‘Not men, but giants.” So goes an advertising campaign that once marked Guinness’s sponsorship of the hurling championship in previous years. Tonight this phrase is entirely appropriate as Tipperary rout Galway in a thrilling All-Ireland Under-21 final, in front of over 21,110 adoring fans.
Tipperary county added the All-Ireland Under-21 title to their earlier Liam McCarthy Cup triumph this week by trashing Galway by 25 points at Semple Stadium, here in Thurles.
Tipperary lead from the start with goals from Brian O’Meara, John O’Dwyer and Sean Carey inside the opening quarter, leaving them at the interval leading by 3-7 to 0-9.
Patrick Maher and Noel McGrath added two further goals in the second half and Galway finished with just fourteen men after their centre forward Niall Quinn received a straight red card, just seven minutes from the end.
This outrageously talented Tipperary side from start to finish rode the wave of last Sunday’s senior success displaying excellent teamwork, skill and demonstrated in full a complete understanding of the craft of their sport.
As for Tipperary’s James Logue, three superb saves further confirmed his superb ability in the art of goalkeeping.
Galway followers appeared to have deserted their team in droves with scarcely one thousand of their fans making a showing for the final. With all the pre-match hype regarding the venue, which almost overshadowed the actual event itself, we can no doubt expect to hear in the coming days a disgruntled Galway following screaming “Unfair, Unfair”, but to be honest Galway were no match for Tipperary to night, as the final score testified.
Tipperary: J Logue, K O’Gorman, P Maher, M Cahill, J Barry, B Maher, C Hough, S Hennessy, N McGrath, S Carey, P Maher, P Murphy, M Heffernan, B O’Meara and J O’Dwyer.
Subs: C Coughlan for K O’Gorman , J O’Neill for J O’Dwyer, A Ryan for P Murphy, J Gallagher for N McGrath and K Morris for M Heffernan.
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