Galway push the champions all the way but come up just short

Galway 0-4

The numbers from the TG4 All-Ireland ladies football championship final tell their own tale: a record attendance of 56,114 at Croke Park on Sunday witnessed two teams going hammer and tongs for 60 minutes; it finished just fives scores to four, but there was only clear one winner, and crucially Dublin scored the game’s two majors to claim the Brendan Martin Cup for a history-making three-in-a-row.

The Dubs deserved to carry the day, but by gum they were pushed all the way by a Galway outfit whose challenge just fell short, lacking one key ingredient – precision and more depth up front.

Perhaps still scarred from shipping four goals to the same opposition in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, Galway tightened up their defence for the 2019 decider, which kept them right in contention for most of the hour.

Dublin weren’t afraid to pack their defence with bodies, either, and that, coupled with a driving, misty rain that turned the ball into a wet bar of soap, meant that there were just two first-half scores, and a barren spell of 23 opening minutes.

Not exactly box office stuff but there was still intrigue aplenty and no shortage of tension, in what was a somewhat bizarre opening half.

Manager Tim Rabbitt tactically got it almost spot-on in trying to contain the reigning champions, who were unbackable favourites to retain their crown with insulting bookies’ odds giving the Westerners no hope.

The way they were set-up and the individual match-ups worked – Sinéad Burke and Nicola Ward did mighty jobs containing Sinéad Aherne and Carla Rowe, respectively – and Galway achieved their aim of not allowing the game to turn into a free-scoring shoot-out, which Dublin would inevitably have won.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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