Joe Canning: Galway under serious pressure as they brace themselves for Tipperary test

The only thing that separates Portumna from Tipperary is the bridge crossing the Shannon.

Lorrha is on the other side, the home place of Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher, and Ken Hogan and John McIntyre.

People’s lives in the two places are intertwined in many day-to-day ways, as you can imagine; a lot of kids from Lorrha go to school in Portumna, Lorrha people would come in for their shopping, some of them would work in Portumna, the usual stuff.

In hurling, though, it meant that losing to Tipperary was the thing we feared most. You knew that you’d hear all about it on Monday and you’d be living with the consequences for days afterwards. On the other hand, when we won, our Tipperary neighbours would go missing for a little while. That was the nature of the beast.

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I don’t know what Tipperary hurling people thought of Galway over the years but, in our minds, we had a very clear picture of them. We knew for certain that they didn’t fear us, under any circumstances, but we also knew that we weren’t alone in that position.

Tipperary hurling people had a confidence about them which meant they didn’t believe they were inferior to anybody. In sport, that feeling gives you a head start. Whatever else they bring to the Gaelic Grounds tomorrow they will bring that confidence.

Most neutrals will probably see it as a 50-50 match, and over the last 20 years nearly every Galway-Tipperary match has gone down to the wire. I played in three All-Ireland semi-finals against them that were one-point games – three years in a row. It wouldn’t surprise anybody if tomorrow’s game came down to one score, either way.

But Galway and Tipperary are coming into this game from different positions. There is usually a lot of pressure on the Tipperary team and management to deliver results, but I don’t sense that at the moment. Tipp have had a couple of quiet years under different managers and their supporters understand that Cahill is trying to build a new team with young players and they can see his stamp on it already.

Until the Waterford game, their performances in Munster had been good or very good, and I think the Tipperary public were satisfied with how the team was going.

As long as people can see progress, a manager in his first year will have a certain amount of forgiveness too. If Tipp were to lose tomorrow with a reasonable performance I don’t think there would be too many complaints from the Tipp supporters about the season overall.

Galway, though, are under a different kind of pressure. The general perception around the place is that they should have closed out the Leinster final. Our overall record in the Leinster championship for the last few years hasn’t been good enough, and whatever feelings Galway people have towards the Leinster championship, allowing Kilkenny to win four titles in a row is a reflection on Galway’s performances too, whether we like it or not.

Henry Shefflin is well into his second year as manager now which means there is more pressure to deliver. He has had plenty of time to work out his best team and to settle on a style of play, and at this stage it’s about delivering results in big matches. If Galway were to lose tomorrow, anything could happen.

Both teams have issues to work on. Cahill’s teams have always targeted goals, and there is an emphasis on running at the opposition from centrefield up. When they looked at the Leinster final they would have seen a Galway team that conceded a lot of space in key areas and was vulnerable to runners. Galway coughed up four goals – which was the third time in this year’s championship that they conceded more goals than they scored.

I can’t see Galway being as naïve in their defending again. There’s no way Gearóid McInerney will be dragged out of full-back, the way he was in the Leinster final. But even allowing for all that, Tipp will have goals on their mind.

The problem for Tipp, though, has been defending. The only game in Munster when they didn’t concede a goal was against Limerick. They conceded three goals against Clare and four against Cork. They even conceded 3-18 against Offaly in the preliminary quarter-final last weekend and Galway wouldn’t need much more than that to win on Saturday.

Tipp ended up beating Offaly by a record score and it might have seemed like a pointless match. The second half was played in a storm and it’s hard to imagine that the Tipperary management learned anything new about their players. But having a game was still a huge benefit to them. They had a couple of weeks to get over the Waterford defeat and they had some time for important players to get over their injuries.

Jake Morris and Jason Forde both got a game into their legs and Gearóid O’Connor was able to come on. Cathal Barrett didn’t make the squad, and I don’t know how he’s fixed for this weekend, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the extra week makes a difference to him.

Galway have only had a fortnight to get over the Leinster final and until you go out on the pitch again you don’t really know what impact a defeat like that will have on the team – mentally more than anything. That’s a big question hanging over them tomorrow.

From a Galway point of view, I’m really worried about this game. In my heart, I’m hoping they can pull it off, but my head is saying something different.