Sunday will see Galway compete in an All-Ireland semi-final for the 10th time since their relatively hassle-free route to that stage was removed 25 years ago.
Having checked out of the Munster Championship after 10 fruitless years in 1969, Galway returned to the All-Ireland series as Connacht’s sole representatives in 1970.
Initially they paired off with London in semi-finals against the Munster and Leinster champions but after three years of one-sided encounters, it was decided to pit the exiles against Galway in a one-off quarter-final, with the winners alternating against the provincial winners year on year in a single semi-final.
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Straight away, London scored a shock five-point victory over Galway in the 1973 quarter-final but after that, the Tribesmen found themselves in an All-Ireland semi-final every year from 1974-96 with only token opposition, ranging from the All-Ireland B champions in a given year, Roscommon, when the Connacht final was revived in the 90s, and New York blocking their route to the penultimate round.
In that period, their All-Ireland semi-final record was underwhelming, winning just 10 of 26 semi-final ties, with only Antrim, London and Down having a worse win percentage record among those that contested that stage of the Championship.
All-Ireland Semi-Final Record 1970-96 |
Note: Draws/replays count as one tie played. |
Galway’s best run was between 1985 and ‘90 as they reached five finals out of six, but they lost five of the next six semi-finals before Championship reform finally arrived.
From 1997, with the introduction of the ‘back door’, they faced more daunting quarter-final opposition in the shape of the beaten Leinster or Munster finalists (though they had a facile quarter-final victory over Ulster champions Derry in 2001) and with full scale qualifiers brought in from 2002 on, their entry point was moved further back again.
All of that meant that their All-Ireland semi-final appearances became much less frequent, reaching just three between 1997 and 2008, winning two, before they moved into Leinster in 2009.
They’ve contested a further six semi-finals since (draw and replay with Clare in 2018 is counted as one) and have won four of them, which means that their strike rate is second only to Kilkenny’s over the past 25 seasons.
So, the clear conclusion is that while Galway clearly don’t reach as many All-Ireland semi-finals as they did in the 1970s and ‘80s, they win a far higher percentage of the ones that they take part in now.
All-Ireland Semi-Final Record 1997-2021 |
That hasn’t correlated into more All-Irelands just yet, however, as they’ve been beaten in five out of six finals since 1997 after winning three in the ‘80s, but at least they’re earning their semi-final spot now and, when they get there with a series of high class games behind them, they have a better chance of success than they had when they were essentially waved through to that stage.
That will be of cold comfort as they prepare to face Limerick tomorrow, however.
Limerick had a rather modest semi-final record themselves up until recently, with Waterford, who were on a dreadful Croke Park run at the time, in 2007 the only top class opposition they had beaten from 1973 to 2014; London and Antrim (twice) were their other semi-final victims in that period.
But they’ve taken care of Cork, Galway and Waterford in recent semi-finals, with their surprise loss to Kilkenny at the same stage three years ago their last defeat in Championship hurling.
If Galway put a stop to that 14-game unbeaten run, it would surely rank as their most unlikely All-Ireland semi-final win since they derailed Cork’s four-in-a-row ambitions back in 1979.
All-Ireland Semi-Final Record 1970-2021 |
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