefflin said. “I know we had a very good opportunity to beat the defending All-Ireland champions and we just came up short.
"We couldn’t seem to get that bit of momentum to get two or three points (ahead ). We just never got that flow to build a bit of a gap there," he said.
“Our shooting efficiency let us down. We knew we would have to take a lot of shots from mid-range, we knew that was going to be the case. We coughed up a few silly points in the first half. All those things come back to bite you a little bit, but to be fair to Limerick they are true champions.
"We really went at them and it was only that last phase, their bench obviously made a bit of an impact and they pulled away a little bit.”
Limerick manager Kiely knew his side had just about held its nerve in an epic finale, and while disappointed with certain aspects of the performance, he was proud of the way they hung on despite everything Galway had fired at them.
“To be honest, I don’t think we worked quite hard enough today,” Kiely stated. “When we look back on it during the week, our work rate will be just down a notch or two, and it’s something we’ll be disappointed with.
"We turned over too many balls in the tackle, and that’s our fault. The tackle is the opposition’s responsibility, but holding onto the ball is ours when we have it, and we coughed up too many balls in the tackle.
“I’m going to be brutally honest with you. Every day we go out the kitchen sink is fired at us, but I know that every day our boys have stood up and withstood everything that was fired at them. We have had to stand up and take whatever has been fired at us all season long and that’s just the way it is and I don’t see it going to change. They showed great resilience, determination, composure, calmness and an ability to see out the game."
LIMERICK: N Quaid; S Finn, B Nash (0-1 ), M Casey; D Byrnes (0-6fs ), D Hannon (0-1 ), D Morrissey; W O’Donoghue (0-1 ), D O’Donovan; T Morrissey (0-1 ), K Hayes (0-3 ), G Hegarty (0-1 ); A Gillane (0-8, 2fs ), S Flanagan (0-2 ), G Mulcahy. Subs: P Casey for Mulcahy (55 ), C Lynch for T Morrissey (57 ), D Reidy (0-3 ) for O’Donovan (61 ), C O’Neill for Hegarty (63 ), C Boylan for Flanagan (67 ).
GALWAY: É Murphy; D Morrissey, Daithí Burke, J Grealish; J Cooney (0-1 ), P Mannion (0-2, 1f ), F Burke (0-1 ); R Glennon (0-2 ), David Burke; T Monaghan (0-4 ), C Cooney (0-5, 4fs ), J Flynn; C Whelan (0-2 ), B Concannon (1-0 ), C Mannion (0-4 ). Subs: C Fahy for Flynn (53 ), J Coen for Glennon (64 ), E Niland for David Burke (67 ); K Cooney for J Cooney (75 ).Referee: T Walsh (Waterford ).
