Galway secure Connacht title as inside men put Roscommon to the sword
29 May 2022; Patrick Kelly of Galway shoots to score his side's second goal during the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship Final match between Galway and Roscommon at Pearse Stadium in Galway. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
A first Connacht title of Pádraic Joyce’s improving tenureship, his Galway charges relatively untroubled in avoiding a third straight defeat to Roscommon this season.
As well as delivering a 48th Connacht SFC title, and first since 2018, this afternoon’s three-point victory means Galway’s route to the All-Ireland final is free of both Kerry and Dublin, the Munster and Leinster champions on the other side of the road in the race for Sam Maguire.
Said destination, mind, is still a way off in the distance and so the next step for this resurgent Galway group is to record the county’s first All-Ireland quarter-final win since 2001 - Galway’s progression to the 2018 semis came via the Super 8s rather than victory in a standalone last-eight game.
Their inside line of Robert Finnerty, Damien Comer, and Shane Walsh were in truly devastating form here, the trio contributing 1-14 of Galway’s 2-19 total.
Comer kicked his three points during an all-action second-half showing, while Finnerty, with five points from play, was in match of the match territory. As for Walsh, his 1-6 tally - 1-3 from play - saw him finish as the game’s top-scorer.
Ahead by five at the break, Galway, with the breeze behind them for the second period, slowly moved out of Roscommon's reach to record a first Connacht final win on home soil since 2008.
The final winning margin at sun-kissed Salthill greatly flattered Roscommon, Anthony Cunningham’s troops having trailed by nine entering the final quarter.
A Conor Daly goal on 64 minutes reduced the margin to five, 2-16 to 1-14, with their second goal, supplied by sub Diarmuid Murtagh, the game’s last action.
Despite playing into the elements in the opening half, hosts Galway skipped back down the tunnel 2-7 to 0-8 ahead.
The second of the Galway green flags was by a distance of greater importance than the first, Patrick Kelly’s drop-kick effort arriving at a time when Pádraic Joyce’s side were operating with a man less.
That numerical disadvantage arose when Kieran Molloy was correctly black carded on 31 minutes for a pull back on Ciaráin Murtagh, Enda Smith pointing in the ensuing play to reduce the Galway lead to three, 1-7 to 0-7, and fill Roscommon boots full of momentum that the gap could be further shrunk before Joe McQuillan whistled for the interval break.
The gap, though, travelled in the other direction on 33 minutes as Patrick Kelly, making his first championship start in maroon, reacted quickest to a Robert Finnerty point effort that came back down off the post and drop-kicked the ball to Colm Lavin’s net.
Galway’s opening green flag, on 18 minutes, had far less good fortune attached to it and was more the product of superb play by Comer, Finnerty, and Shane Walsh.
It was Comer who fielded Conor Gleeson’s restart, Finnerty then held off Roscommon corner-back David Murray to take control of Comer’s delivery before possession was worked through the hands of Johnny Heaney, Comer, and onto Walsh, who dummied twice before sending a low shot into the corner of the goal.
The goal was part of an unanswered 1-3 that moved Galway 1-6 to 0-4 in front, with Roscommon kicking five wides during this period, including an Enda Smith goal chance in the play directly before Walsh’s green flag.
Galway went ultra-defensive each time Roscommon attacked, with 14 players put behind the ball, but it was more Roscommon wastefulness - they registered seven first half wides - than Galway’s structure at the back that contributed to the visitors’ failure to make any use of the elements.
And when Roscommon did eventually marry penetration with a clinical edge late in the second half, their race was long run.
S Walsh (1-6, 0-2 ‘45s, 0-1 free); R Finnerty (0-5); D Comer (0-3); J Heaney (0-2); P Conroy, C McDaid, K Molloy (0-1 each).
C Cox (0-5, 0-3 frees); D Murtagh (0-1 free), C Daly (1-1 each); U Harney (0-3); D Smith (0-2, 0-1 free); C Murtagh, E Smith, C Heneghan, C McKeon (0-1 each).
C Gleeson; S Kelly, L Silke, J Glynn; D McHugh, J Daly, C McDaid; P Conroy, M Tierney; K Molloy, D Comer, J Heaney; R Finnerty, Patrick Kelly, S Walsh.
N Daly for Tierney (59); F Ó Laoí for Comer (66, inj); O Gallagher for Finnerty, Paul Kelly for Patrick Kelly (both (both 69); C Sweeney for Molloy (74).
C Lavin; B Stack, C Daly, D Murray; C Hussey, N Daly, R Daly; U Harney, E Nolan; C Heneghan, E Smith, C Murtagh; C McKeon, D Smith, C Cox.
N Kilroy for Heneghan (HT); R Hughes for Murray (48); D Murtagh for D Smith (49); A Glennon for McKeon, K Doyle for Nolan (both (58).
J McQuillan (Cavan).
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