NHL Division 1A: Tipperary 1-21 Galway 1-16
Tipperary kicked for home in impressive style on Saturday night but Galway will take heart from the fact that they were well in contention coming around the top bend. Ultimately, it was a late surge by Tipp that won it – with Jake Morris on skates, they outscored Galway by 1-4 to 0-2 after the 63rd minute. Forcing the All-Ireland champions to have to dig deep like that will have to be reward enough for the visitors.
These early game games can mean nothing or they can mean something. Tipperary drew a crowd of 7,762 to Semple Stadium, which isn’t bad considering the game was on TV and the weather was velcroing people to their sofas. Galway gave them a guard of honour to welcome them on to the pitch and to their credit. It was the last bit of respect Micheál Donoghue’s side gave them all night.
Galway were a different team to the one that played in this fixture on the same weekend last year. Almost literally so – Tom Monaghan and Rory Burke were the only survivors from the starting 15 that got wiped in Salthill last January. That day was a clear statement of intent from a young Tipp team that went on to have the year of their lives. Nobody is making those sorts of claims for Galway but this was a start.
On a rotten night for hurling, they wired into Tipp and made light of the conditions. Pádraic Mannion led from the half-back line, spearing over two first-half points. Burke kept shooting too, undaunted by a few misses. Galway’s half-forward line ended the night with 1-7 from play between them – fair going on a night when shooting was frequently a long-odds punt.
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It was all square at the break, nine points apiece. The scoreline was no libel on either side, albeit Galway shot seven wides to Tipp’s four. And even when Tipp came out and stuck three quick points, Galway weren’t put out by it. If they were annoyed by anything, it was the imbalance in scoreable frees – Tipp had 11 of them to Galway’s four over the course of the night. They had to go about it a different way.
The always willing Jason Rabbitte clawed one back, before setting up Burke for the first goal of the night. It was an impressive finish from the Galway centre forward – although Rhys Shelly won’t enjoy watching the video and seeing the gaping space on the left side of his net where Burke’s shot scudded past him.
The goal put Galway 1-10 to 0-11 ahead and though Tipp didn’t stop coming at them, they stuck to their task for most of the way. Morris was unstoppable for Tipp and had five points from play on the board by the 53rd minute. But with Cathal Mannion in classy form off the bench, Galway stayed in touch through John Fleming and Darragh Neary – with seven minutes left in normal time, the sides were level, 0-17 to 1-14.
On another night, sometime further down the road, maybe Galway could have seen it out. But Tipp weren’t in the mood for that here. Morris and Andy Ormond combined to send Darragh Stakelum away – he was falling as he hit his shot but it found the net anyway. With Darragh McCarthy gone off, Morris took over the frees and potted three routine placed balls to see Tipp home.
By the time Séamus Kennedy put the grace note on it in injury-time, the Tipp fans were cock-a-hoop. What had looked for a long time like a slightly dangerous fixture had turned out to be exactly what they wanted. The year is up and running and so are Tipp. Like everyone else, they are nursing injuries – Liam Cahill said afterwards that Alan Tynan will miss a lot of the league and that Ronan Maher, Brian McGrath and Craig Morgan all have niggles to tidy up in the coming weeks.
Galway have plenty of road to go to catch them but this is something to build on at least. This was a young team on a dirty night with the All-Ireland champions as the opposition and they claimed plenty of credit for themselves. They were beaten but they looked far from defeated.
“Yeah, that’s fair,” said Micheál Donoghue afterwards. “But we came down to win the game and we didn’t. There’s a lot of elements in the performance that we’d be happy with but there’s elements where we can improve going into next week and we have to improve them. Because it’s tough division.”
On a night like this, no truer word could be spoken.
TIPPERARY: Rhys Shelly; Cathal Reilly, Robert Doyle, Michael Breen; Joe Caesar, Bryan O’Mara, Seamus Kennedy (0-1); Willie Connors, Conor Stakelum (0-1); Jake Morris (0-8, 3f), Andrew Ormond (0-2), Sam O’Farrell (0-2); Darragh McCarthy (0-7, 6f), Oisín O’Donoghue, Jack Leamy.
Subs: Darragh Stakelum (1-0) for Leamy (h-t); Josh Keller for Caesar (40 mins); Paddy McCormack for McCarthy (53); Stefan Tobin for O’Donoghue (69).
GALWAY: Darach Fahy; Joshua Ryan, Daithí Burke, Darren Morrissey; Pádraic Mannion (0-2), Cillian Trayers, Daniel Loftus; Gavin Lee (0-1), Thomas Monaghan; Darragh Neary (0-2), Rory Burke (1-3), John Fleming (0-3); Aaron Niland (0-2, 2f), Jason Rabbitte (0-2), Declan McLoughlin.
Subs: Ronan Glennon for Morrissey (4 mins); Johnny Ryan for Doyle (26); Cathal Mannion for Monaghan, Colm Molloy (0-1) for McLoughlin (both 53); Seán Linnane for Neary (66); Seán MacCarthaigh for Lee (67).
Referee: Seán Stack (Dublin).
