Micheál Donoghue proud of Galway players after tough day at office against Limerick

GALWAY senior hurling manager Micheál Donoghue admitted that Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final defeat to Limerick will take time to come to terms with. Despite the disappointment, Donoghue and his management team can still reflect on a season with plenty of positives.

For the Tribesmen recorded their first win in Croke Park since 2020 in the Leinster final against Dublin and tasted provincial glory for the first time since 2018. The men in maroon and white also followed that up with an impressive All-Ireland semi final win over Cork.

However, Limerick proved a level above their opponents and cruised to an eleven point win. Donoghue will be hoping Galway can learn from this experience going forward, as fifteen players on his side featured in their first ever All-Ireland final.

“As I said, they've been brilliant all year. It's going to be a bitter pill to swallow, but I think the experience they'll have gained from this year, hopefully will stand them in good stead.”

One player who stood out in the opening period was Jason Rabbitte, winning three frees off Limerick defender Mike Casey. However, after that Donoghue’s side struggled to provide Rabbitte with the same level of service for the remainder of the contest.

“Jason (Rabbitte) has been really good, he was probably our standout early on. But yeah, I'm still immensely proud of them and today is going to be hard and the next few days are going to be hard, but I think when we still reflect back on the year we've had and the progress we've made, we'll take some positives out of it.”

Galway struggled to implement their game plan in the first half only managing two points from play through Rabbitte and Aaron Niland. “For the first quarter, I thought we were okay, but I think we were forcing it a bit and just not playing our game as much.

“But I think you still have to give full credit to them that they nullified it. They closed us down and the amount of turnovers they had obviously gave them a massive platform.

“It's going to hurt for a few days. I've said over the last number of weeks that the younger fellas, in particular, it was important to be exposed to big games and meaningful games.”

Cathal Mannion appeared to be playing in a more advanced position in the All-Ireland final, different to the deeper role he played in previous games throughout the championship. That left room inside for Gearoid Hegarty, Cathal O’Neill, Peter Casey and Aaron Gillane to thrive for the Shannonsiders.

The Leinster champions struggled to get past the dominant Limerick half back line of Diarmaid Byrnes, William O’Donoghue and Kyle Hayes. Limerick’s midfield of Adam English and Cian Lynch bossed the middle third.

“In games where we had, say, particularly Cathal (Mannion) coming back, our best periods were still when we pushed up. That probably was unnoticed, but if you go back to the Dublin game, Cork game, we were still better when we pressed. Today, we dropped off early on one side, they still hurt us, and when we pressed, they still hurt us. So, I think today is just about crediting Limerick and their performance,” added Donoghue.

The Tribesmen's task became even tougher when Ronan Glennon was shown a straight red card for a high challenge on Peter Casey, reducing Galway to 14 men midway through the second half.

“I think it's a tough decision. Look, it was a head-high tackle, there were no complaints from our side, but it's hard on a young fella on the biggest day.”