Galway 1-20
Limerick 1-12
Galway eased into the Allianz league semi-finals with a degree of comfort that may have surprised them.
The locals among the 4,871 crowd were already making their way through the tunnel of the Mackey Stand when James Ryan, the brightest bulb in Limerick’s attacking display, fired a goal through a crowd of maroon. It was a slight consolation on a day which illustrated the gap which can open at this time of year between county teams hurling in the upper and lower divisional tiers.
"We are very disappointed," said TJ Ryan afterwards. "The scoreline tells its own story. We struggled not so much with the pace of it, but the whole physical side of it against a Division One team. We couldn't cope with it and a lot of our mistakes were punished."
Good things
Pace was the least of Limerick's concern: in fact, any time Ryan or Shane Dowling or Graeme Mulcahy got the opportunity to run at the Galway defence, good things happened. They were fortunate Galway were slow to warm to their task here. After two quick points in the opening two minutes, the Tribesmen played second fiddle as Limerick began to run at their full back line with enthusiasm.
Conor Allis took possession from Nickie Quaid’s long puck -out in the seventh minute and then a minute later, Shane Dowling controlled a similar pass beautifully before running through the middle of the Galway defence and drawing a terrific save from Colm Callanan. Dowling duly landed the 65 for a 0-5 to 0-2 lead after just nine minutes and the visiting Galway supporters had cause for concern.
But once Galway began to squeeze Limerick for space, the game turned into a subtly impressive display of physical strength to match the silkier touches associated with the maroon game. Niall Healy was dragged down for a penalty after 14 minutes which Conor Cooney struck low for Galway’s only goal. After that, they didn’t look back.
Cooney was immaculate under placed balls, striking 1-9 over the afternoon as Galway began to punish Limerick for every indiscretion.
Limerick had opted to go short with their restarts in the first half but once Galway pushed up on Cathal King and Tom Condon, that avenue disappeared and they couldn’t win the aerial battles around the field.
Pádraig Brehony, decisive and polished with every touch, had another fine afternoon and showed flashes of a really promising midfield understanding with David Burke.
The Galway defence bossed the game from the 15th minute and Iarla Tannian seems fully engaged by his number six duties.
Jonathan Glynn underlined Galway’s physical prowess by snapping Callanan’s puck out from the sky, shaking off a Limerick body and firing a point on 49 minutes. That made it 1-14 to 0-9. By then, Galway were dominant everywhere. David Burke produced a heartbreaker of a point in the 58th minute after Limerick had managed two scores in a row.
Johnny Coen and Fergal Moore sent fast, smart ball down to the Galway ball winners and with seven second -half wides, the scoreline might have been worse for Limerick. Joe Canning made his seasonal bow late on and showed his enthusiasm for the fray by chasing down lost causes. It summed up Galway’s intent on the day.
GALWAY:
1 C Callanan; 2 F Moore, 3 R Burke, 4 J Coen; 5 D Collins, 6 I Tannian, 7 Daithi Burke; 8 David Burke (0-2), 9 P Brehony (0-2); 10 A Harte, 11 N Burke (0-2), 14 C Cooney (1-9, pen, 2 65s, 1 free), 13 J Glynn (0-2), 12 N Healy (0-1), 15 C Mannion (0-1). Subs: J Canning for N Burke (54 mins), J Flynn for C Mannion (58 mins), D Hayes (0-1) for A Harte (62 mins), K Hynes for D Burke (62 mins), P Killeen for N Healy (65 mins).
LIMERICK
: 1 N Quaid, 2 K King, 3 P O'Loughlin, 4 T Condon; 5 P O'Brien, 6 W McNamara, 7 G O'Mahony; 8 D O'Grady, 9 P Browne; 10 K Downes (0-3), 11 J Ryan (1-3), 12 D Reidy; 13 G Mulcahy (0-1), 14 S Dowling (0-3, 2 frees, 1 65), 23 C Allis (0-1). Subs: A Dempsey (0-1) for P Browne (54 mins), M Carmody for C King (61 mins), W Hickey for D Reidy (64 mins)
Referee: B Gavain (Offaly).
