Inept second half display as hurlers collapse against Tipp

Tipperary 2-17Galway 0-14

STEPHEN GLENNON

Galway senior hurlers, their management team and supporters were left with much to ponder, after the Tribesmen scored just one solitary point in a second half display that bordered on the inept in this bewildering National League encounter in Thurles on Sunday.

Having arguably produced their best 35 minutes of hurling of the season at half-time, to lead 0-13 to 1-6 at the change of ends, Galway simply, and inexplicably, fell asunder in the second period while the home side just grew more and more into the game. The fact that Galway were outscored 1-11 to 0-1 in this time tells its own tale.

In many respects, that old Galway failing came back to haunt them. As we have seen so many times in recent years, Galway play some breathtaking hurling when they are in the ascendancy, but once they are called upon to ride out those periods when opposition sides get a meaningful run on them, they are unable to do so.

Call it a mental brittleness or lack of leaders, but the chickens well and truly came home to roost in Semple Stadium, once again, on Sunday. To be quite honest, it may not be a bad thing as, it would appear, Galway’s unbeaten five-game run heading into this game only served to paper over the cracks.

Of course, this is not to wholly devalue the side’s successful Walsh Cup run, or their subsequent victories over lowly Limerick and Waterford in the League, but if Galway were looking for a side against which to measure their championship title aspirations, then 2009 All-Ireland finalists Tipperary were it.

Yes, Tipperary had a full complement of players to pull from, while Galway were again without their club-tied Portumna contingent. That said, one imagines there was not a single Galway player out there on Sunday who does not harbour ambitions of lining out against Wexford in the first round of the Leinster championship in May. If so, they have some soul searching to do.

Just take a look at Kilkenny, who, similar to Galway, were without their Ballyhale Shamrocks players for their clashes against great rivals Tipperary and Cork. Although they suffered defeat in both games, Brian Cody’s fringe players fiercely contested each and every ball with an insatiable hunger and appetite. No more so than John Mulhall, who tallied 1-3 from play against Cork.

Against Tipperary, not one Galway player even came close to making a similar contribution and when called upon for a response by Tipperary in the second half, too many of their players went hiding. Consequently, a four-point interval lead was overturned, and John McIntyre’s side can feel fortunate that the margin of defeat was only nine points in the end – given Tipp also hit 11 second half wides compared to Galway’s three.

The players are not the only ones with a case to answer here, either. By the time the Galway management made their first change on 54 minutes, Tipp had entered three fresh players into the fray in Paul Curran, WIT’s Fitzgibbon Cup sharpshooter Timmy Hammersley and Gearóid Ryan, withdrawing their All-Star centre-half back Conor O’Mahony, NUIG’s Fitzgibbon hero Seamus Hennessy and first-half goalscorer John O’Brien.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.