Galway were as long as 4/1 to beat Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final, yet they were leading with less than 10 minutes to go.
Ultimately they were swamped as Limerick hit the last three points, two of them in injury time, to sneak home but the Galway performance showed that they could more than compete with a generational team such as Limerick to a far greater degree than many would have imagined.
That’s cold comfort in the immediate aftermath of a narrow loss, but Tribe boss Henry Shefflin was hopeful that they will take something from it and bring it into next year.
He said: “I hope they know now that they’re not too far away and I think ye’ve all said it and I’ve said it, there’s loads of good hurlers up there so it’s just trying to put the small fine details to it to see can you go on to the next level and some of them lads have been there, they’ve won an All-Ireland so you’d hope so, you’d hope so.
“We said it to them, it’s important now they go back to their clubs and I saw some of the club championship games last year in Galway and it wasn’t great so I think it’s important now that they go back and they try and lift some of the club players and try and increase the performance levels of club players that are coming through and feeding into the county squad.”
He added: “Coming up against such hot favourites, you speak a lot about getting a performance and I would have spoken about that myself – that’s what we needed. And then you get the performance and you don’t get the result and, you know, sport is cruel.
“So yeah, it’s just very disappointing. You give it absolutely everything, and then it’s all just over and you just come up a little bit short and there’s a lot of ifs and buts.
“But, I suppose, from a management point of view and from a group point of view, we said we wanted to do ourselves proud on the field today and I think we achieved that.”
Shefflin cut an irate figure on the sideline at times in the second half and, along with Paul Kinnerk, was yellow carded by referee Thomas Walsh after getting into a spat with the Limerick coach.
“I did feel there was a 10-minute, 12-minute spell in the second half there, after we got the goal, that there were a few marginal calls that didn’t go our way, yes.
“But look, I don’t think they all went over the bar either and I think in the overall context of the game, you know, it comes and goes a little bit, to be fair.”
A total of 20 wides, 12 of them in the first half, was undoubtedly a greater contributory factor to Galway’s downfall.
“Our shooting efficiency let us down,” Shefflin admitted. “We knew we’d have to take a lot of shots from mid-range, and we knew that was going to be the case, but obviously you’re hoping some of them go over.
“And then I think we coughed up a few silly points in the first half, and all those kind of things come back to bite you a little bit.
“But look, to be fair to Limerick, they’re true champions. We really went at them, and it was only that last phase – their bench obviously made a bit of an impact and pulled away a little bit.
“Obviously the shooting – but I haven’t looked at the numbers yet, because numbers don’t really matter when it’s all over – but I’m sure the shooting efficiency would be low.”
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