Tribeswomen turn on the power to overwhelm the Royals

Bective GFC makes venue available to save the game

Galway 2-1-19 (27)

Meath 1-1-7 (12)

It's amazing how one team can put another away, like boxer such as Katie Taylor suddenly conjuring up a haymaker to leave an opponent reeling.

It was like that at Bective on Sunday in this All-Ireland SFC encounter. For the first-half, and about five minutes of the second act, this was a competitive bout between two protagonists who traded punches with equal potency and threat. There wasn't much between them.

For most of that opening half Meath, greatly assisted by a sturdy breeze and a sharply-taken Orla Finnegan goal, led the way. At the break the sides were level, 1-6 to 0-9, but the home side had been doing well. That remained the case for the opening minutes of the second act.

Ciara Smyth and Meadhbh Byrne fired over a point apiece to put the Royals back in front. It was all looking promising for Wayne Freeman's side.

Then bang. Just like that Galway upped their game, moved on to another dimension and were on their merry way disappearing over the horizon while Meath were sent reeling.

The knock-out blows arrived in the form of two quick-fire goals, in the 35th and 37 minutes, scored by two of Galway's marquee players - Eva Noone and Roisin Leonard. Meath never recovered. Out for the count.

Once they had found their rhythm Galway, as all good teams do, went for the jugular. Their search for scores became relentless and Meath had no answer. By the 46th minute it was 2-12 to 1-8. Game over.

Meath are a team in transition, a reality exemplified in the way only a handful of players - Robyn Murray, Aine Sheridan, Orlaith Sheehy, Megan Thynne, Niamh Gallogly, Ciara Smyth and Emma Duggan - started on Sunday who were there last year when the they took on Dublin in the All-Ireland final.

Transition is probably too mild a word for it. What has happened is a revolution in terms of the turnover of players so it's hardly surprising that they should suffer defeats like this against a Galway side unlucky to lose out to Dublin in last year's semi-final.

And for a time it looked like this game might not take place at all. The problems started when it was revealed on Sunday morning that the fixture was to be switched to Bective because there was no water available at the original venue of Stamullen.

Bective were brilliant in hosting the change at such short notice and the pitch did look in pristine condition. However referee Maggie Farrelly wasn't happy with the pitch markings or the goalmouths. She wanted improvements. They were made and the action got underway with sand used to fill in parts of the goalmouths as the match official had requested and the lines on the pitch made clearer.

There were times in the opening half when Meath were very good indeed. Times when they played some free-flowing, attacking football with Niamh Gallogly adding the finishing touches to two of those moves for the opening three points of the game, her second punt at the posts delivered from outside the 40-metre mark.

Rachel Casserly and Ciara Smyth also registered two fine scores from play as the half wore on with Emma Duggan converting a free.

The goal arrived on 11 minutes and derived from intense Meath pressure. A Galway kick-out went awry. Cassidy won the ball and had her goal-bound shot superbly saved by Galway netminder Leah O'Halloran. The ball broke to Orla Finnegan who fired home.

Galway are a team witha plethora of players blessed with real pace and, once they got moving, they showed glimpses of just how potent a force they could be with two of their more enterprising performers - Olivia Divilly and Leonard - firing over five points between them in that opening 30 minutes.

Smyth and Byrne did well to find the time and space to register their two points for Meath on the resumption. Then it all changed as Galway ransacked the home defence with Noone and Leonard scoring their rapid-fire goals to put their team in front for the first time.

With players such as Hannah Noone, Leanne Coen and Nicola Ward in superb form the Westerners took charge and only some brilliant saves by Robyn Murray prevented further damage.

It says a lot about the problems Meath faced that they could only muster one point in the closing stages scored by Duggan - and that from a free.

The score couldn't be even deemed a consolation.

Meath - Robyn Murray; Aoife Farrell, Aine Sheridan, Amy Gaffney; Orlaith Sheehy, Olivia Gore, Orla Smith; Sinead Murphy, Niamh Gallogly (0-3 one two-pointer); Lauren Woods, Emma Duggan (0-2 frees), Megan Thynne; Ciara Smyth (0-2), Orla Finnegan (1-0), Rachel Casserly (0-1). Subs - Meadhbh Byrne (0-1) for Finnegan, Katie Bermingham for Smith both half-time, Orla Mallon for Casserly 41m, Ciara Lawlor for Murphy, Alanna Reilly for Thynne both 49m.

Galway - Leah O'Halloran; Bronagh Quinn, Sara Ni Loingsigh, Kate Geraghty; Hannah Noone (0-1), Nicola Ward (0-1), Ellen Power; Niamh Divilly, Siobhan Divilly; Olivia Divilly (0-5 two frees), Kate Slevin (0-1), Kate Thompson (0-1); Eva Noone (1-0), Leanne Coen (0-7 one free), Roisin Leonard (1-5 one two-pointer). Subs - Riona Quinn for B Quinn 50m, Lynsey Noone for Thompson, Sophie Healy for Ni Loingsigh both 53m, Siun McGovern for Slevin, Aoife O'Rourke for Leonard both 55m.

Referee - Maggie Farrelly (Cavan).