Micheál Donoghue credits Limerick performance but Galway 'never got into the pitch of it'

The Tribe were blown away in the second half at Croke Park.

Galway manager Micheál Donoghue. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Beaten Galway boss Micheál Donoghue repeatedly lumped praise into the green corner. And rightly so. But it wasn’t all green. Where did the maroon approach fall down? Why did the maroon approach never even remotely function?

“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,” said Donoghue.

“But 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.

“I still think for us, we just never got into the pitch of it ourselves. Then there were a few times maybe forcing it, and then with their turnovers, we got punished every time.” 

From a position of 0-6 to 0-5 in arrears on 21 minutes, Galway were hanging on by their fingertips come half-time. The difference might have been only five on the scoreboard, but the suffocation act was being carried out with full force. The third quarter finished Galway and the final. Outgunned 1-6 to 0-2 in the eight minutes after half-time.

Blown away. Simple as that.

“Yeah, they did,” continued Donoghue.

“First and foremost, you have to give them huge credit for their performance and their consistency of the performance over the 70 minutes.

“We were five down [at half-time] and at that stage probably would have taken that, hoping that we would put in a bigger second half.

“I suppose when you reflect on Limerick and the season they had up to today, you know, we were measuring it against lesser performances, if you want to put it that way. Because, you know, full credit to them on the biggest day, they probably gave their best performance in a long time. And full credit to John and his management team and all of them.” 

The expectation that Cathal Mannion would sit as deep as he had done in the Leinster final never materialised. Whatever his role was, it wasn’t offering protection to the full-back line.

Bar the attempts of his older brother to cover the flanks and discourage deliveries into certain pockets, space abounded in the Galway full-back line. Space where Gillane and Casey and Hegarty throve.

“In games where we had, say, particularly Cathal coming back, our best periods were still when we pushed up. That probably was unnoticed a tad, 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.” Galway’s individual performances panned out in rather telling fashion. The experienced actors were snuffed out and sidelined. It was the kids who brought the fight at both ends of this non-event.

Rabbitte and Niland, early doors, kept the white flag lifted and Galway in touch. Trayers and Neary fought against the green tsunami after half-time. They are Galway’s present and their future.

“It's bitter today and 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. Someone used the phrase there, they learned in the fire today, do you know what I mean? It's a tough one to take and, yeah, look, we'll just soak it up and have to go again,” said the Galway manager.