ALL-IRELAND SHC QUARTER-FINAL Tipperary 3-17 Galway 3-16:STRANGE HOW gingerly some counties approach each other and how wanton other encounters are. Galway and Tipp hurl without fear of each other and in the time of their modern rivalry they seldom disappoint. In Croke Park yesterday they produced a magnificent match, the game this hurling season has been parched for.
Tipperary advance by the width of a late point to an All-Ireland semi-final with Waterford. Galway finish another season with their hearts ripped out. Going into the home stretch this was a game they should have finished out. Tipp got the final three scores of the game, however, and for that feat of sang froid alone they were probably worth their victory.
It is customary for us to round on referees these days for supposedly engineering draws in big games. If anything yesterday, James Owens’ refusal in the last seconds to manufacture a draw or grant us the benison of extra-time was the only unsatisfactory element of a thrilling afternoon.
A long free from Ger Farragher dropped into the Tipp square. A Galway hand (Niall Healy’s) rose as if to claim Excalibur. And promptly disappeared beneath a churning lake of blue and gold.
A penalty looked a possibility. A free looked a likelihood. The referee seemed by his body language (a half-hearted spreading of the arms) to be opting for the penalty. A second or two of scrummaging ensued as we awaited the decision. Anti-climactically, the game was blown up.
Anybody inclined to criticism of the referee, though, should filter their words through his contribution to a game that was passionate and intense and refereed shrewdly enough for its fluidity to be undiminished.
A pity because as a tactical battle and an exhibition of hurling the game was unsurpassed this season.
Galway, without Cyril Donnellan, started with Kevin Hayes in the forward line, while Tipp dropped Eoin Kelly out to centre forward, with Patrick Maher moving to the wing and Lar Corbett roving.
Early on it looked as if Tipp would overwhelm Galway. They began in the spirit they had finished in Croke Park last September, with Patrick Maher bursting through, hopping off a challenge from Tony Óg Regan and scoring a fine point.
A minute later Corbett, 70 yards out on the right sideline, sent over a wonderful score. Galway were in trouble, we thought.
But at four points to one down they got their first break. The puck out from an Eoin Kelly score broke through to Éanna Ryan, who pounced like a wolf after a meatball. Pádraig Maher was flailing behind but Ryan struck a lovely goal to the corner of Brendan Cummins’ net.
The sides were level for the first time in play. They would be level nine more times before the end.
When Galway look back on this latest heartbreak they will perhaps compare Eoin Kelly’s blossoming season with that of Joe Canning. Zestless all summer, Canning was held scoreless from play yesterday and looks like a man in need of time and space to sort his injuries out and recover his appetite and sharpness.
Club and county will surely encourage him to take the time necessary.
By comparison, the graph of Eoin Kelly’s season makes happier reading and the first of his critical interventions came on 18 minutes yesterday with a goal in the style of Galway’s first. A long puck-out came to Patrick Maher, who wisely and speedily handpassed into Kelly’s path. Bang. Tipp were suddenly three points clear again.
That provoked Galway’s best period. They got on top in midfield and registered six points without reply, starting with an uplifting Canning sideline and finishing with a wonder score from Iarla Tannian.
Three minutes from half-time and they led by three points. They went into the tunnel two down.
Points from Brendan Maher and Kelly again were followed just at the death by a breakthrough in the tactic of putting long, high balls into Noel McGrath.
He had batted one effort just wide some minutes earlier but this time moved the ball through into the Tipp square where Séamus Callanan, a newly-installed sub, stood as isolated as a lighthouse. He netted efficiently: 2-8 to 1-9 at the break.
Callanan’s introduction strengthened Tipp in that Shane McGrath moved to midfield in place of David Young and Tipp got on top there gradually while their half-back line continued to shade things.
The evidence of all this would come later, however. Eoin Kelly pointed a free but then Paul Curran had to endure the humiliation of a double error which let Damien Hayes in for Galway’s second goal. Level again.
Afterwards when Brendan Cummins noted “Galway got goal chances and took them . . . maybe our own fault. But with forwards like they have, they will always take them”
He was speaking diplomatically about the second in particular. Six minutes after that, though, more redemption.
Gearóid Ryan was put through at the other end. Bang. Tipp’s third goal.
Duly they pulled away, only to be hauled back when Pádraig Maher was adjudged to have chopped at Joe Canning and a penalty was awarded.
Joe may not have been at his best but he didn’t refuse the gift. Galway clawed back to a point behind before Damien Hayes brought them level.
And so it ebbed and flowed till Aonghus Callanan put Galway two points up with a couple of minutes of ordinary time remaining.
Tipp had to mine their resources. They did. Substitute John O’Brien and Ryan scored points and then Pa Bourke shifted a pass to Corbett, who scored the winner with the coolness of a man practising after training.
TIPPERARY: B Cummins; P Stapleton, P Curran, M Cahill; D Fanning, C O'Mahony, P Maher; B Maher (0-2), D Young; G Ryan (1-2), P Maher (0-1), S McGrath; N McGrath (0-1), L Corbett (0-3), E Kelly (1-7, 6 frees). Subs: S Callanan (1-0)for Young (30 mins), J O'Brien (0-1)for N McGrath (53 mins), C O'Brien for Fanning (62 mins), P Bourke for P Maher (65 mins).
GALWAY: C Callanan; D Joyce, S Kavanagh, O Canning; D Barry, T Óg Regan, D Collins; G Farragher (0-2), D Burke (0-1); E Ryan (1-1), K Hayes, A Smith; D Hayes (1-3), J Canning (1-5, 1-0 pen, three frees, 65, one lineball), I Tannian (0-1). Subs: K Hynes (0-2)for K Hayes (51 mins), A Callanan (0-1)for Ryan (53 mins), J Lee for O Canning (67 mins), N Healy for Smith (69 mins)
Referee: J Owens(Wexford).
