GALWAY...2-15 WATERFORD...1-13: Sometimes it can be forgotten that desire isn't everything. For all the assumptions that Waterford, their trophy case bare and dusty, would be so much hungrier to win yesterday's Allianz National Hurling League final, the fact was that they weren't good enough.
In fact Galway, were they being touchy, might feel aggrieved the margin of victory was only five points. From an early stage there was going to be only one winner and it mattered not that the title wasn't going to be exactly a novelty in Galway.
The winners' form was reassuringly steady throughout the field. They exhibited the strengths that had been expected and were sharp and penetrative in the full-forward line. But more than that, they raised their game in the previous areas of weakness and never experienced the anticipated difficulty in winning a decent share of ball around the middle. Manager Conor Hayes said he was most pleased by his side's teamwork and the calm manner in which they stuck to their game plan. He had reason to gently crow about two specific aspects of the victory.
Firstly, his corner backs, Ollie Canning and Damien Joyce, played exceptionally well. This isn't news in Canning's case, although he has had isolated moments of difficulty during this league, and yesterday he was masterful; but Joyce was even better.
Marking John Mullane, who has been scoring consistently this campaign, the Cappataggle defender snapped up a pile of ball, denying his man space and possession, and by the end Mullane had only a point to his name.
Secondly, there was the overall performance of the attack. Throughout the league the full-forward line of Eugene Cloonan, Damien Hayes and either Alan Kerins or Kevin Broderick have been racking up big scores but the half forwards have frequently struggled.
But yesterday, although the inside line maintained its high level of menace, there was sound support from outside. Adrian Cullinane, David Forde and Kerins chipped in two points each but, more to the point, they fought hard for possession and eclipsed the highly rated half-back line of Brian Phelan, Tony Browne and Ken McGrath.
Before the throw-in Waterford filled the vacancy at left corner back by selecting Eoin McGrath, who had practised during training matches last week by marking Mullane. But the preparation proved inadequate for the task of shadowing Damien Hayes.
Hayes was eventually inhibited by a knock he took but up to then he caused trouble for McGrath and ended with two points plus a couple of awarded frees as well as a penalty.
For the first 10 minutes Waterford knew a brief period of parity but that vanished forever in the ninth minute when Hayes was taken down by James Murray. Cloonan addressed the penalty and hit it so high and hard that momentarily it looked as if it had flown over for a point, until the umpire reached for the green flag to signify the ball had been planted in the net to make the score 1-1 to 0-1.
Waterford's sole resistance up front was Dan Shanahan, who won everything dropped his way on the left wing. He scored well too, landing three fine points before half-time and bagging the consolation goal in the second half after being moved to full forward.
Shanahan was very much the exception though. His shooting contrasted with the wild inaccuracies of his colleagues. Paul Flynn in particular got off to a nightmare start, missing two frees well within his range and doing the same from play before he managed to break his duck.
While all of this was flashing red lights for Waterford supporters in the crowd of 16,750, Galway accumulated scores. Then when a revival of sorts looked under way, peaking with Eoin Kelly's point to narrow the margin to 0-4 to 1-4, Cloonan struck again. The haphazard marking of the full-back line allowed the Galway man slip in behind the defence on to a kicked pass from Forde. It's not for nothing that Cloonan's about the last person you'd want to see one-on-one with your goalkeeper and he flashed in a second goal.
The match felt dead from that moment. Galway were playing too well and Waterford too badly for the necessary change in fortunes to come about. In injury time before the break, the last opportunity came and went. Shanahan caught a big ball on the edge of the square and having done the hard work, kicked wide of the goal.
The second half was for the most part a succession of scores from Galway. Waterford got close on the board by making a late charge, outscoring the winners 1-4 to 0-2 in the final 10 minutes. Fittingly, Shanahan got the goal, batting a spilled free back past Donoghue in the Galway goal in the 61st minute.
But even with the margin getting tighter, Waterford were still short of the score that might have made the end of the match climactic. Flynn had a close-in free but drilled it wide and even on Shanahan's return to the wing he found Fergal Moore harder to handle than David Collins, who had been with him originally.
GALWAY: 1. L Donoghue; 2. D Joyce, 3. D Cloonan, 4. O Canning (capt); 5. D Hardiman (0-1), 6. David Hayes, 7. D Collins; 17. F Healy, 9. T Regan; 10. A Cullinane (0-2), 11. D Forde (0-2), 12. A Kerins (0-2); 13. Damien Hayes (0-2), 14. E Cloonan (2-4, goal from penalty, 0-3 frees), 15. K Broderick (0-2). Subs: 18. F Moore for Regan (27 mins), 19. R Gantly for Collins (51 mins), 22. D Tierney for Cullinane (71 mins).
WATERFORD: 1. S Brenner; 2. J Murray, 3. T Feeney, 19. E McGrath; 7. B Phelan, 5. T Browne, 6. K McGrath; 12. D Bennett (0-1), 9. M Walsh; 10. E Kelly (0-2), 8. A Moloney, 14. D Shanahan (1-3); 11. S Prendergast (0-1), 15. P Flynn (0-5, three frees), 13. J Mullane (0-1). Subs: 17. J Kennedy for Moloney (29 mins), 22. P O'Brien for Kennedy (54 mins), 18. E Murphy for Bennett (59 mins).
Referee: T McIntyre (Antrim).
