Waterford's failures in Munster are everyone's concern and what else we learned from the GAA weekend
How much more pain can Waterford hurling take?
Once hurling's round robin system started in 2018, nine counties have been ever present in
Munster
and
Leinster
. Of those only
Waterford
have failed to qualify at least once for the knockout stages of the championship. Everybody else has come out at least three times.
In three of those years, they started with a big win at home in the opening round and failed to build on it. Even one of their first-round defeats was a heartening effort against Limerick, when Thurles was Waterford's temporary home, and the All-Ireland champions at the time were at their wit's end to beat Waterford by a couple of points.
But you wonder how much more of this they can take? How often can they make themselves believe that they're not too far away? Peter Queally said after the Cork defeat that they had played 'very well' in three of their games, but that assertion doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
Waterford's Jack Prendergast dejected. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
They were very good against Clare and not good against Tipperary. The murderous six-day turnaround was clearly a factor in their defeat to Limerick, but given the gap in class between the teams that evening it is hard to imagine how the outcome would have been different with another week's rest.
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Given what had happened to Cork in the Gaelic Grounds, the league champions were widely perceived to be vulnerable in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday, and yet Waterford only made them sweat for about 10 minutes in the first half and another 10 minutes at the beginning of the final quarter.
Cork's dysfunctional shooting was the principal reason why only six points separated the sides: Cork had 17 wides, another three shots dropped short, and there were some misses that Pat Ryan described as 'brutal.' For Waterford that is the unpalatable reality.
The worry is that their greatest players of the modern era are all nearing the end: Tadhg de Búrca, Jamie Barron, Stephen Barrett and Austin Gleeson have all been playing for more than a decade. Two of them have been haunted by injury. Gleeson took a year out and this season, for various reasons, he couldn't force his way back into the team.
Waterford's consistent underachievement at age grade levels over the last 10 years means that there is not a ready supply of new talent coming through. The hurling championship cannot afford any team to fall off a cliff. How Waterford arrest this slide is everyone's concern. –
Denis Walsh
Teams go goal-crazy in All-Ireland series
Maybe life without the four-point goal ain't so bad after all. The explosion in green flags since the end of the provincial championships in football has been remarkable. The first round of Sam Maguire matches ended on Sunday having seen 24 goals scored across the eight games. The equivalent figure after round one in 2024 was just 11.
Now, as the great Eamon O'Shea once replied when asked would his Tipperary team be able to handle Clare in a league semi-final, you should be careful making forecasts with very little data. This is one round of games, nothing more. In fact, it was a round of games where an avalanche of goals was badly needed in order just to catch up with the overall total from last year's championship.
There were actually significantly fewer goals in the provincial championships this year than last year – 57 compared to 69. The Tailteann Cup totals have stayed broadly the same – 35 after two rounds this year, 37 after two rounds last year. And overall, it's a statistical wash, more or less – 116 goals in the 2025 championship as against 117 at the equivalent stage of 2024.
Meath's Jordan Morris scores a goal despite Seán Meehan of Cork. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
The pointy heads at the Games Intelligence Unit have told us that while goalscoring has stayed more or less the same under the new FRC rules, goalscoring chances are slightly up. Maybe all that happened over the weekend is that the finishing got better – although it feels likely that the greasy conditions had a part to play as well.
But even just the eye test tells you that some teams had gone after weaknesses in the opposition and chased goals. Two of Louth's four against Monaghan came from gorgeous kick passes to one-on-one matchups in the box. Tyrone's Seánie O'Donnell drove at the heart of the Donegal defence in a way other sides have been reluctant to. Jordan Morris's speed and menace and finish for Meath against Cork was elite stuff.
Goals are coming. Hallelujah. –
Malachy Clerkin
Galway will play Kilkenny in far better shape
There has been a good bit of comment on Micheál Donoghue's eventful weekend, returning to Parnell Park to see out the Leinster championship group with the same fixture as he had 12 months previously.
This time, of course, he was back with own county having conducted a Coriolanus raid on Salthill this time last year, which hastened the end of Henry Shefflin's management out west. As Dublin manager that day, Donoghue was accused of agitating for David Burke's first-half sending off.
Burke was Donoghue's captain in Galway's All-Ireland winning team of 2017. For all the speculation on a ruptured relationship, the manager on his return last year made sure to invite Burke to stay involved and he was excellent on Sunday.
It was a mirror image in many ways of last year's denouement. In both years, Donoghue's team scored 29 times, winning 12 months ago by six and this time by five, albeit the margin slightly defamed Galway at the weekend.
Galway's John Fleming with Conor Donohoe and John Bellew of Dublin. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
In both years, Donoghue's team played against a formidable wind in the first half and laid the foundations for victory by managing it well, trailing by 0-2 at half-time in Salthill and level last Sunday.
The same referee Cork's Colm Lyons, at the centre of the 16th-minute decision to red-card Burke, once again had to weigh up the decision whether to send off a Galway player after Daithi Burke's shuddering frontal challenge on Conor Burke in the 26th minute, but this time issued yellow.
That was hardly the difference between losing and winning but Burke was excellent in shutting down the option of old school aerial barrage that Dublin had been harnessing effectively this championship.
Galway will play Kilkenny in Sunday week's final in far better shape than they looked, in the subdued defeat by the champions on opening day back in April.
Donoghue has overseen a 30 per cent turnover in Galway's match panel between the two seasons and having concluded the group campaign on a consistently improving trajectory, now has the chance to add to the two Leinster titles he oversaw in 2017 and 2018.
– Seán Moran
Leinster hurling championship set up to be yo-yo model
Kildare's run in this year's Joe McDonagh Cup has brought some much-needed freshness to hurling's middle earth. The promotion-relegation zone between the Liam MacCarthy and Joe McDonagh competitions has become a yo-yo system involving a handful of teams. Since the inception of the McDonagh Cup in 2018, only six counties have contested finals (Carlow, Westmeath, Antrim, Offaly, Kerry, Laois). Kildare will become the seventh.
Increasing the number of teams in the Leinster SHC has helped but there has still tended to be a pattern of the promoted Joe McDonagh team suffering relegation within a season or two of competing in Leinster.
Tempers flare between the two teams during the game. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
At this time of the year, the question tends to emerge as to why the bottom team in the Munster SHC doesn't find themselves facing the same level of jeopardy as their Leinster counterparts. Should the bottom team in Munster face the bottom team in Leinster in a relegation playoff? With respect to this year's Joe McDonagh Cup finalists, Laois and Kildare, would they have a better chance of being competitive in the Leinster or Munster SHC next year? Admittedly, squaring the promotion-relegation circle is a difficult conundrum for the GAA.
But within the current format it is hard to see anything other than a continuation of the yo-yo model where the same glut of teams constantly move up and down the ladder. Is that progress? –
Gordon Manning
Provincial winners need to get over their hangovers quickly
In the microcosm of a season that is the All-Ireland football series, every team has its own manifestations of hunger and of a hangover. There was ample evidence of both as Louth faced Monaghan in Newbridge on Saturday evening, as seen in some other venues too.
Louth were out just 13 days after winning their first Leinster football title in 68 years, also completing a revenge act on Meath after what happened in the 2010 final. A day like that demanded some raising of glasses long into the night, and perhaps the following day or two. It was the fourth longest famine in between winning provincial football titles in GAA history.
Monaghan were out five weeks after their late surge against Donegal in the Ulster quarter-final saw them beaten by just two points, 0-23 to 0-21.
Louth's Tommy Durnin and Gary Mohan of Monaghan. Photograph: Ciaran Culligan/Inpho
It didn't take long for the hunger and the hangover to manifest themselves. Monaghan held up possession from the throw-in and slowly moved the ball around, before closing in for some blood, Stephen O'Hanlon racing at the goal and firing low past Niall McDonnell, who did well to get a half-block on the shot.
Not long after, Sam Mulroy lined up his first free for Louth, well within his range, only it came off the upright. Mulroy did complete a superb pass from Tommy Durnin moments later to rattle the Monaghan net, but Louth were always chasing the game, never getting in front and in the end suffering the politely termed six-point hammering.
Louth had only four different scores compared to Monaghan's eight, and went without a score for 15 minutes during the first half, and the opening 13 minutes of the second. They scored 1-1 at the death, but by then Monaghan's absolute dominance was complete. Hangover versus hunger.
Ger Brennan didn't deny that hangover afterwards, the Louth manager saying his team 'were probably at four out of 10 today overall, and that is just down to maybe the effects of winning the Leinster final'.
With a short trip to face the in-form Down in Newry next Saturday evening, Louth will be hoping any lingering hangover will be turned into hunger. Three of the four provincial football champions this year suffered such fate, Connacht champions Galway losing to Dublin in their opening game last weekend, Ulster champions Donegal also beaten by Tyrone on Saturday evening.
The All-Ireland series format is changing again for 2026, the 16 Sam Maguire teams competing in a single-elimination round, with the winners advancing to Round 2A and the losers to Round 2B.
The winners of Round 2B will face the Round 2A losers in a preliminary quarter-final, before the four Round 2A winners and the winners of Round 2B advance to the quarter-finals (and subsequent knockout stages).
Which would appear to leave even less room for any provincial winning hangover, should that be the case. –
Ian O'Riordan
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Short border, long history: Storied Tipperary-Galway rivalry
It's not the longest border. Only 30km or so. And by land it measures just 12 metres, the width of the Portumna swing bridge. But there is no older inter-county hurling rivalry than Galway and Tipperary. The counties met in the very first All-Ireland final in April 1888 (actually the 1887 championship) when Tipp's representatives Thurles beat Galway's Meelick by 1-01 to no score in Birr, then known as Parsonstown. The teams had 21 players each and referee Patrick White presumably had little choice but to throw in the red sliotar and let the game flow. Though most reports reckon he sent off Meelick's John Lowry after an opponent retired injured, in the days before substitutes. The goal was scored by either Tommy Healy or Jim Healy. We salute & remember the Tipperary team (rep by Thurles) that defeated Galway (rep by Meelick) at Birr on this day, Easter Sunday, April 1st 1888 to win the 1st All Ireland Hurling Final which completed the 1887 Championship. Photo: Tipperary's GAA Story by Canon Philip Fogarty — Tipperary GAA (@TipperaryGAA) April 1, 2018 Travelling downriver from where Galway, Offaly and Tipperary meet – near Shannonbridge - Meelick-Eyrecourt, Killimor (authors of hurling's first rules in 1869) and Portumna GAA clubs all draw players just across the Shannon from Tipperary, until it widens into Lough Derg. On the east bank is Lorrha-Dorrha, home of Tony Reddin (actually a Galway man, who only transferred aged 28), Ken Hogan and Patrick 'Bonner' Maher. It was Galway's misfortune to be located in a province they dominated - Mayo (1909) and Roscommon (1913) won one Connacht SHC each when it was contested - and deprived of championship clashes with neighbours Clare and Offaly by those counties' lack of provincial success. Offaly didn't win Leinster until 1980. Galway's border with Clare is nearly three times as long as that with Tipperary but over the many decades that the Tribesmen played a maximum of two championship games per year, Clare didn't emerge from Munster too often. So both counties' 'anTippathy' grew stronger instead. It took the Tribesmen 36 years and nine (mostly semi-final) defeats before getting off the mark against Tipperary. Having lost the 1922 semi, delayed by the civil war until August 1923, Galway gained revenge at the same stage a year later (3-01 to 2-03), only to lose the 2024 final to Dublin, three months after beating Limerick for their first title. Tipp got their own back in the '25 decider, concluding what was to be the first epic trilogy between the counties on a 5-06 to 1-05 scoreline. There were only six more meetings over the subsequent 62 years and Tipperary won them all, including the All-Ireland of 1958, which was Galway's last final appearance until 1975, by which time the Premier had waned as a force in Munster. They also met in the 1961 Munster semi-final after what proved Galway's only victory (over Clare) in a decade-long relocation to the province. Leinster has proved a relatively happier hunting ground. If the Ulster hurling championship gets going again maybe they could make a guest appearance and complete the set? Galway had re-emerged as a force by the middle of the next decade and contested three All-Ireland finals in a row from 1979-81, bridging a 67-year gap in 1980, when the West was awoken. Tipp native Micheal 'Babs' Keating had been Galway coach to Farrell's trainer in '79 but was not part of the victorious setup the following year. The men in maroon were again runners-up in 1985-86, to Offaly and Cork, and were waiting hungrily after Tipperary captain Richie Stakelum declared 'The famine is over' in Babs' first championship season in '87. It was in Munster anyway. But though Nicky English scored the first point just nine seconds into the All-Ireland semi-final, Galway immediately hit back with a goal from Martin Naughton and led by four at half-time. Two majors from Pat Fox had Tipp ahead going into the closing stages but, following a contentiously disallowed English point, a goal from Éanna Ryan put Galway back in front and Noel Lane sealed the 3-20 to 2-17 victory. It was third time lucky on the big day as Galway beat Kilkenny by six, Lane again finding the net, and they defeated Offaly in the '88 semi-finals to seal a fourth consecutive final appearance. Their opponents were Tipp, playing their first final since 1971. Defences dominated this time, English and Fox being kept quiet as Galway edged it 1-15 to 0-14, and Lane scoring the sole goal in the final for the second year in a row. It remains the only time Galway have gone back to back. Closing stages of the 1988 All-Ireland Hurling final The rivalry had now been firmly rekindled. Babs felt his team had been roughed up in the final and publicly questioned Galway's tactics. Farrell bristled back. They met again in front of over 35,000 at Croke Park in the 1989 league final that April, Galway maintaining their superiority on a 2-16 to 4-08 scoreline. In Munster, the Premier then made it three in a row against surprise finalists Waterford but controversy overshadowed the All-Ireland semi-final rematch with the champions. The late Galway centre-back Tony Keady was the Hurler of the Year and had stayed on for a few weeks in New York after the All-Star tour in May. He played for the New York Laois club in a win over their Tipperary counterparts, and was reported and banned for two games in the Big Apple for playing under an assumed name - his brother Bernard's. When word reached Croke Park, however, the reigning Hurler of the Year was hit with a 12-month suspension for playing without clearance. Galway were scandalised as it seemed Keady was being made a rare example of for a common practice. It later emerged that Tipp defender Paul Delaney had done the same thing but escaped a ban. Farrell threatened to boycott the game if the ban wasn't lifted but the GAA's management committee voted 20-18 to uphold the decision, Tipperary's delegate voting in Keady's favour but some of Galway's Connacht neighbours opted to maintain the suspension. Keating described the subsequent match as "a nasty affair". Despite Keady's replacement Sean Tracey having a fine game, Galway were too fired up and referee John Denton sent off Sylvie Linnane and Michael 'Hopper' McGrath while John Leahy got away with a pull across Pete Finnerty, later admitting: "I was very lucky to stay on the field. I suppose the two of us bent the rules a small bit in our time. They were hard games." Finnerty reflected: "Nobody ever told John Leahy I didn't have a sister. Nowadays he might have been able to google it and find out' Tipp won 1-17 to 2-11, Éanna Ryan scoring both Galway goals but English hitting eight points. The Premier had 18 points to spare on Antrim in the final. There were further semi-final meetings in '91 and '93, Tipperary handing out a hammering on the way to regaining Liam MacCarthy in the former and a much-changed Galway getting revenge two years later. Then a seven-year gap to a first quarter-final and renewal of final hostilities in 2001: Tipp, managed by English, ended a 43-year wait for a final win against the Westerners, Mark O'Leary (2-01) and Eoin Kelly scoring seven apiece as they won 2-18 to 2-15, surviving a late, disallowed Kevin Broderick goal. There was only a point between them in 2003 (Tipperary), two in 2005 (Galway) and one again in the 2010 quarter-final when Tipperary went on to stop Kilkenny's five-in-a-row bid in the final after edging an electric contest 3-17 to 3-16. Tipperary did have nine to spare in a 2014 qualifier but that was only after a Seamus Callanan hat-trick spearheaded a late fightback from six down. Tipp were beaten by the Cats in a final replay. The next three years saw three classic All-Ireland semi-finals, each decided by a single point. Substitute Shane Maloney won it for Galway with his first touch in 2015, taking a Joe Canning pass to make it 0-26 to 3-16, Callanan scoring 3-09 for the losers. Anthony Cunningham's men lost the final to Kilkenny by four points. In 2016, Canning went off injured at half-time but Galway still led on the hour, before John McGrath set up sub John 'Bubbles' O'Dwyer for a goal and scored one himself as Tipp edged it 2-19 to 2-18. They beat Kilkenny by nine. Here's the moment that decided ANOTHER #GALvTIPP classic! Joe Canning's late point sent @Galway_GAA into the 2017 All-Ireland Hurling Final! — The GAA (@officialgaa) August 6, 2017 The following year was decided by a Canning wonder point (his 11th) five minutes into injury-time, Galway winning 0-22 to 1-18. They bridged a 29-year gap to All-Ireland glory in the final against Waterford. Galway have won both subsequent championship meetings. A quarter-final in 2020 – Aidan Harte the unlikely late goalscoring hero after reigning champions Tipperary had had Cathal Barrett sent off – and another in 2023, when the Tribesmen were on top throughout but had to survive a late scare to win by two points after hitting 18 wides. Their respective provincial displays to date make Tipperary favourites today but history tells us Galway will always raise their game at the sight of the blue and gold jersey.
