Murray in a hurry to dish praise PADRAIC ADMITS CLOSE DEFEAT A HEARTBREAKER
Galway 1-12
Tipperary 1-11
All-ireland camogie semi-final
GALWAY manager Cathal Murray lavished praise on his side after reaching the All-ireland final.
The Tribeswomen hit 0-7 in the first half and 1-5 after the break but the improvement in their general play was the big plus point.
Murray beamed: “The performance was extraordinary in the second half 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.
“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.”
Galway had three purple patches in the game.
They came at the start and at the finish, when they scored three points in succession in both spells, and either side of half-time when Niamh Mallon grabbed an unanswered 1-2.
Tipperary led 1-11 to 1-9 after 57 minutes but could not see it out.
And boss Denis Kelly admitted: “We put in a savage effort. 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. It’s a tough one to take.”
He added: “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.”
PADRAIC JOYCE admitted yesterday’s All-ireland final defeat has left him heartbroken.
The Galway manager steered his team to their second decider in three years but was unable to get them to the peak of football’s Everest.
Instead they suffered altitude sickness once again, losing by a point two years after Kerry outplayed them in the final quarter to win the 2022 title.
Joyce said: “It’s difficult. No words can put down the way I feel. I’m heartbroken for the lads more so. They feel devastated in there in the dressing room.
“We are not looking for excuses here. I’d rather say congratulations to Armagh, they’re deserving winners. They won the game and their supporters will enjoy it for the next couple of weeks. We’ll try to get up on it again.”
The game changed midway through the second half with Aaron Mckay’s goal, the first time Armagh took the lead in a game which struggled to catch fire.
Crucially from there until the final whistle, Galway managed to register just three points. This was a match they feel they lost, rather than one which Armagh won.
Joyce (right) said: “We never panicked as such. Obviously the injury to Rory Grugan meant there was going to be five or six minutes added on. There was still loads of time on the clock. You can get a score – even at the end when they came down the pitch and dropped it short, we still had a chance to equalise, a shot which got blocked down.
“We had chances, there’s no two ways about it and if you don’t take those chances then that’s just the nature of the game.
“Football is about putting the ball over the bar. We didn’t do enough of that.”
Several of their players came close.
Shane Walsh left two shots short, Cein Darcy and Cillian Mcdaid hit wides at crucial times, Dylan Mchugh (inset) had another shot rebound off the post.
Joyce said: “Again, that’s the bit of luck you need on big days. He’s been a fantastic player for us all year, Dylan. He’s devastated there after the game.
“But what do you do? At least he took the shot on, it hit the post, he was a bit unlucky. They had one that hit the post and hopped over the bar. So those small margins of luck on the day, we didn’t have it.
“We had chance after chance after chance so it’s going to be hard to take. But we’ll stick together for Galway football. While we’re devastated today, football in Galway has improved.”