Allianz Hurling League Division 1 – Waterford 1-17 Galway 1-16

Allianz League Division 1: Galway miss out

Waterford 1-17 Galway 1-16

From the GAA.ie web site

Reigning Allianz Hurling League champions Galway missed out on the opportunity to defend their title in next month’s final after they were beaten by a point in Walsh Park on Sunday. A win for Galway would have been enough to secure one of the two available final berths, but their challenge faltered and they fell to their third defeat of the campaign, slipping to fifth place in the final standings. Although all the pre-match focus was on Galway’s chances of making the final, in the end Waterford finished third in the table and would have qualified for League showpiece had Dublin lost to Cork on Leeside. In the end, though, it was the Dubs who went through, thanks largely to Galway’s defeat. Déise boss Davy Fitzgerald joked afterwards that his old Clare inter-county team-mate and Dublin’s manager, Anthony Daly, owed him a big favour for helping the men from the capital into their first League decider since 1946.

“If I don’t get a phone call off him (Daly) now I will be very disappointed,” Fitzgerald said. “He texted me yesterday and then he rang me when he heard that we were down a few players! “I told him we would be giving it our all because if Cork had beaten them (Dublin) today we were in the League final. We were very close to getting there ourselves. I’m disappointed we didn’t get a crack to be in the League final.” Ultimately, it was two late frees from the impressive Pauric Mahony that gave the points to the Déise. Waterford led 0-9 to 0-8 at the break and went even further ahead when Shane Walsh hit the back of the net in the 39th minute.

However, Joe Canning, making his seasonal debut on his return from a troublesome heel injury, scored a sublime individual goal for Galway, reducing the gap to two points, 1-12 to 1-10. Waterford showed greater desire in the final quarter and despite Canning leveling matters on 70 minutes with a free, Mahony hit the winner in added time. Galway were very disappointing in the first half against a Waterford side missing some of their marquee names, including Richie Foley, Eoin Kelly, John Mullane and Maurice Shanahan.

The Deise were 0-4 to 0-0 ahead by the eighth minute, with Mahony hitting three scores and Brian O’Sullivan chipping in with a fine effort from play. Canning got Galway off the mark in the 13th minute with a free, before Waterford edged further ahead through Walsh and O’Sullivan. In fairness to Galway, they reduced the gap to two at the break thanks to points from Iarla Tannian (two) and fine score from Damien Hayes.