Tipp bench had little depth - What we learned from the weekend's action

Enda McEvoy on what the weekend’s sport told us...

There’s not a lot between these teams

Come to think of it, this is something we literally didn’t learn because we knew it already, but let’s not split hairs. You were advised here two days ago to keep next Saturday free. It won’t come to that but it very nearly did. For the third year in a row, a point was all that separated this pair at the penultimate stage. Yet again it was a gripping encounter and yet again it went right to the wire. Injury time lasted for four-and-a-half minutes and saw three scores. It nearly saw a fourth except John O’Dwyer couldn’t quite get his radar right and he put his shot wide at the far upright at the Davin End. So the rubber ends, for now at any rate, with Galway 2-1 ahead. Judging the matter on the contours of the three All-Ireland semi-finals it’s an apposite outcome. In the 2015 semi-final they were clearly the better team only for Seamus Callanan’s genius to keep Tipperary in it. Twelve months ago Tipp were the better team, albeit not by much. Here Micheál Donoghue’s charges were on top for most of the game bar the ten minutes approaching half-time and always appeared to have a little in hand. Tipp may or may not take some consolation from the substance they showed in defeat. But they’re entitled to.