Regrets aplenty as Group of Death proves a killer
The infamous group of death proved a killer for all of them in time.
Some big hitters fell last weekend and they'll have plenty of regrets. None more so than our neighbours.
The Sam Maguire will not be washing up western shores here yet again. No Connacht team getting as far as a semi-final for the second time in three years.
It would probably be a lie to say most of my fellow county-men are heartbroken at the outcome, but it's sobering for Connacht football on the whole.
By the time the championship starts next year, it'll be a quarter of a century since a team from the West lifted Sam, when Galway beat Meath back in 2001. And prior to the '98 Galway team, we're talking about a 32-year gap. It's a paltry return.
In retrospect, Galway had been teetering on the brink for a few weeks. Only waiting to be nudged over. They were blessed to survive in Derry, dug out a decent win over an Armagh side already in the quarters, and then got over Down in a shootout in Newry.
We thought they might take wing once they reached Croke Park, that they had shown resolve in staying alive until this point.
But instead they just looked jaded.
Jordan Morris celebrates a score in the Meath-Galway game
Their passivity in the first half was baffling. They had plenty of possession in the opening quarter but again fell back into these slow, ponderous, lateral patterns of play.
And the movement of the inside forwards was incredibly poor and borderline non-existent.
Several times, Mathew Thompson would pause in possession waiting for someone inside to make a dart or show for it. And nothing was happening. It probably contributed to the couple of fumbles in possession that he had in the early stages.
The lack of bite and penetration over the first 50 minutes was only highlighted when Damien Comer was introduced and he terrorised the Meath full-back line in a five-minute spell which turned the game on its head. And then they went and surrendered the momentum again.
For a team with that talent and creativity in attack, it must be so frustrating.
Added to that, they were blown out of it for aggression and intensity under kickouts and in the tackle zone.
Conor Grey came on for Meath and started smashing into them at kickouts, properly using his size and physicality and out-competing the Galway midfield. Sean Rafferty thundered into John Maher and generated a couple of big turnovers.
The way the game was being reffed certainly facilitated Meath in that. Personally, I thought on the whole that Martin McNally's approach added to the game.
There were a couple of borderline challenges that were let go but the referee set his stall out early that those were the conditions.
Meath probably got the benefit of that and they adapted to the way the game was officiated.
I don't think Galway did. Too often, they were looking for frees that might have been given on another day but clearly weren't forthcoming on Sunday.
And Meath had the class up front to complement their ferocity under kickouts and in defence. What a sensational second-half performance from Jordan Morris and Mathew Costello.
They may have come from almost nowhere at the start of the year but after beating Dublin, Kerry and now Galway, there can be little doubt that they are a superb side, who are playing with real fearlessness and without any of the baggage that seemed to be weighing down their opponents.
Meath's Sean Rafferty
They were deserving winners and to be fair to Pádraic Joyce, he didn't attempt to claim otherwise.
For Galway, you'd wonder how much is left in the tank for a couple of them. After losing two All-Ireland finals, a few of them seem emotionally spent. The future is uncertain for that group.
Their age profile isn't bad, though Paul Conroy is probably coming near the end and both Shane Walsh and Damien Comer are in their 30s.
They still have oodles of talent and Thompson's breakthrough was a big boost this season. For now, it's about refreshing, analysing what went wrong this year and finding that extra 10% to get them over the line in the next few years.
Armagh washed away in Kerry tsunami; Dubs run out of road
Armagh can at least console themselves with their Celtic Crosses from last year. The fact that they were blown out of the water so spectacularly may make the defeat easier to the accept.
The 15-minute blitz that we're all raving about is certainly up there with Dublin's third quarter against us in the 2019 semi-final.
As with Galway, you could say the warning signs were there for Armagh. They had allowed so many shots at goal in the Dublin game. Coming up against a team with better scoring efficiency, this always had the potential for trouble. And it probably flagged up some of the drawbacks of their zonal marking approach.
Rian O'Neill at full-time
There was a revealing clip on 'X' of Tiernan Kelly half running out to press Sean O'Shea in the early stages. Then, he remembers the system and steps back inside the arc, allowing O'Shea wind up for basically a free shot at a two-pointer. And, of course, Seanie swung it over, as he was doing all day.
Once Armagh started getting devoured on their own kickout and on the breaks, there was no stopping Kerry's momentum. It was apparent from the body language of the likes of O'Shea that Kerry were ravenous to prove the doubters and the critics wrong. And Armagh were caught in the head-lights.
Dublin can't claim they were beaten by a performance for the ages. Tyrone didn't even play that well apart from a decent spurt in the closing stages.
The Dubs had been combative and winning turnovers in the first half and looked to be in a reasonable position at half-time. But the second half was car crash stuff in attack.
It wasn't even an issue around the hesitancy in going for two-pointers. They couldn't manage one-pointers for most of the game last Saturday. 0-16 is a poor haul in the new game. And sure enough, Kerry mustered exactly double that the following day.
In Dublin's case at least, it was probably a lack of quality that told. Dessie Farrell's successor probably has a job on his hands.
Watch the All-Ireland Camogie Championship quarter-finals with RTÉ Sport. Waterford v Clare on Saturday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player and Tipperary v Kilkenny on Sunday from 1.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship semi-finals with RTÉ Sport. Cork v Dublin on Saturday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player and Kilkenny v Tipperary on Sunday from 3.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow live blogs on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentaries on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game at 10.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
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