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At times it was sparkling, others nerve wracking, but at the end of the day it was just brilliant as Galway ended a 29-year wait to bring the Liam MacCarthy Cup west of the Shannon for the fifth time.

At times it was sparkling, others nerve wracking but at the end of the day it was just brilliant as Galway ended a 29-year wait to bring the Liam McCarthy Cup west of the Shannon for the fifth time. Three minutes in looked like they might do it the easy way, hitting Waterford for three points in the opening 180 seconds, but once Kevin Moran got in behind the Galway defence and drove the ball low past Colm Callanan in the Galway goal to kick life into what looked like a startled Waterford, it was game on.

This Sunday in Croke Park the Galway senior hurlers will line up at 3.30pm for their chance to add to the hurling annals, under the watchful eye of referee Fergal Horgan from Tipperary.

They don’t make it easy on the faithful, but the Mayo congregation will head to church at least once more this summer after a dramatic draw with near neighbours Roscommon on Sunday in Croke Park. There were more than a few decades of the Rosary said by the traveling worshipers down the final few minutes of injury time as Mayo created and fluffed a few chances to win the game and the devotions were dedicated to the full time whistle blowing when Roscommon looked to steal it right at the end.

Sunday was a good day for Galway football. Not only did Kevin Walsh's charges fully deserve to win the division Two league title for 2017, beating Kildare by 0-18 to 0-16, but it was also the county's first senior football victory at Croke Park for far too long.

Westport are the All-Ireland intermediate football champions after a pulsating win over St Colmcille's of Meath. It was hearts in mouths stuff at the bitter end as a Colmcille's player lofted a ball towards the Westport goal mouth only for stand in keeper Aaron Dunne to calmly clear his lines. The final whistle was blown immediately afterwards.

They survived the loss of their inspirational full back Kevin Keane after just ten minutes, then lost their goalkeeper Patrick O’Malley to a black card with six minutes to go and conceded a penalty, which was converted and saw their lead pared back to three points, then two points and then one point as six agonising minutes of injury time seemed to take an age to tick by, but when the full time whistle was blown, the warriors from Westport were All Ireland intermediate champions.

It’s the fine margins that win games at the top level and big calls have to be made, for Mayo the fine margins are once again something they fell just short of in Croke Park on Saturday night. The big call made by the management also didn’t work out for them in the end, but there wasn’t an ounce of effort not put into trying to bridge that small gap. Just like 20 years ago, there was point just in it at the end and a penalty for the opposition helped them along the way.