| Tipp get a double lashing as Galway
march on  By
David Thorpe
Galway 3-11
Tipperary 0-12
Tipp boss Babs Keating lashed the attitude of his players after the Premier
County men were completely outplayed and outfought by Galway at Salthill.
Galway claimed a decisive advantage on 20 minutes when Ger Farragher rifled
a shot past Cummins in the Tipperary goal to give the Tribesmen a 1-3
to 0-4 lead. The nip-and-tuck nature of the game continued right to the
interval when Tipperary got to within a point until the move which turned
the game occurred right before half-time.
Multiple All-Star-winning goalkeeper Brendan Cummins was the unlikely
culprit when he failed to deal with a tame shot from David Tierney and
let it squeeze under his arms and into the net to leave the Premier men
with an uphill task in the second-half.
The excellent Eoin Kelly who operated at midfield nearly pulled the rabbit
from the hat for Babs Keating’s men supplying the ammunition for
Darragh Egan to convert a series of nice points though the same man did
miss three simple frees from straight in front of the posts at the start
of the second-half.
But once again just as the Munster men looked like hauling themselves
back into the game they produced another calamity in defence to gift Galway
a goal. Brendan Cummins and his entire full-back line raced out to claim
the one ball and colliding with each other which conspired to send the
sliothar into the path of Richie Murray who had the simplest of tasks
to slot home.
Cummins could play for another 30 years and not produce blunders like
those again but that ill-fortune should not mask the fact that Tipperary
look a few paces behind hurling’s top tier at present. Were it not
for the grit and guile of Eoin Kelly in the second-half it could have
been a lot worse for the Premier men.
The Galway backs all had the beating of their men but its hard to know
how much Conor Hayes can have learned from this. His team played within
themselves and had slices of outrageous fortune while Babs Keating was
forthright in his assertion that some of his players had an attitude problem
and if this result is anything to go by it could be a long winter and
short summer for Tipperary hurling fans.
In the other divisional matches Kilkenny struggled to a two-point win
(0-12 to 1-7) over lowly Antrim at Nowlan Park.
The Cats edged most of the play but were left sweating at the end when
a goal from lively Antrim substitute Joey Scullion left just two points
between the sides, causing the long whistle to be greeted with relief
by the Kilkenny supporters. Unbeaten Limerick maintained their excellent
run with a comfortable defeat (1-14 to 0-13) of Laois at O’Moore
Park. Sub Donie Ryan contributed the decisive goal on 53 minutes.
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