Cork on a completely different level, says Murray

By Kevin Egan, at UPMC Nowlan Park
The record books will show that Galway scored seven points in the first half of Saturday’s Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie semi-final against Tipperary and then 1-5 in the second 30 minutes of action at UPMC Nowlan Park, but while there was only a point in the difference (1-12 to 1-11), manager Cathal Murray felt that the two showings were a world apart when he spoke after the game.

“The performance was extraordinary in the second half to be honest, but we probably weren’t happy with our first half performance. We made an awful lot of mistakes, got turned over an awful lot of times, and a lot of those led to Tipp scores” said the Sarsfields clubman, who on Sunday week will lead Galway into a fourth All-Ireland senior final since he took over as manager mid-way through the 2018 season.

“There’s huge character on this team, huge resilience, they’ve always shown that. One thing they’ll do is always die with their boots on and I thought the second half was absolutely brilliant. Obviously, Niamh (Mallon) got a tonic of a goal at the very start of it, but Galway went two points down there at critical time in the game, and other teams would throw in the towel, but this team don’t. They’re absolutely unbelievable, the work rate in the second half, and the quality in the scores, the last few we got”.

Galway had three clear purple patches in the game: at the start and at the end, when they scored three points in succession in both spells, and either side of half-time when Mallon (main pic, doing battle with Tipperary defender Karin Blair) scored 1-2 unanswered in what was effectively five minutes of play.

“Yeah we knew we hadn’t started, and that was probably a positive. We knew that there was more to come from us and if we settle ourselves and get into a rhythm then we knew that we could turn scores and get over the line” said the former Down star, who transferred to her new home county for this campaign and is also a nutritionist for the Galway footballers playing in this afternoon’s All-Ireland final.

Team captain Róisín Black was deployed at the other end of the field, very much in the trenches against Tipperary’s talisman and top scorer, Eimear McGrath.

“We dug out there in the last five minutes and the character of the girls there really shone at the end. We know we’ve achieved what we’ve achieved today, but we have a big one ahead now in the next two weeks so that’s going to be our main focus,” said Black.

Murray didn’t mince his words when he spoke of the scale of the challenge facing Galway in that game against Cork on Sunday week in Croke Park.

“It’s hard to even think about that right now. Cork, I don’t think any one team has come within ten points of them in the championship so far, they’ve been absolutely super and they’ve gone to completely different levels since last year.

“It’s a huge challenge, it’s going to take a hell of a performance to beat Cork. But the whole year was built around getting to the final for us – league, everything we did – it was all about the semi-final and all about winning it. We’re just delighted – the last two years was very hard for us to watch on and we’re just delighted to be there.”

Unsurprisingly, delighted wasn’t the word that Tipperary manager Denis Kelly used to describe his feelings after his side failed to finish out a game where they led by 1-11 to 1-9 after 57 minutes.

Instead he went with “devastating”.

“We put in a savage effort,” Kelly said. “All the way coming down to the home stretch, we looked like we nearly had it. And then Galway showed their character and probably a bit of experience and they dug it out. But very fine margins, it’s a tough one to take.”

While both Justin Heffernan and Liz Dempsey were praised for their approach to the two games, encouraging physical contests for possession, Kelly did rue a couple of key decisions that could have been hugely consequential in a one-point game.

“Clodagh McIntyre definitely seemed to be pushed down from her head and didn’t get a free. I think they were getting the frees that little bit easier. But credit to Liz she did a good job of it, but just it’s a one-point game so it’s going to come down to fine margins, and it’s a simple as that some of the time.”

Some amount of hurt was understandable, as a handful of Tipperary players have now lost six semi-finals in seven years. Kelly backed his troops to find a way to break through that barrier very soon.

“There’s huge character in that dressing room, those players have given us everything this year. It took (Armagh football manager) Kieran McGeeney ten years to get to the final so, we’re there at the ten yet, so we’re not giving up. There’s huge talent coming through as well, we might lose one or two, but generally, our team is young enough. We have great talent coming through with the minors winning the All-Ireland so we’re not going anywhere. We will get there, it’s just about when.”