Galway manager Michaél Donoghue admitted that the loss of Joe Canning for the second half of their semi-final defeat to Tipperary this evening was huge.
Canning picked up what appeared to be a hamstring injury at the end of the first half and was unable to carry on, resulting in him being replaced by Cyril Donnellan.
"The way the game turned out, I think it was what everyone expected it would be; a shootout," he told Newstalk Sport's Oisin Langan. "I thought at half-time we were in a good position.
"Obviously losing Joe [Canning] and Adrian [Tuohy] was a big blow to ourselves but we got the goal in the second half, I just think we needed to add a few more scores.
"That would have put a gap in it , but that's the way the game went. It was ebbing and flowing, that's just how it went.
"In the last couple of minutes the lads were working so hard to get it back and get the ball down the field. There was a few Tipp lads back there getting it and putting the pressure back on ourselves.
"Conor did well taking over the frees from Joe, but we're all bitterly disappointed with the result."
Galway found it difficult to recover from two goals in quick succession on the hour mark which helped propel Tipperary to victory.
"Scores were still hard enough to come by at that stage but you know, if we had gotten two or three more points at that stage [after Cooney's goal] it would have given us a better gap.
"Semi-finals are hugely contested and Tipp you have to give huge respect to them as well. They've a good manager in Mick and some quality players and when the opportunity presented itself for them, they took it."
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