Galway v Waterford All Ireland Quarter Final 2011

Confirmed for Thurles 24 July 4pm.
This game brings up a number of interesting questions

1 Is two weeks sufficient to get over a defeat like Waterford suffered at the hands of Tipp?
I am thinking yes. In fact it's probably ideal.Mentally they should be alright on the day in fact it might well spur them on. The first week it's hard to have the stomach for hurling but by the Monday before the game, once they've realized the world is still turning despite what happened in Pair ui Caoimh, the players appetite will have returned and if anything they'll be greatful to have an opportunity of redeeming themselves so soon. Whether it's sufficient time to address, let alone fix their problems at the back is a different story altogether. Redemption might well have to wait a year. Which brings us to question 2

2 What will it take for Waterford to redeem themselves and is this team capable of it?
Hard to know what it will take really. A win obviously but restoring some pride is just as important at this point. If they can get a foothold in the game this Waterford side are capable of really testing Galway. A championship record of 8 games and 8 victories over the Tribes suggests quite emphatically just where the balance of power lies in this rivalry. They will take solace from that record but Galway will be using it as motivation themselves. If Waterford are to find redemption then any discontent that's rumoured to exist within the camp wont be doing them any favours.

3 Whats the story with John Mullane?
Did not look right at all in the Munster Final. Looked slow and unfocused. There's talk of him not having been taking training seriously this year which is criminal in the modern inter-county game. Did Davy allow this? Are they cooperating with each other fully? And is there really 6 better forwards in Waterford than Eoin Kelly? I know his form has dipped but surely such a prolific scorer has to be on the starting 15.

4 Are Galway flattering to decieve us yet again?
Would the real Galway please stand up the Tullamore version or the Limerick version. The team does look transformed from the Dublin game and the key difference is that they are playing as a team now. There was too much individualism going on in Tullamore but now they are playing with their heads up, making runs and looking for the man in space. Their still not completely there as Damien Hayes proved when he wouldnt pass the ball to Kerins who was clean in on goal the last day but the turnaround has been impressive nonetheless. Ultimately it will be hard to measure where Galway are really at unless they come up against the likes of Tipp or Kilkenny but no one is counting their chickens yet in that regard. Retaining their current rate of consistency and progress is paramount for Galway right now and remaining injury free is crucial for this to be maintained.

5 Who will win?
Galway will win. They are hurling out of their skins since Tullamore and improving each time. Waterford will offer a backlash and hopefully it will be enough to restore some pride but their fundamental problems in defense are sure to be targeted by John Mcyntires outfit who have scored 12 goals in 4 Championship games so far. Galways midfield has evolved to a real solid partnership and their defense, bar a shaky few moments early on against Cork look to have found their mojo. Waterford may well be looking for redemption but they will not find it in Thurles.

Too many disappointments over the last few years to be taking this one for granted. Galway definately have the motivation after 2009 to win this one. Opening 10 mins will be crucial can't afford a bad start like against Cork. Will be interesting to see where Brick plays, more than likely he will be back in the half back line to try and win some puck outs. Moore will have to be on top of his game against Mullane. Hopefully we don't get any injuries in the next 2 weeks, Kavanagh's injury in 09 cost us dear in the last 6 mins.

Can't remember a Summer we went injury free Clash, mind you we haven't met Kilkenny yet.....

Lads - ye can ruminate, speculate, cogitate and fascinate all ye like about these games. Fact is the double header in Thurles is merely a grotesque pageant to see who will provide the canon fodder for the Cats and Tipp before they get it on for the 3rd year in a row. All this talk about Davy rebuilding was found out for what it was yesterday - spoofing. Waterford with the old brigade couldn't do it and Liam winning material doesn't grow on trees - they are way off the mark. I would expect a rejuvenated Gaillimh to take them handy enough and if there is not at least 6 points between the sides then I wouldn't be bothered turning up for the semi if I was a Tribesman.

Same in the fusball I suppose with Kerry and Cork. Why do the rest even bother ?

moss - as a hurling man, if you cannot see that the Cats and Tipp are on a different plane then you are dreaming my friend.

Football is a little more open - not much - but a little.

Fooks sake Jayo. You bitch and moan about fellas not posting and then when someone does about an All Ireland Quarter Final you tell them its irrelevant. Anyway where there's life there's hope and I can't wait for Thurles

mossbags wrote:Fooks sake Jayo. You bitch and moan about fellas not posting and then when someone does about an All Ireland Quarter Final you tell them its irrelevant. Anyway where there's life there's hope and I can't wait for Thurles

I ain't moaning - just telling it like it is man!! Might see ya in the Square for a few cans of DG!!!

Sure you post irrelevant sh1t all the time anyways!!

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

mossbags wrote:Fooks sake Jayo. You bitch and moan about fellas not posting and then when someone does about an All Ireland Quarter Final you tell them its irrelevant. Anyway where there's life there's hope and I can't wait for Thurles

I ain't moaning - just telling it like it is man!! Might see ya in the Square for a few cans of DG!!!

Sure you post irrelevant sh1t all the time anyways!!

That is true. Roll on Thurles 24th the best double header of the year

Maybe mullins, hip, meself and yourself and Clash might have a few !!

As long as that fook Puke doesn't turn up ....

This is the ultimate Trip to Tipp!! And no Maurice Fitzgerald to mess it up this time!

I was thinking you wrote this Jayo until I read the part about NBA/NHL

It was the day Paul Kelly earned himself a second All Star. The Munster final of 2005 at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Cork went into half-time with a double-digit lead and at least eight digits on the provincial title. But Kelly, from midfield, drove over seven points as the Premier County almost pulled themselves level.

At the end, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín still lifted the title because the damage had been done in the first half, meaning the man of the match ended up on the losing side. Tommy Dunne missed a great late goal chance that day in the second half; from the sideline as Declan Ryan’s sidekick in 2011, goals were never going to be an issue.

We looked at how Tipperary score goals in our preview of the Munster final and so we must now look back on them again. Ostensibly, it was pretty simple stuff: movement inside, get the ball in fast so defenders are back peddling, make sure it breaks for a fellow artisan forward who will glue it all together.

In the first half alone – and of course this all stems from their dominance out the field – Tipperary were able to break the ball inside Waterford’s ’21 on 11 separate occasions. A couple of points came off that but, more importantly, so too did five goals. For the first two, scored by Lar Corbett and Eoin Kelly, Tipp’s forwards’ movements set up a situation whereby the opposing defenders were all outside the ’21 when the ball was delivered – and a full-back line does not want to be running backwards.

The fourth from Seamie Callanan saw no defender within 30 metres of their own goal after Patrick Bonner Maher had pawed off the ball. Just a solitary defender trailed and indeed stumbled behind Corbett inside the ’21 as the Thurles man rattled in the fifth following Gearoid Ryan’s long ball from midfield. At the other end, Na Déise didn’t manage to break even one ball inside Tipp’s full-back line in the first half. Hence the lack of goal opportunities.

While the tireless Kevin Moran was embarking on long solo runs, Shane McGrath and Ryan had the luxury of lofting it into the danger area and knowing their teammates would make something happen. The tone was set for Tipperary by midfielder McGrath. He snapped the first couple of balls and put snow on them, which we feel is often the plan. Michael Duignan spoke of how the likes of Corbett was making 40-yard runs in after a break; gambling, he called it, as Andy Gray also likes to say. When it keeps paying out, it looks more a certainty than a gamble. Only Eoin Kelly’s second goal on 54 minutes was off a clean catch but that was also from a long Ryan ball. Even Corbett’s last one, which he lashed in off the ground, was after John O’Brien had broken an air ball.

The supply came from myriad directions: nine different players set up scoring chances in the first half alone, and 11 by the end of the game. Paudie Maher, Bonner twice, Callanan, Ryan twice and O’Brien can all be credited with setting up majors.

So Tipperary continue their 62% score conversion rate from three Munster games this season, with 26 scores from 42 attempts. Put another way though, that’s 40 points from 42 pops both over and under the bar. The longest any Tipp forward went without scoring from play in the first half was six minutes; Waterford needed a full 17 minutes for a forward to even get a shot off. It took a further 10 minutes for the same man, Shane O’Sullivan, to add to Tony Browne’s other point from play as they brought it back to 1-10 to 0-06. Pauric Mahony put over another free to bring it back to within two pucks, then came the rain, and on went the reins during the reign of Tipp.

A 5-10 to 0-07 scoreline at the break, Tipperary were half way to Cork’s total against Laois from a few weeks ago. It was never really on the cards though; Cork ran riot in the second half whereas Tipp did so in the first, meaning the foot was always likely to come off after the short whistle.

We’re just left to ponder what Waterford could have done differently. Plenty, of course. Moving Michael Brick Walsh to full-back took more from Waterford than it ever could from Tipp. No matter who they played where, the beaten finalists always seemed likely to concede goals, and lose the game. Given the likelihood of that first part, might they have been well served by playing an extra man in and around their own 21-yard-line? So even if some defenders were running backwards, there was always one to attack the ball on the front foot. Tipp have been delivering possession in early and turning defences all year and Davy Fitzgerald must have known this. Accepting that his team would have lost manpower further up the pitch and with that comes its own negatives, playing mano-a-mano against this opposition looks redundant. Clinton Hennessy won’t appreciate the analogy but, with all the pieces moving so freely about the board, it is all about protecting the queen. She was taken, again and again.

Not that the Tipp forward line doesn’t present other obstacles. Part of the issue is how good they are at stopping you. The pressure they exerted on Waterford’s back line was immense and it kept the Déise’s on the back foot from the off. Callanan has often been criticised for being too casual but his workrate was immense on Sunday. On more than one occasion, he put in gut-busting sprints to chase down Déise men who wanted time to direct in good ball.

Waterford’s half-forward line pick seemed strange from the off. Shane O’Sullivan, Eoin McGrath and Mahony – just gone 19 – doesn’t sound like a forward line of ball winners, nor did it prove to be; perhaps Shane Walsh should have been brought out. Chances are that Davy Fitz’s first and last years as Déise boss will be remembered for humiliating defeats.

Bonner Maher is probably the most-sang-about-unsung hero in modern hurling; he makes the overstated understatedness of Claude Makelele seem understated. Still, he was again immense and his penchant of tying up defenders as they all fight him for a ball – like hens ’round a turnip – before sending someone clear is admirable.

Tomás Mulcahy made a big point of saying John Mullane was starved of ball in the game. In truth, Waterford as always looked for him at every opportunity. On more than 20 occasions, actually. He won frees in the sixth and ninth minutes that Mahony converted, was involved in a score for Browne in the 20th minute, got a point himself in the 50th minute, and also hit two bad wides. Not to mention that he kept the ball moving a couple of times. However on 15 occasions he was unable to use the ball under pressure from Paddy Stapleton, with it either taken away from him or broken away to safety. If the ball was not in Mullane’s hands, Tipp were usually able to get it back.

Back to Shane Walsh who got very little ball into his hand and, considering how well his went against Limerick, he might have been utilised more. For whatever difference it would have made. The evidence that it would not is vast. The entire forward line got off just 13 shots from open play in the game, returning 0-5. And after Mullane snapped a 50-50 ball in the ninth minute, you had to wait 45 minutes for a teammate to repeat the feat. Tipp won on the ground and in the air. Not to mention on the sideline, as Declan Ryan seems to have pushed on from the great work of Liam Sheedy.

It’s all a long way from 2005 now. Cork are out of the championship before the game was even played and are far from their halcyon days in the mid-noughties. Just three of the Tipperary starting line-up of six years remained on Sunday last – Brendan Cummins, Paul Curran and Eoin Kelly – but few of the issues that made them a very beatable team do.

That day, Paul Kelly’s day, in 2005 saw the All Ireland champions regain the Munster Cup, and go on to retain the Liam McCarthy trophy too; the beaten Munster finalists back then were knocked out of an All Ireland quarter-final by Galway. It seems as though 2011 could have a tinge of the 2005 vintage to it.


It’s been a horrible couple of weeks for hurling. Stereotypes have been reinforced and both provincial championships finished up with joke scorelines. Dublin were hammered, Waterford have been set back a couple of years perhaps, and Cork were pasted too.

With the provincial championships settled and the qualifiers over, there remains a prescient question: is hurling to become a monopoly or a duopoly. Because last week Kilkenny reminded us why they have lost just a single championship game since August 2005 and this weekend Tipperary had the look of serial killers.

The Munster field needs to catch up quickly or the more southerly of the two provinces will contract the problems of Leinster: a lack of competition. Cork, Clare and Waterford were all beaten with differing levels of ease by Tipp and Galway, beaten well by Dublin recently, made the Rebels look jaded.

We know, and we know you know, but a Tipperary-Kilkenny finale seems inevitable; there is always the off chance that Galway could buck the trend but we don’t think so. The sheer predictability of it all and the anticipation of another classic final makes you wish the GAA would take a leaf from the NBA’s and NHL’s book by giving us a best-of-seven series for the final. Seeing the Cats and the Premier week after week is the dream.

With so few memorable games last year and 2011 still to ignite, we could all face into the winter that little bit happier.

mossbags wrote:I was thinking you wrote this Jayo until I read the part about NBA/NHL

................ The sheer predictability of it all and the anticipation of another classic final makes you wish the GAA would take a leaf from the NBA’s and NHL’s book by giving us a best-of-seven series for the final. Seeing the Cats and the Premier week after week is the dream.

moss

Mind you it could be 3-3 with the decider in 2015 the way things is going!!!

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Maybe mullins, hip, meself and yourself and Clash might have a few !!

As long as that fook Puke doesn't turn up ....

This is the ultimate Trip to Tipp!! And no Maurice Fitzgerald to mess it up this time!

I would like to see the game not spend a day in Garda custody.......

mullins wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Maybe mullins, hip, meself and yourself and Clash might have a few !!

As long as that fook Puke doesn't turn up ....

This is the ultimate Trip to Tipp!! And no Maurice Fitzgerald to mess it up this time!

I would like to see the game not spend a day in Garda custody.......

Its OK. They will be all stuck in Athy. Few good pubs there to watch the games.

Real Kerry Fan wrote:

mullins wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Maybe mullins, hip, meself and yourself and Clash might have a few !!

As long as that fook Puke doesn't turn up ....

This is the ultimate Trip to Tipp!! And no Maurice Fitzgerald to mess it up this time!

I would like to see the game not spend a day in Garda custody.......

Its OK. They will be all stuck in Athy. Few good pubs there to watch the games.

Is athy near Galway

mullins wrote:

Real Kerry Fan wrote:

mullins wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Maybe mullins, hip, meself and yourself and Clash might have a few !!

As long as that fook Puke doesn't turn up ....

This is the ultimate Trip to Tipp!! And no Maurice Fitzgerald to mess it up this time!

I would like to see the game not spend a day in Garda custody.......

Its OK. They will be all stuck in Athy. Few good pubs there to watch the games.

Is athy near Galway

Yes and you may a find a few wandering around Galway also

Galway are unchanged for their 3rd Championship game in row, that hasn't happened in a good long time. Alan Kerins took a knock in training during the week but is ok.

James Skehill
(Cappataggle)

Fergal Moore Shane Kavanagh David Collins
(Turloughmore) (Kinvara) (Liam Mellows)

Donal Barry Tony Og Regan Adrian Cullinane
(Castlegar) (Rahoon Newcastle) (Craughwell)

David Burke Andy Smith
(St.Thomas) (Portumna)

Joe Gantley Ger Farragher Iarla Tannian
(Beagh) (Castlegar) (Ardrahan)

Damien Hayes (Capt) Joe Canning Alan Kerins
(Portumna) (Portumna) (Clarenbridge)

Still no room on the Waterford side for Maurice Shanahan or Eoin Kelly although in Shanahans case its more down to him not fully recovered from a hamstring injury you'd assume. It looks like Davy is going for a more defensive setup than
the Munter Final which is understandable. Lawlor back at FB, should have been there the last day. I'd expect Tannion and Brick to tustle it out with Gantley going in on Browne hopefully leaving the bit of space for Farragher to pull the strings for the Galway attack.

Hennessy
Fives
Lawlor
Connors
David O Sullivan
Brick Walsh
Tony Browne
Kevin Moran
Shane O Sullivan
Seamus Prendergast
John Mullane
Pauric Mahony
Steven Molumphy
Shane Walsh
Brian O Sullivan

Waterford by 10+.....

Missed the game but watched the highlights. Sad result for Galway, Clash and Mossbags will be heartbroken.

But all credit to Waterford. And Davy too. He took a lot of criticism in the aftermath of the Munster Final but brought the lads back the day after it, got them in the right place again and they answered the critics in the best possible fashion today.

Jesus what is wrong with that Galway team? Bloody jeckyll and hyde doesn't even do them justice. Can't understand what is going on there at all but anyone who thinks Galway are third after the Cats and Tipp need their heads examined. And beating Cork these days is no achievement - they are as poor a Cork team as I have seen in my lifetime. Dublin would hammer them.

Hard to explain what happend to Galway over the last 2 weeks, looked tired,slow and nothing came off. Passing was awful and shooting not much better. 6 years and counting since we last made the semi's. Don't know if changing the manager is going to do much, he wasn't on the field today. They are definately better than what they showed. Hard to know where we go from here.

clash-of-da-ash wrote:Hard to explain what happend to Galway over the last 2 weeks, looked tired,slow and nothing came off. Passing was awful and shooting not much better. 6 years and counting since we last made the semi's. Don't know if changing the manager is going to do much, he wasn't on the field today. They are definately better than what they showed. Hard to know where we go from here.

As an outsider looking in here is the problem imo

2005 - A Ryan, P Flynn, A Gaynor, K Briscoe, G Mahon, B Cullinane, D Collins, B Lucas, A Garvey, J Gantley, A Callanan, E Ryan, N Healy, K Burke, K Wade. Subs - F Coone, C Dervan, D Kelly

2007: D Tuohy; E Glynn, C Dillon, C O'Doherty; D O'Donovan, N O'Connell, J Gunning; E Barrett, C O'Donovan, C Morley, J Conlon, S Collins; C Tierney, D Honan, C Ryan. Subs: C McGrath, P O'Connor, E Hayes.


2004 - M Herlihy, P Loughnane, G Mahon, C O'Donovan, M Ryan, J Lee, J Hughes, A Keary, D Kennedy, K Kilkenny, K Hynes, F Coone, K Wade, J Canning, B Hanley. Sub - D White

2005 - J Skehell; A Leech, P Loughnane, P Callaghan; J Hughes, C O'Donovan, K Kilkenny; A Keary, K Coen; S Glynn, J Greene, A Callanan; C Kavanagh, J Canning, B Murphy. Subs - F Kerrigan, S Howley, T Flannery, J Gilsen, B Kenny

2009: F Flannery, J Coen, D Burke, Conor Burke, M Keating, B Flaherty, J Cooney, J Regan, D Glennon, D Fox, N Burke, J Grealish, R Cummins, R Badger, S Moloney. Subs: M Horan, T Haran, N Keary.

Where are these underage players gone....................

I'm a bitéén if not downright myself here TBH.

Galways game is about physically dominating sides, especially in the middle third, they were able to do this v Clare and Cork but when they came up against sides who were every bit as big as them and they couldn't push around they had no answer, as I have said before with this Galway side too much brute force not enough finesse.

in saying that Galway looked like a side who believed their own hype and looked complacent, disappointing to see them lack intensity and thrown in the towel so easily, I presume there will be a big clear out of this team, the core has been there 6 or 7 years yet they haven't made it past the quarter finals since 2005


Thought Shane Walsh was excellent for Waterford as well yesterday

An moltoir's take on the game, not good reading from a Galway point of view

THE CONSISTENCY OF GALWAY’S INCONSISTENCY
Predicting the trends and outcomes of hurling matches is a game for fools and professional sports writers. Who could have envisaged Cork’s first round destruction of Tipperary last year, or Tipp’s seven goal trouncing of Waterford in this year’s Munster final?

Trying to draw a line of form between successive matches is equally futile. A case in point: In 2003, Waterford and Limerick played an epic, rip-roaring, free-scoring Munster semi-final which ended in a draw, 4-13 apiece. In the replay a week later, the same two teams produced a game of abysmal turgidity, with Waterford scraping over the line by 1-12 to 0-13, an extraordinarily low score for hurling at that level.

Prior to last Sunday’s All-Ireland Quarter Final between Galway and Waterford, the professional pundits mainly focused on Waterford’s blow-out in the Munster Final and its psychological impact on the players, and on Galway’s decisive qualifer victories against Cork and Clare. The Sunday Times assembled an expert panel which spent some time speculating on how Galway would fare against Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final. Their advice for Waterford was to “throw in the young lads” and “let them off”. Chief Sports Writer Denis Walsh expected a “demoralised Déise” to be no problem for a settled, in-form and “formidable” Galway team high in confidence.

However, if one poked deeper into the entrails, one could have found alternative pointers. Waterford have a core of seasoned players, and last Sunday were seeking to qualify for their sixth semi-final in a row and their eighth in ten years. They won the Munster championship last year. They played a lot of good hurling in this year’s national league, despite trying out a lot of new players, and came within a whisker of getting to the final. In their last league game, despite being seriously under strength, they put one over on a strong (on paper) Galway team which was also playing for a place in the final.

There clearly therefore was a lot of quality in the Waterford squad, with additional depth provided by the emergence of new young talent. Our analysis suggested that their Munster final performance was attributable, in large part, to Davy Fitzgerald’s tactical ineptitude, team selection and player placement, and the impact this had on the team’s collective morale. That said, despite Tipp’s goal blitz, they never caved in, and kept plugging away to the end, racking up a creditable 19 points in the process.

For last Sunday’s game, Davy’s tactical concoctions were binned and a much stronger team was put on the field, with most players in their best positions. Instead of the “young lads”, the key additions to the team were Seamus Prendergast and Eoin Kelly, hardened veterans with something to prove. The rumour mill suggests that player power played a key role in this turnaround in approach. Waterford came to Thurles last Sunday to play hurling, and to do so with resolve and commitment. They will also no doubt have received a fillip by the way the county’s minors recovered from their own poor showing in the Munster Final to beat Kilkenny decisively in the All-Ireland quarter final on Saturday night.

So how were Galway likely to respond to this challenge? There are several elements involved in answering that question. First of all, how good are they really? They had beaten a callow Clare outfit saddled with a naïve tactical approach and shorn of a player for most of the second half, and had similarly won well over a Cork team weak in personnel and morale. However, against Dublin, a team of real substance (in both physical and hurling terms) they were, in a word, pathetic.

Secondly, did Galway believe all the media hype and expect that all they had to do was turn up last Sunday? Perhaps they should have heeded the words of former defender Greg Kennedy, quoted in the Sunday Times: “We should beat Waterford if we’re tuned in but I’d be wary of Waterford too”. Thirdly, how would a team of Galway’s legendary flakiness cope with being 1/4 favourites in some betting emporia?

Another factor which may have been of some significance was the fact that the game was being played in Thurles, a pitch where Galway play rarely in the championship and where their record is not good: In the ten years prior to last Sunday they had played there just six times and lost four times. By contrast, Thurles is almost like a home from home for Waterford. They love playing there, partly because they nearly always win there: in the same time period, they played no less than 19 championship games in Semple Stadium, winning 13, drawing three and losing just three times. These things can be important, especially when you are trying to rediscover past form.

Well, we know at least some of the answers now. Last Sunday Galway were almost as bad as they were against Dublin (and for much of the second half they were worse). Denis Walsh’s assertion (in the Sunday Times) that Waterford “don’t have the power to bully Galway like Dublin did” looks foolhardy now, as does his suggestion that Galway “have the better hurlers and the more balanced team” compared with Waterford.

While Galway’s second half collapse seemed surprising after a reasonably competitive first half, on reflection there were telltale signs of what was to come. They did have a slight edge in obtaining primary possession, winning the majority of the puckouts (69% of Waterford’s and 41% of their own). However, they were not able to turn this into territorial advantage, as they were only able to manage 13 shots in the half compared to Waterford’s 19. This is attributable to a combination of poor use of the ball and the tenacity and force of Waterford’s harrying and tackling.

There were also clear signs that Galway were not properly tuned in, as Greg Kennedy feared. James Skehill sent one puckout out over the sideline while Adrian Cullinane failed to control a short puckout which went out for a Waterford sideline. Shortly afterwards, Cullinane, in oceans of space, sent an intended long ball to Joe Canning out over the sideline while Tony Óg Regan overhit a free intended for Canning with the ball bouncing harmlessly over the end line near the corner flag.

Galway’s tactical use of Joe Canning was also hard to fathom. Given the ravaging they experienced in the Munster final, one might have expected the Waterford full back line (and goalkeeper) to be rather fragile psychologically, especially their inexperienced full back in whom Davy Fitzgerald clearly has little confidence. In the circumstances, one might have expected Galway to go for the jugular, placing Canning on the edge of the square and raining ball down on him. Kilkenny certainly would have done that with Henry Shefflin.

Instead, Galway placed Canning on the left wing where he became the target for both long balls and short passing movements. This strategy did yield a few points but never threatened the Waterford goal. In fact the only two times the Waterford goal came under threat in the first half was courtesy of their own mistakes – the first when Noel Connors’s failure to clear the ball allowed Iarla Tannian in for the foul which yielded Canning’s penalty goal, and a misdirected attempt at a short pass from a sideline which allowed Damien Hayes to come in along the end line and place a pass in front of the incoming Iarla Tannian only for Darragh Fives to clear away the danger with a superb flick.

Two sure measures of the poverty of the Galway attacking strategy were the facts that Waterford goalkeeper Clinton Hennessy didn’t have to play the ball once apart from puckouts and frees in the first half and that full back Liam Lawlor got his first touch of the ball in the second minute of added time. Even then, all he had to do was pick up, unmarked, a loose ball sent into the corner by Galway and unload it to full back colleague Fives to complete the clearance.

Ironically, when Galway did change tack and place Canning at full forward at the beginning of the second half, it had the effect of taking him completely out of the game such was the extent of the Galway collapse in the third quarter. Galway’s lack of concentration and discipline was reflected in the fact that Waterford’s first three points after the restart came from silly fouls – a needless tug on Brick Walsh in midfield, Donal Barry dragging Padraig Mahony down when he didn’t even have the ball, and Dave Collins’s stupid strike on Eoin Kelly as the ball was bouncing harmlessly wide.

When Waterford followed these up with two points from play, Galway visibly caved in, and only a sequence of poor shooting by the rampant Waterford forwards saved the westerners from total ignominy. It was nine minutes into the second half before Galway managed their first shot at goal of the half, and another minute before they got their first score. It took them another ten minutes to get their second score – and this was Joe Canning’s first time to play the ball in the half, over 20 minutes after the restart.

With substitute Cyril Donnellan winning some primary ball, and fellow substitute Barry Daly showing a level of effort rare in his colleagues, Galway did win some good possession in the final quarter, but they were largely reduced to shooting for goal from outside the 20 metres line and, while one of these did get through, overall there is little percentage in this. Thus Waterford sauntered to the finish line, their day capped off by Tomás Ryan’s late goal, an event which was sullied by Tony Óg Regan’s nasty blow across Ryan’s hand, delivered well after the latter had got his shot away.

The overall play count provides stark testimony to the poverty of the Galway effort. In the first half Waterford made 100 plays, amounting to 233 quality points (for an average of 2.33) in our system where plays are rated on a scale of 1-5, while Galway made 87 plays for a total of 194 quality points (average 2.23). Thus, not only were Waterford playing the ball more, but they were making better use of it. However, the extent of Galway’s second half collapse was staggering. While Waterford increased their play count to 109 for a quality points total of 279 (an extraordinary average of 2.55), Galway’s play count fell precipitously to just 63 for 144 quality points (average 2.29).

In essence what this means is that Waterford were twice as good as Galway in the second half. They won the majority both of their own (60%) and of Galway’s (58%) puckouts, and at one stage in the third quarter they won six Galway puckouts in a row. They also had 24 shots at goal to Galway’s 14, for an overall total of 43 shots to Galway’s 27.

When compiling the individual play statistics, our initial main interest was to establish whether Kevin Moran or Brick Walsh would emerge as man of the match in terms of plays and quality points. However, it quickly became apparent that a third Waterford player was also very much in the running, this being midfielder Shane O’Sullivan, whose excellent distribution in finding colleagues with well directed and weighted long passes was a particular feature of the game. Ultimately, Brick Walsh shaded the play count (24 to O’Sullivan’s 23) but the roles were reversed in terms of quality points, with O’Sullivan amassing 60 to Walsh’s 57. Not far behind was Kevin Moran with 52 quality points from 20 plays.

Thus, between them, the Waterford midfielders (O’Sullivan and Moran) made 43 plays for 112 quality points compared with just 27/60 for their opposite numbers (David Burke and Andy Smith and their replacements Barry Daly and Aidan Harte).

Similarly, the Waterford half back line of Tony Browne, Brick Walsh and David O’Sullivan made 46 plays for 108 quality points compared with just 26 plays and 48 quality points for the Galway half backs (Donal Barry, Tony Óg Regan and Adrian Cullinane, and Barry’s and Cullinane’s replacements Kevin Hynes and John Lee). This is a measure of the extent of Waterford’s dominance in the key ball-winning areas of the pitch over the course of the game.

Apart from O’Sullivan, Walsh and Moran, Waterford had six other players who exceeded 30 quality points – John Mullane (45 points from 20 plays), Seamus Prendergast (38/18), Shane Walsh (37/12), Steve Molumphy (36/15), the remarkable Tony Browne (32/14) and Padraig Mahony (30/14 – showing that he is much more than just a freetaker). By contrast, Galway had only two players who broke the 30 point threshold – Joe Canning (43/17) and Shane Kavanagh (42/15) who, despite being subjected to a torrid time by Shane Walsh, still did a lot of good work (albeit some of it was done further out the field when Kavanagh was moved off Walsh in the second half).

Galway had some horror totals at the other end of the scoring spectrum. Donal Barry played the ball twice during 40 minutes on the pitch. One wonders how James Regan lasted the whole game as he only made three plays, the most significant of which was a gift of a point in the first half when Darragh Fives failed to control a short puckout which he didn’t appear to be expecting. While Ger Farragher did reasonably well in the first half when Galway were still semi-competitive, he disappeared completely from view after the change of ends, getting his first second half touch in the 62nd minute. Once again, Farragher demonstrated that, while he can be devastating when Galway are on top and supplying him with good ball, he is of little use when the going gets tough and the supply dries up.

Other features of the Galway performance were that Andy Smith didn’t play one ball during the 16 minutes he played in the second half, that Iarla Tannian managed just three ineffectual plays in the entire half, and that Cyril Donnellan amassed a very respectable 18 quality points from seven plays during his 32-minute second half stint.

So Galway go back to a drawing board that must be rutted by now with chalk marks. One imagines at this stage that it will take a Second Coming before they become serious All-Ireland contenders (and we are not talking about Joe Cooney here). Meanwhile, Waterford move on to a semi-final tilt against the Cats with nothing to lose but their increasingly weighty historical chains.

Play counts (plays/quality points)

WATERFORD (209/512): Hennessy C (3/9); Fives D (8/21); Lawlor L (9/23); Connors N (10/24); Browne T (14/32); Walsh M (24/57); O’Sullivan D (8/19); O’Sullivan S (23/60); Moran K (20/52); Prendergast S (18/38); Molumphy S (15/36); Mahony, P (14/30); Mullane J (20/45); Walsh S (12/37); Kelly E (10/25); Ryan T (1/4); Foley R, Casey S, Prendergast D (no plays).

GALWAY (144/338): Skehill J (2/5); Moore F (10/24); Kavanagh S (15/42); Collins D (6/13); Barry D (2/3); Regan T (10/18); Cullinane A (7/14); Burke D (11/21); Smith A (7/16); Gantley J (5/11); Farragher G (9/20); Canning J (7/43); Hayes D (13/29); Regan J (3/6); Donnellan C (7/18); Hynes K (4/7); Lee J (3/6); Harte A (4/10); Daly B (5/13).