This was a gripping game and occasion packed with memorable moments. Ultimately it was decided by Shane Maloney’s sweet last gasp point, but before then there had been drama.

So much actually. Seamus Callanan struck 3-9, 3-4 from play, and still ended up on the losing team. That was merely one issue. Galway just kept beavering away, eventually finding a route into the September decider against Kilkenny.

Despite all of the on field heroics the abiding image for many will be Noel McGrath’s entrance as a substitute with eight minutes of normal time remaining.

Only four months previously McGrath underwent a serious operation, but the Galway and Tipperary hurling communities provided a standing ovation for the Loughmore-Castleiney genius.

Even with the issue delicately poised that supplied a delightful backdrop on an afternoon that was stuffed with class. Ultimately, though, Galway’s character and refusal to buckle proved decisive.

“Yeah, and experience, which we’re picking up along the way,” Anthony Cunningham stated immediately after the game.

“This is a young team and you only get experience out there in a tight battle.

“Shane Maloney came on there, missed the first one, which was probably scoreable, but he had the composure to hang around and wait, and he got the breaking ball for the score.”

Galway endured setbacks with Callanan at his awesome best, but Cunningham was satisfied that the maroon and white outfit stayed utterly defiant.

“We had a sucker punch at the start (Seamus Callanan’s goal in the first minute), but we hurled really well,” Cunningham added.

“We were winning in more positions than them after that, but then we had a sucker punch again, Seamus Callanan, then a third one.

“We came back from that, there were fantastic saves on both sides - a penalty over the bar, a penalty on our side saved by the Tipp goalie, a super save.”

The reaction of the 58,495 when McGrath entered the field illustrated the appreciation for his own personal comeback.

Cunningham and Eamonn O’Shea both acknowledged McGrath’s journey. “Life is about living,” Cunningham stated.

“He is a perfect gentleman. Our best wishes were always to Noel, even when he was sick there. It is super to see him back. Today is only a small blip in his hurling life.

“One or two guys I had on football panels down through the years had the same operation and I suppose the biggest challenge was to get back on the field.

“This guy is loved in Tipperary, loved all over the country for his style and his hurling.

“You have to have huge admiration for the guy. That is just what the GAA and hurling is about. It is epitomised by that guy coming on and playing.”

For more than a decade O’Shea’s influence has been sprinkled on Tipperary teams. This, though, was his last year in charge with Tipperary within a whisker of attaining All Ireland glory in 2014, while the loss to Galway was equally harrowing.

McGrath, though, confirmed to the Kilruane MacDonaghs clubman what can be achieved through sheer will.

“You have to make judgements as a manager,” O’Shea remarked. “You have to make serious judgements about a player and whether he can go in or not.

“He went in. But more than that, and the word inspirational is thrown around a lot about players and managers, but you’ll never know inspiration until you’re faced with difficult, difficult things.”

Under the Hogan Stand within minutes of Tipperary’s defeat O’Shea somehow supplied the correct words. Much of what O’Shea stated proved correct with the blue and gold team delivering in style a year later to reclaim the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

“I had my innings with Tipp,” O’Shea commented. “It was great. We did what we could. We tried to play the game in a particular way. There are men in Tipperary who can carry this on.

“I just feel that we gave it everything every time we went out. We tried to win. We didn't always win.

“We were beaten by a point, beaten by three points. It doesn't look great sometimes, but we did our utmost to win these games.

“I said to the players, the belief I have in them and the belief I have that they can continue and go on and grow better when I'm not there is really strong.

“Somebody else will go on and do this better than I did. That's all you can do. I'm old enough now to know that I had a real good shot at it.

“I had a real good shot and I really, really tried to play the game the way I wanted to play the game and the way they wanted to play the game.

“In one sense I feel emotional, obviously losing is huge, but it's theirs, it's the players' game. Me leaving is only a footnote. It will be only a footnote.”

The decisive play occurred at the death when Joe Canning’s delivery was gathered by Maloney, who flashed over a gorgeous score.

Galway and Tipperary collided again in semi-finals in the following two campaigns. Only the minimum divided them in those tussles too with Tipperary subsequently crowned champions in 2016 and Galway returning to the summit in 2017.

The chaotic 2015 semi-final was a clear sign that both counties were on the rise again.