Monday, July 25, 2011
AS EXPECTED, mental frailty was exposed ruthlessly in Thurles yesterday.
Galway’s, not Waterford’s. The westerners collapsed after half-time in the All-Ireland SHC quarter-final, leaking five consecutive points to give Waterford the platform to drive on to a ten-point win.
That Galway managed one point in the third quarter, and two in 22 minutes of the second-half, put Waterford’s remarkable resurrection after their seven-goal hammering by Tipp in the Munster final in context.
Their manager, Davy Fitzgerald praised his men after the game: "We deserved some criticism (after the Munster final). It was a hard two weeks, we fought back really well, and I was proud of the boys. The most important thing was to feel the hurt, and not hide away from it."
Well, the speculation about Waterford’s psyche in the last couple of weeks certainly brought out the Sigmund Freud tribute bands, but it turns out the answer to the question ‘they’ll never recover’ was straightforward.
They recovered with a first-minute Shane Walsh goal and a point from man-of-the-match Kevin Moran, and never lost the initiative after that.
They had two more goal chances in the first 10 minutes and as Galway boss John McIntyre said later, they had an edge and a cause.
"I said after the Munster final that I’d prefer to play Waterford if they’d lost by two points," said McIntyre. "They had an edge out there and a fierce cause, and they did to us at the start of the second-half what we needed to do to them."
That was when Galway lost the game – their sluggish start to the Cork game recurred yesterday, but they never got to grips with Waterford in the second-half, and with man-of-the-match Kevin Moran in particular, as McIntyre conceded.
Conceding seven goals is an unusual motivational approach, but it looks like it might catch on.
Interestingly, at times it seemed as if all the teams in action weren’t allowed on the pitch without signing a non-aggression pact when it came to puck-outs: the number of short puck-outs in both games was startling.
So was the intricacy of some of the passing around the middle of the field, the kind of thing that suggests players abdicating their responsibility to shoot from distance.
Most coaches preach the gospel of ‘a message on every ball’, long or short. The message on some of the short passes in traffic yesterday was ‘nil by mouth’ for the hospital bed.
Anyhow.
In the first game Dublin were too strong for Limerick, ending four points ahead: you know Dublin are in Thurles when a man sporting an enormous plastic head in the likeness of The Edge of U2 wanders into the knot of Limerick mentors at half-time under the stand.
You also know Dublin are in the house when the goals come thick and fast.
Er, not really. The Dubs got as many goals in the first-half yesterday as they managed all year in the championship, and Ryan O’Dwyer, the Cashel expat in sky blue, scored all three.
Like Antaeus of Greek legend, O’Dwyer clearly needs to be in contact with his native soil for gaisci. He also suffered a Homeric gash to the forehead, though he made it back out for Dublin’s triumphant procession off the field.
It was appropriate to see the smallish knot of people trail from the pitch: the sense has always been of a small, tight-knit community when it comes to hurling in the capital, but the church may become more inclusive for the semi-final.
In the green and white corner it was a case of what might have been. Limerick’s chance of a semi-final drained away with their heartbreaking late wides.
They’ve done well, given where they started from last year; they’ll be shattered, given where they might have ended up this year.
They’ll also be keen to keep Donal O’Grady aboard. He said yesterday: "In September, my tenure is up and it would be very presumptuous of me to say anything. The county board are the people who approach the next managers and as it stands, that’s the way it is."
Galway have different challenges. John McIntyre suggested a root-and-branch re-examination of Galway hurling but his demeanour suggested he won’t be part of it. The questions remain about Galway when the chequered flag starts waving.
Looking coldly at yesterday’s evidence you’d say the All-Ireland final will likely feature Tipperary and Kilkenny.
They’ve reached heights this year beyond what we saw in Thurles over the weekend and will be rightly confident of progressing.
Which, if you were Anthony Daly and Davy Fitzgerald, is exactly the way you’d want it.
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