All-Ireland SHC Quarter-final/Galway 2-20 Tipperary 2-18: A memorable hurling day for the west and one fashioned out of unlikely circumstance. Galway, generally written off and lamented for in the last week or so, pulled off a little coup in Croke Park yesterday and bumped Tipperary out of the championship. That there were so few of their county folk there to see it happen illustrates the surprise.
Even the players were tickled. You wonder of course what they said to each other at half-time yesterday as they conclaved on the benches in their dressingroom, some six points adrift. They were hurling well but being beaten by two immutables: their own inaccuracy and Micheál Webster's sticky paw.
In terms of the quality of the hurling, the touch , the sweetness and all other indices there was no difference, just that Galway were leaving it all behind them.
As they sipped their tea and sucked their oranges they had 11 wides to do penance for and were burned by the knowledge that Tipp's two goals had come from Webster's ability to get his hand to balls other players can scarcely get their sticks to.
All that and the sobering rider that Webster's best catch late in the half had produced what was only Tipperary's second wide and should have been another goal.
It was shaping as one of those days when Galway underachieve and we all go home shaking our heads and writing prescriptive pieces. No Liam Hodgins. No Eugene Cloonan. No Kevin Broderick. Tony Óg Regan had shifted back to the edge of the square in an attempt by the Galway management to keep Webster's arm pinned to his side. The switch was working patchily but Galway were springing leaks in other places.
Tommy Dunne's afternoon was really getting going by the 17th minute when a long Paul Kelly free dropped into that pocket of airspace which Webster owned. He got his fingers to it and the ball squirted out to the right, from where Dunne was advancing in anticipation. He had work to do but his finish from a tight angle was wondrous.
It had been tit for tat till then with Galway's noses just in front. Dunne's goal put Tipp two points to the good and they stayed there. It all got worse six minutes later when Paul Kelly dropped a long ball in on top of Webster. The hand went up again. Another catch.
Ollie Canning had little option other than to delay the punishment that was coming and haul Webster down. Eoin Kelly dispatched the penalty with his usual sang froid.
And that looked as if it would be it. Nothing was falling for Galway. A few minutes later young Niall Healy broke in for a goal but Paul Curran got the block on him. A minute later Ger Farragher missed his first free of the afternoon. Then came a Kerins wide. You could feel the old Tipperary confidence beginning to course through their veins.
If Webster was the decisive influence on the first half, Damien Hayes stepped up after the break. Galway had fallen a little further behind when Hayes won possession out on the left. Niall Healy moved one way as decoy, Hayes found David Forde with a perceptive handpass and Forde drove home. Much harrooing. Game on.
At midfield David Tierney began exerting himself as he can at times. Galway were crowding and harrying and the lobbed balls into Webster were fewer and farther between.
Hayes and Kerins were getting the run on their markers and Richie Murray was beginning to forage well. Galway could scent redemption somewhere. Murray found space in the 49th minute and a rasping drive at goal produced an extraordinary save by Brendan Cummins. Hayes reinforced the point with a burst of a run down the left and a low shot which squirted low past Cummins's post. Something was going to give.
Galway were still five points off when the narrative turned. Farragher whipped on a ground ball towards Hayes, who collected but slipped in the act of shimmying. He got up and got away with virtually wrestling Hugh Maloney away before turning and driving past Cummins.
Tipp still led by a point but their deflation was almost visible. They began hitting wides and as Galway took the next three points their sense of their own power was suddenly evident. Murray in particular was providing a muscular presence and his second point with nine minutes to go was a statement in itself.
Tipp's bench has had a penchant this season for wholesale second-half changes. The decision to use Eoin Kelly at centre forward had made John Devane all but redundant and he had been swapped for Ger O'Grady seven minutes after the break.
O'Grady's influence on the game, while colourful, failed to translate into scores and three wides were instrumental in getting him shore leave. John Carroll came in for Eddie Enright, who was struggling. The tinkering was a little late in coming.
It was Diarmuid Fitzgerald who hit Tipperary's only point of the last quarter-hour, an indictment of a forward line which had been erased from the action. There were six minutes left and Tipperary were level but suddenly unconvincing.
Fitzgerald's long drive was quickly matched by Murray and with two minutes left Farragher hit a huge free from his own half to seal the deal.
Galway face Kilkenny the next day. After last year's humiliation in that company they won't lack motivation.
GALWAY: L Donoghue; D Joyce, S Kavanagh (0-1), O Canning; D Hardiman, T Óg Regan, D Collins; F Healy (0-2), D Tierney (0-2); A Kerins (0-2), D Forde (1-0), N Healy (0-1); G Farragher (0-9, seven frees, one 65), R Murray (0-3), D Hayes (1-0). Subs: C Coen for D Collins (43 mins), K Hayes for N Healy 60 (mins).
TIPPERARY: B Cummins; H Maloney, P Maher, P Curran; D Fanning, E Corcoran, D Fitzgerald (0-1); E Enright, P Kelly (0-4, one free); C Morrissey, J Devane, B Dunne (capt, 0-1); E Kelly (1-9, 0-4 frees, 1-0 penalty), M Webster (0-1), T Dunne (1-1). Subs: C O Mahoney for Maher (half time), G O'Grady (0-1) for Devane (42 mins), J Carroll for E Enright (60 mins), P Morrissey for C Morrissey (65 mins), D Egan for O'Grady (69 mins).
Referee: A Mac Suibhne (Dublin).
