IT was a grim day for the Gort hurlers at the Limerick Gaelic Grounds on Saturday. Falling significantly below the quality and drive of the team’s performance in the county final three months ago, the Galway champions came off second best for long periods against their slicker and sharper opponents from Coolderry. Ultimately, they can have no complaints about exiting the chase for the Tommy Moore Cup.

This had all the hallmarks of being a close match, but few expected that the outcome would be basically decided midway through the second-half and that Gort would end up losing by eight points. As a consequence, for the first time since 2004, Galway won’t be represented on All-Ireland Club final day next month and Gort, I’m afraid, will have to live with the indignity of failing to maintain the county’s great run in the championship.

Frankly, it’s not difficult to pin-point the reasons why the South Galway men came up well short against the Offaly champions. For a start, they were in desperate trouble down the centre where full back Mark McMahon, number six Brian Regan, midfielder Sean Forde and centre forward Aidan Harte were all replaced, while they struggled to get to grips with Coolderry’s more impressive link-up play and their ability to engineer clear-cut goal scoring opportunities.

Furthermore, few of Gort’s big players made a sustained impact on the match. Veteran Ollie Fahy, for instance, finished with a solitary point to his credit but had the opportunities to do more damage and, in general, the team suffered badly in the scraps for breaking ball. Coolderry’s use of possession was also in a different league with Man of the Match Damien Murray causing mayhem up front.

Gort simply weren’t good enough despite Sylvie Og Linnane doing a great policing job on Brian Carroll until the Offaly player switched out to midfield late in the game, and an excellent contribution from Jason Grealish, who also sent over a rousing long range point in the third quarter, the only period when Mattie Murphy’s squad built up a head of steam. Too many of their team were on the back-foot even if they were a few other exceptions.

Young Gerard Donoghue at corner forward didn’t do badly in the circumstances and Gerry Quinn’s accuracy was also admirable, but Gort were simply in trouble in too many positions to have any hope of carrying the day despite never giving up. There was a big responsibility on Aidan Harte coming into this semi-final, but he struggled to make headway against the towering Joe Brady on the forty, although it was strange that Gort struck so much ball down the centre.

Even though the teams were deadlocked at four points each after 16 minutes, it was already evident that Coolderry were shaping as the more cohesive unit. Highly effective centre forward Barry Teehan was consistently drifting from his base and his rovings were helping to punch holes in the Gort defence which only offered paper-thin resistance to young Eoin Ryan as he galloped through for the game’s first goal in the 23rd minute. With Cathal Parlon continuing his rich vein of form up front, the Offaly men deservedly led by 1-10 to 0-9 at the interval.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.