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\nJoe Canning’s last-gasp free in the 2018 All-Ireland final<\/p>\n
Today’s game is the fourth All-Ireland final meeting of Galway and Limerick.<\/p>\n
The first was the 1923 final, played in 1924.<\/p>\n
The second was 1980, played, coincidentally, in 1980. By rights, Joe Connolly could have begun his speech with “T\u00e1r \u00e9is s\u00e9 bliain agus caoga…”<\/p>\n
The third was 2018, the match which commenced this incredible run in finals for John Kiely and set their greatest generation on their way.<\/p>\n
It almost feels like another world now. Kiely was in his second year in charge. His first had been highly unpromising, so much so that it almost feels like it belongs to someone else’s managerial tenure.<\/p>\n
Their championship ‘campaign’ consisted of drab losses to Clare and Kilkenny, neither of whom were at much that year.<\/p>\n
“All I expected in ’17 was a goodbye phone call!” Kiely recalled last year.<\/p>\n
In ’18, they took wing in the first year of the round-robin structure, one of the wildest championships of all time.<\/p>\n
For the final, Galway were defending champions and went in as nominal favourites. But there were signs in the semi-final saga against Clare that their form had tapered off and that Limerick’s time had come.<\/p>\n
When Shane Dowling swung home their third goal to put them eight clear with three minutes remaining, the four-and-a-half decade famine looked to be at an end.<\/p>\n
But if Galway had gradually lost altitude over the season, then Limerick went into an ugly tailspin in the closing stages of the final itself.<\/p>\n
Fatalism ran rampant among the Limerick crowd in the last 10 minutes. Joe Quaid admitted that he feared the worst during Galway’s late surge, saying that the fallout would have been harder to stomach than ’94.<\/p>\n
As Joe Canning’s last-gasp free hung in the air, resigned Limerick supporters behind the Canal goal were wearily declaring it a point. Then it dropped short and Limerick’s hoodoo was broken.<\/p>\n
\nJoe Canning’s last-gasp free in the 2018 All-Ireland final<\/p>\n
All had changed utterly after that. Limerick hurling adopted a new personality – from doomed heartbreak merchants to self-assured winners.<\/p>\n
Might it have been different had Galway reeled them in back in 2018?<\/p>\n
Maybe the new generation would have been lumbered with the hang-ups of their predecessors. But it’s hard to believe that this wave of talent would have been denied in the 2020s.<\/p>\n
It’s become de rigueur in the build-up to say the roles are reversed in 2026.<\/p>\n
This time around, it was Limerick that squeezed past Clare in a tense semi-final, while Galway are fizzing with insurgent energy.<\/p>\n
Miche\u00e1l Donoghue’s first season back in the job even has echoes of Kiely’s in 2017, in that neither gave the slightest clue of what was coming.<\/p>\n
The Galway manager brings Jim Gavin levels of bland inscrutability to most of his media dealings.<\/p>\n
But he did offer a concrete answer to the question of whether he was shocked by the speed of his team’s progression since last year’s demoralising exit to Tipperary.<\/p>\n
“You’d have to say yeah, like,” Donoghue said, after a pause.<\/p>\n
Donoghue, manager when Galway won the All-Ireland title in ’17, had quit abruptly in autumn 2019 amid talk of disenchantment with the county board and rows over strength and conditioning.<\/p>\n
Canning subsequently attributed it to Donoghue’s frustration with the “prehistoric tendencies” of the then county board. Donoghue was succeeded by Shane O’Neill, who served two years in charge, before the shock appointment of Henry Shefflin.<\/p>\n
For whatever reason, the Galway hurlers have never really thrived with outside managers. None since Babs Keating in 1979 (and he may not ever have worn the title ‘manager’) have guided them to an All-Ireland final and this for a county that appears in them fairly regularly.<\/p>\n
While still a credible outfit, they lapsed into a period of stagnation in the first half of the 2020s, losing a series of Leinster finals to Kilkenny and All-Ireland semi-finals to Limerick.<\/p>\n
Most frustrating from the supporters’ perspective was the relative dearth of young players breaking through.<\/p>\n
They continued to rely on the veterans of the 2017-18 period with steadily diminishing returns.<\/p>\n
That’s not a complaint anymore.<\/p>\n
Significantly, the younger cohort that have exploded onto the scene in 2026 were all part of the Galway senior set-up in 2025, without getting any game-time.<\/p>\n
This may have adversely impacted their Under-20 prospects last year but Donoghue was anxious they undertake the same strength and conditioning programme as the established seniors.<\/p>\n
After their exit in 2025, Donoghue met with a group of the younger players and told them they were “the future” and ordered them to work hard in the inter-county off-season.<\/p>\n
Jason Rabbitte, Aaron Niland, Rory Burke, Cillian Trayers and Darragh Neary have emerged as breakout stars of the campaign. Alas, Burke’s hamstring injury has not recovered in time and he will not feature in the final.<\/p>\n
In another echo of the 1980s, their tactical approach has aggravated the purists. In Cyril Farrell’s time, it was their so-called ‘running game’; this year, it’s their packed defence, what some have termed their 13-1 formation. Dublin manager Niall \u00d3 Ceallach\u00e1in, in a fit of confusion after the Leinster final, characterised it as “position-less.”<\/p>\n
Despite the buzz around the young players, the elder statesmen remain hugely influential. Cathal Mannion picked up his second All-Star in 2025, a full 10 years after his first. Lining out at corner-forward in 2015, he’s usually found loitering around the middle third and half-back line these days, spraying passes or occasionally winding up long range shots.<\/p>\n
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\nCathal Mannion has been a key operator in Galway’s system<\/p>\n
Conor Whelan turns up here and everywhere. P\u00e1draic Mannion is still manning the same right wing-back position he was during Donoghue’s first stint.<\/p>\n
Alongside the All-Ireland medallists and the U20s, there are a few inbetweeners like Darren Morrissey, Tiernan Killeen and Ronan Glennon, the latter enjoying the best season of his career so far and was close to man of the match in the semi-final.<\/p>\n
Tom Monaghan, frequently mistaken for a younger player but who holds a medal as a substitute from 2017, has flourished in this gameplan. He invariably peels out to the wing as soon as Galway gather possession and has been pinging over points by the bucketload in recent games.<\/p>\n
There are questions around Daith\u00ed Burke’s fitness. The five-time All-Star looked patched together for the semi-final and was badly exposed in the first 25 minutes by a rampant Brian Hayes. It was only when Trayers was switched on to the Cork danger man that Galway got a handle on things.<\/p>\n
TEAMS: Lynch returns; Galway unchanged from semi-final<\/a><\/p>\n The assumption is that Limerick will hardly play into Galway’s hands in the way that Cork did. That Paul Kinnerk will flip through the rolodex of gameplans and select the one best suited to pick off a packed defence.<\/p>\n They don’t share Cork’s strange reluctance to shoot from range, if circumstances demand it.<\/p>\n They also boast a puckout option in the half-forward line in Gear\u00f3id Hegarty, who can secure possession, even in congested areas.<\/p>\n Limerick’s last two championship victories were eked out in dogged fashion in games which were low-scoring by modern standards.<\/p>\n The electric form of the league final and the second round of the Munster SHC hasn’t been as much in evidence in latter games. Aaron Gillane looked unmarkable in the league decider but has been oddly subdued in the last two games, being whipped off with 20 minutes remaining on both afternoons.<\/p>\n He has scored just 2-01 in four matches, two of the goals coming in a dead rubber against Tipp, and just one point in the last two outings.<\/p>\n “We’re not a talisman team,” was Kiely’s blunt response when asked about subbing Gillane for the second game in a row.<\/p>\n On the flipside, Hegarty has been irrepressible and is surely favourite to collect another Hurler of the Year award if Limerick do regain their crown.<\/p>\n His player of the match display against Clare consisted of sticking his hand up to catch puckouts before drawing fouls. His scoring tally of 0-00 was no impediment to him collecting the post-match crystal. Such was the sort of game it was.<\/p>\n It was two players who have yet to start an All-Ireland final who rustled up the winner against Clare.<\/p>\n The entire Hogan Stand assumed that Adam English was winding up for a point attempt from the near sideline only for him to steer a disguised low-trajectory pass into Aidan O’Connor, who showed Darby-esque ingenuity to grab the ball ahead of David McInerney and slip home the winner.<\/p>\n The 24-year old O’Connor has made the biggest leap in 2026, from bench dweller to primary free-taker and chief scorer.<\/p>\n Despite the infusion of young blood this year, the average age of the Limerick team is hovering close to 30.<\/p>\n It’s possible to envisage a scenario where Galway’s momentum and running power proves overwhelming. Their stunning final quarter in the league game in the Gaelic Grounds last March was perhaps the most vivid warning of their championship credentials.<\/p>\n But Limerick in the Kiely era have a truly extraordinary record in finals – which might still be flawless altogether were it not for the adoption of the penalty shootout.<\/p>\n On balance, their experience and unrivalled tactical acumen should get them over the line for another title – or at least that’s the safe call.<\/p>\n Whether it’s the last for this era, we’ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n \n Listen to the RT\u00c9 GAA Podcast on the RT\u00c9 Radio Player<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie<\/p>\n Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship final, Galway v Limerick, on Sunday from 2.15pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on all matches on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today’s game is the fourth All-Ireland final meeting of Galway and Limerick. 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\nGear\u00f3id Hegarty earned Man of the Match against Clare despite a 0-00 tally<\/p>\n