Galway had not won the All-Ireland since 1988 and had lost six finals in the interim, 1990, 1993, 2001, 2005, 2012, and 2015.
Waterford had not won the All-Ireland since 1959 and had only appeared in two finals in the interim.
The match was the 11th championship meeting between Galway and Waterford, the first in 1938 with the most recent in 2011. Galway had never beaten Waterford in the championship. Galway were looking to win their fifth All-Ireland title after winning in 1923, 1980, 1987, and 1988. Waterford were looking for a third title after winning in 1948 and 1959.
With a stadium capacity of 82,300, the 32 individual county boards received 60,000 tickets. Schools and third level colleges got 2,500 tickets, while season ticket holders were entitled to 5,500 tickets. 1,000 tickets were given to overseas clubs. The Camogie, Ladies' Football, Handball and Rounders Associations were each allocated about 200 tickets, as were the jubilee teams and mini-7s which play at half-time. Demand for tickets was very high in both counties with Galway and Waterford having receiving around 32,000 tickets between. Stand tickets were priced at €80 with terrace at €40.
On 17 August 2017 the officials were chosen for the final by the GAA, with Tipperary's Fergal Horgan being named as the referee in what will be his first senior final. Cork’s Colm Lyons was named as linesman and standby referee with Paud O’Dwyer of Carlow on the other line. The sideline official were Johnny Murphy from Limerick. The umpires were John Ryan, Paul Ryan, Mick Butler, and Sean Bradshaw.
Team news
During Galway's win in the semi-final, Adrian Tuohy was involved in an incident where the helmet of Tipperary player Bonner Maher was pulled off. It was confirmed a few days later that he would face no sanction arising from the incident and would be free to play in the final. During the semi-final win against Cork, Waterford's Austin Gleeson in a similar incident to Adrian Tuohy's pulled Luke Meade’s helmet off his head in the first half. It was confirmed on 15 August that he would also escape punishment from the CCCC for the incident and would be free to play in the final. It was confirmed on 22 August that Waterford's Conor Gleeson would miss the final after being handed a one-match ban after receiving a straight red card in the semi-final win against Cork. Jonathan Glynn was named in the starting line-up for Galway for the first time in two years, replacing Niall Burke in the half-forward line. Tadhg de Búrca returned to the Waterford line-up after being suspended for the semi-final, replacing the banned Conor Gleeson.
Summary
Galway thundered into Waterford from the beginning giving na Déise very little room to breathe. Playing into the Davin end, Joe Canning opened the scoring for Galway after 18 seconds with a point from out on the left which he hit over his left shoulder. Further points from Johnny Coen, Joseph Cooney, and Cathal Mannion gave Galway a four points to no score lead after four minutes. In the fifth minute, Kevin Moran scored Waterford's first score, a goal when he ran in on goal after collecting a pass from Michael Walsh to finish low to the left of the net. Kevin Moran got a point in the 11th minute to make the score 0-6 to 1-2. David Burke got his second point in the 21st minute to make it 0-10 to 1-4. In the 22nd minute, a high ball in from Kieran Bennett went all the way into the net after a mistake by Galway goalkeeper Colm Callanan when he tried to catch the ball after it bounced, this made the score 0-10 to 2-4. Galway had a one-point lead at half-time on a 0-14 to 2-7 scoreline. In the second-half Pauric Mahony got the first point from a free to level the match after three minutes. Waterford had a one-point lead in the 43rd minute after another free from Pauric Mahony. Joe Canning leveled the match a minute later from a free. After fifty minutes Galway had a two pint lead on a 0-20 to 2-12 scoreline, and with ten minutes to play the Galway lead was one point. With five minutes to go the lead was four for Galway after a point from Jason Flynn. Joe Canning got Galway's last point in the last minute from another free to make it 0-26 to 2-16 with the final score of the match coming from another Pauric Mahony free in the first minute of the four minutes which were added on. Despite attempts by Waterford to score a goal and level the match, Galway held on to win by three points, 0-26 to 2-17.
Highlights of the final were shown on The Sunday Game programme which aired at 9:30pm that night on RTÉ Two and was presented by Des Cahill with match analysis from Brendan Cummins, Eddie Brennan, and Anthony Daly. On the man of the match award shortlist were David Burke, Gearóid McInerney and Jamie Barron, with David Burke winning the award which was presented by GAA president Aogan O' Fearghail at the City West hotel in Dublin where the post match Galway function was being held.
Celebrations
The Galway teams returned home on the 4 September were the homecoming event was held at Pearse Stadium, with the team arriving around 7:30pm, a crowd of around 20,000 turned put to greet the team. Before that the team stopped on the way at the Fairgreen in Ballinasloe at 3pm where almost 15,000 people turned out.
