Yet when I finally summoned the courage to watch the game three days later, I couldn’t disagree with what Jamesie had said. He was right — it was caveman stuff.

It is never nice to hear such terminology when you put so much into preparing your team but I was reminded of the description watching Galway in the second half yesterday. Galway were ahead. Waterford were down to 14 men. Galway had the wind at their backs but they almost did everything you’d expect them not to do; hit crazy wides, make sloppy decisions, take their foot off the gas. And hand all the momentum back to Waterford.

You have to give great credit to Waterford for taking their chance but the manner of their late collapse was worrying stuff for Galway. The injury to Joe Canning is a potential horror-show. It may not be as bad as it looked but it never looks great when a guy is stretchered off. And the last player Galway can afford to lose is Joe.

The goalkeeping position is still up in the air but I think the biggest concern for management is that not enough of the fringe players have shown up in this league. I don’t think those fringe players are anywhere near the standard of the Limerick or Waterford panelists who have got their chance this spring. I’d even put some of the Dublin players with high numbers on their backs ahead of some of the more heralded Galway players in a similar position.

Galway needed a batch of those guys to stick up their hand in this league and I don’t think they’ve done enough to convince management that they’ll be up to the task in high summer.

On the other hand, the madness of hurling, which I’m constantly referring to, was fully evident again here. Just before half-time, Stephen O’Keeffe made two incredible saves from Kevin Hussey and Joe. And then shortly afterwards, a Stephen Bennett long-range free finds its way to the net. That’s a nine-point swing. And if Galway were ahead by nine points, having played against the breeze, this game would have been over.

It may have papered over some of the cracks which became crevices later on in the match but that is the reality. If Galway were in total control at that point, would some of those peripheral players been surfing a different wave of confidence in the second half? This column would probably have a different tone altogether.

The stick I’m giving Galway now might have been directed at Waterford. That’s how fine the margins are but Waterford had the belief to storm back when Galway left the door open for them. And if you miss goal chances, and frees, you’ll invariably lose at this level. It eventually just catches up with you.

Padraic Fanning spoke afterwards about the heart and character of his players but they were very poor for long periods of the first half. They tried to get Tadgh de Búrca into a similar role that Sean Moran plays with Dublin as a deep-lying number six, a la Brian Hogan for Kilkenny back in the day. But I thought Galway were going to blitz them when they started taking Waterford apart early on.

Their fitness levels are really strong but Fanning is clearly trusting his panel too. Their subs made an impact but I’d say Padraic can’t believe where his team are at, especially when they have some big names to return.

Waterford have tweaked their style but they’re still the same Waterford. The Bennetts are the Bennetts; they’ll amaze and frustrate you. So will Austin Gleeson. But when they’re on their game, they’re as good as anyone else. They’re playing with that confidence and swagger but the Walsh Park factor, and getting those two championship games at home, just seems to have given everyone a lift.

They were in the All-Ireland final two years ago. It’s not year one. It’s year now. And Waterford are on track so far.

So are Limerick. Dublin really put it up to them and they withstood the challenge. Dublin needed a performance and they delivered it in spades. Limerick’s half-forward line have been playing deep for the last two years, and savaging guys in the middle third, but Dublin met them head on yesterday. Limerick’s three half-forwards were taken off.

Limerick are allowed to be tactical because they have won an All-Ireland. Dublin then are nearly not allowed to be tactical because they haven’t Celtic Crosses. But I’m sure Mattie Kenny was delighted going home on the bus afterwards. They got a lot out of the league, plus they have some big names to return too.

Limerick are still that level ahead of Dublin. You can see that even in their conditioning. When Dublin lost three players to injury in the first half, it really reduced their options off the bench. They flooded the middle but physically, Dublin are probably not quite fully ready for Limerick yet in that warzone.

Dublin got so many of their match-ups right but Limerick have that extra class too. Seamie Flanagan’s goal was superb. The finish was brilliant but it was fitting that it was engineered by the outstanding Diarmuid Byrnes and Cian Lynch. Byrnes looks to be getting even stronger again.

I still liked a lot of what Dublin did. They made it the type of game they needed to. It wasn’t pretty at time. It was hard-hitting throughout, ferocious even at times, but I love those type of games too. Some connoisseurs only want the high-scoring carnivals but there is real beauty too in the manliness shown by both teams yesterday.

Dublin just lacked that incisive scoring threat up front but Limerick are the best team in the country at the moment. Their back-up is massive now. Look at the impact Conor Boylan and Flanagan made? It’s even more impressive considering some of the names that didn’t even see game-time yesterday.

Next Sunday will be an interesting final. Limerick will want to back up what they did last year. John Kiely will want to maintain that momentum while Waterford are desperate to rediscover that momentum they lost last year. But they have it back now and winning another league title would give Waterford a colossal boost heading into the summer.

Finally, I’ve never been convinced about double-headers and yesterday’s experience confirmed my doubts. A lot of supporters left after the first game. A load more left at half-time of the second match. The second game was a late start and you just got the impression that people wanted to get home.

The atmosphere at Galway-Waterford was completely diluted by then. It was nowhere near as electric as the first game but that was no real surprise when you have four different sets of fans.

If you’re a Dublin or Limerick supporter, would you go to a Galway-Waterford match? The diehards might but there aren’t that many of them around when you strip away to the real fanatics.

There was a good Waterford support in Nowlan Park but that wasn’t a surprise given how close it is, especially compared to the haul down from Galway. It may have suited management to get a run out in Nowlan Park before they play Kilkenny there in the championship, but that isn’t much solace to supporters facing a six-hour round trip.

I wouldn’t have seen any issue with playing one of those games on Saturday evening and the other yesterday. I always find it a funny atmosphere with four teams involved. It’s been the same with All-Ireland quarter-finals in recent years. There’s a buzz for the second half of the first match because everyone is in the ground. The supporters for the second game are hyped up in anticipation but that vibe has usually long drained away by the time that second game takes place.

The league semi-finals are a big day but I don’t think double-headers work. Home and away arrangements dictated last year’s semi-finals between Kilkenny-Wexford and Limerick-Tipperary but the atmosphere was far different around those two matches. The Wexford-Kilkenny game may have been a damp squib but it was put back 15 minutes for crowd control with the huge attendance which turned up. The Limerick-Tipp game the previous evening was an absolute cracker but the atmosphere was enhanced by it being a stand-alone semi-final. I think the GAA need to rethink their strategy.