While Tipperary took the points from their league opener in Semple Stadium, Shane McGrath feels that the match represented a win of sorts for Micheál Donoghue's Galway also.
In a reasonably entertaining game played in wretched conditions, the sides were level on 11 different occasions, with Galway racking up 14 wides, before the All-Ireland champions pulled away in the final 10 minutes, Darragh Stakelum's goal proving the decisive score.
Donoghue picked a youthful team, with Rory Burke, Jason Rabbitte and Aaron Niland all starting in the Galway attack, while Cillian Trayers and Joshua Ryan started in defence.
Twelve months ago, in the first competitive outing of his second stint in charge, Donoghue had gone with an experimental, new-look team at home to Tipperary in Salthill.
The resulting lop-sided beating got their 2025 campaign off on a poor footing and sent the manager scuttling back to the old reliables for the remainder of the season.
It was a very different story on Saturday evening.
"I think it was a win for Galway in a lot of ways, albeit they didn't get the result," McGrath said on the RTÉ GAA podcast.
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"This time last year in Salthill, Micheál Donoghue tried something similar. He gave a lot of new faces and lesser known guys a go. And it didn't work at all.
"What happened after that was he just kind of had to go back to the tried and trusted.
"Whereas the other night, all the guys he gave a go to, they did brilliantly.
"Liam Cahill even said it, in comparison to where they [Galway] were last year, there's great progress being made. They've a new bunch of lads coming through."
Galway's tally of 14 wides ultimately proved costly, as did the heavy free count against them at the other end, however McGrath was impressed overall with the display.
Several of the young guns are sons of former Galway players - Jason Rabbitte being a son of Joe, Joshua Ryan being a son of 80s star Eanna, while Rory Burke is a son of Richie, Galway goalkeeper during the 1990s. Aaron Niland, meanwhile, is a younger brother of Evan.
"They're hungry for success. They don't seem phased by anything. You can't beat breeding either. Jason Rabbitte, Joe Rabbitte's son, is almost identical to him [his father]. Even the way he wears the Cooper [helmet] and the way he carries himself, he's almost a carbon copy of his father.
Tipp took points - but Galway look promising says Shane McGrath on the RTÉ GAA Podcast🗣
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) January 26, 2026
Donoghue picked a youthful team, with Rory Burke, Jason Rabbitte, Aaron Niland and Darragh Neary all starting in the Galway attack, while Cillian Trayers and Joshua Ryan started in defence. pic.twitter.com/rBm5mSIyvw
"Aaron Niland, for me, is going to be class come the summer months. When the ground is hard and he's getting good quality ball in. But when he had to show a bit of fight, he went and he won ball. Rory Burke got a great goal as well.
"They had 14 wides, the game was level 11 times. I just think he [Donoghue] is coming away going, 'd'you know what? We've a good bunch here now.'
"A lot of them would be unknown to maybe the more casual hurling fan."
Tipperary head for Tullamore with one win under their belt. Cahill, whose teams are famously strong in the early months of the year, has overseen 15 wins from 17 league games proper during his Tipp tenure - excluding semi-finals and finals.
Cathal O'Reilly's last-ditch hook of Niland to prevent a near certain goal in the first half has attracted some viral attention in the past day or so and for McGrath, his showing was one of the bigger positives from the game.
"Tipp did what they had to do and the bigger guns stood up. I thought Jake Morris was brilliant.
"Job done for Tipp. Liam Cahill wanted to get a win and he got the win.
"He tried a couple of guys. It didn't work out for Jack Leamy. Just didn't fall for him but Jack is going to be good.
"In Cathal O'Reilly, we have a serious defender. This guy was captain of the minors two years ago, he was on the 20s last year. He's the kind of a fella, he'd smile at you while absolutely tattooing you at the same time.
"This guy is one for the future. He's going to push the likes of Robert Doyle or Mikey Breen to go to another level. Because if they don't, Cathal O'Reilly is going to come into the fold. So that was a big positive for Tipp as well."
