There were only four points to separate the sides at the end of the game in MacHale Park on Sunday afternoon, but in reality the gap on the field was much bigger.
Winning by 1-16 to 1-12, Galway never once looked in trouble, while Mayo made numerous, elementary mistakes.
Galway worked together as a unit, moving from defence to attack with speed and precision, while the Mayo attack was often left isolated and starved of possession.
Galway opened the scoring after five minutes when Barbara Hannon kicked the first of her three points before Cora Staunton slotted over from a tight angle. However the next score was a goal fit to grace a provincial final when Cathriona Cormican took on the Mayo defenders before shooting to the bottom corner of the net.
Galway went into a 1-5 to 0-1 lead after 17 minutes with Annette Clarke kicking two from frees and Cormican and Lorna Joyce getting in on the action. Staunton responded with three points in a row for Mayo before setting up Anna Tuohy for the Mayo goal, but with a few minutes left in the first half, Galway’s Barbara Hannon, Lucy Hannon and Aoibheann Daly added points for a 1-8 to 1-5 at the break after Staunton closed with a long-range free.
Staunton kickstarted the second half with a point, but Clarke and Ger Conneally stretched the gap back out to four points.
No matter how much Mayo huffed and puffed, they could not make enough inroads through the Galway defence led by Emer Flaherty, Sinead Burke and Mairead Coyne. Clarke's fourth point from a free stretched the lead to six points by the 11th minute of the second half.
The conclusion of the game was held up for a number of minutes following an unfortunate clash between Galway teammates Orla Dixon and Sinead Burke, who were replaced, and although playing the last 10 minutes with 14 players after Rebecca McPhilbin was sin-binned, Mayo still failed to knock the Tribesmen out of their stride.
Galway: J Connolly; N Ward, M Coyne, O Dixon; R McPhilbin, E Flaherty, S Burke; A Clarke, G Conneally; A Daly, C Cormican, B Hannon; L Hannon, L Joyce, L Ward. Subs: O Divilly for A Daly, E Gannon for L Hannon, N Connolly for O Dixon, M Maloney for S Burke.
