As a result, they lacked a target man on a day Shane Walsh didn’t do badly, but his crucial first half penalty miss will torment him. Galway missed his physical presence and bustling aggression. It was the type of robust encounter which would have been tailor-made for Damien Comer.
Despite Galway’s injury troubles, it still represented a surprising defeat despite another top-class display from team captain Shane Walsh, and the prominence of Peter Cooke, Cillian McDaid and Paul Conroy for long stages. Spurned goal chances and being turned over in possession too often came back to haunt Padraic Joyce’s charges in a helter-skelter finale in Carrick-on-Shannon. The hurlers would have sailed into the All-Ireland semi-final only for committing defensive hari-kari in the build up to Cillian Buckley’s dramatic winning goal in the Leinster Final, while a solitary point was also the margin as the footballers surrendered their place in the quarter-finals against Armagh last Sunday. Instead, the county’s two flagship GAA teams will themselves be involved in do-or-die encounters. It wouldn’t have taken a lot for the Galway hurlers and footballers to be putting their feet up this weekend and watching on as the respective championships hit the point of no return.
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