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Content Zone
Wed 09-Aug-2000 8:31
More from this writer..
An Maor
'Yerra, Dere Was Too Much Hoobris Bhoy!'
The Cork crowd went from looking for directions last year, to owning the place this year and boasting about the great odds that they had got on Cork again winning 'Liam' earlier in the year... Others staying at home, waiting to come up for the All-Ireland in September... and then shocked at their hubris as Offaly hurled them off the field last Sunday.
Lads joked of having to buy these ten-year tickets and the value that they'd get out of them. Then the guff about Munster hurling being the best... Well, Munster hurling how are ya!!! The Cork confidence before the game was great gas altogether. They were planning the parties for September and many Septembers to come - their team was unbeatable.
However, as tales of Johnny Pilkington being seen in the Faithful county's public houses drinking Coke and the wizardry of the new addition to the Offaly gene pool called Murphy reached An Maor before the game, AM thought... 'Mmmm.. maybe we were in for a shock...' And so we were...
What a game! The pure skill and guts of the Offaly boys was at times breathtaking. The last day Derry had thrown themselves at the ball with total commitment and oblivious to the dangers. To see the self-styled Adonis of the Bogs - Ger Oakley -doing the same was incredible. An Maor didn't realise he had it in him.
The crowd were going mad and the atmosphere was fantastic. The Dear Old TD By The Lee, Health Minister Mícheál Martin, and one of his children were new additions to the ArdChomhairle Box along with Oul SuperDub Himself, Bertie, and all the other regulars. An awful lot of Offaly supporters were moaning on Sunday about the location of the allocated tickets. One lad called over a photographer from the 'BIFFO Express' (or what ever the local paper is called) to take a picture of the huge amount of red shirts (their faces matched their jerseys after the game!) in sections 307 and 308. These, along with 305/306, are the best spots in the New Cusack. He had a point, although AM doubts if there were more than 8,000 Offaly supporters among the 34,000 crowd.
An old friend of An Maor and lots of other Maors...You know him... the Offaly lad with the woody woodpecker sucking a can of Guinness on the top of his hat? (always gets his picture on the Telly or in the paper - even took an ad in the programme with a picture of himself). Well, it has finally been established that this lad has the powers of not just bi- but multi-location. Despite there being at least five stewards waiting to jump on the hoor if he tried to get on the pitch, he managed to pop up in several locations around the Cusack Stand, and still managed to get down to the gate beside the dugout for the obligatory photo opportunity. We'll be ready for him at the final though!
On a different note, An Maor met one of the Dublin selectors on Sunday and for the evening we were trying to get the story with free takers out of him...He wouldn't budge.. even after a feed of pints. He was telling us about the pressures from the meedja. He now no longer answers the phone at home or his mobile. He just lets them ring and then checks the messages. He said it's like having ten teenage daughters in the house - the phone ringing at 8 in the morning to 12 at night non-stop. He was saying that you can say nothing. If you say 'Dublin are training well, all going right we should be in with a chance.... etc. '... the next day 'We'll hammer Kildare says Dublin selector' will be all over the paper. Ah, the pressures at the top.
An Maor also saw Joe McNally on Sunday night. We were joking with him about a return. 'Canya take frees Joe?'. An Maor's selector friend was having none of it. AM had forgotten how big "Big" Joe is, swilling back the pints with the shirt buttoned down and the big medallion. An Maor wouldn't fancy marking him. Although a Kerryman related the story of the '85 final, where Joe kicked Páidí Ó Sé in the tunnel before the game. Páidí didn't react. Then with only five minutes gone, a high ball drops into the Kerry square and a crowd jump for it. Páidí races clear and "Big" Joe left out of it on the ground. Nobody saw a thing. People down that end watched for it but couldn't see a thing. To say that "Big" Joe had been taken out of it was an understatement. That was it. He didn't play at all for the rest of the afternoon.
So, roll on next weekend with The Dubs v Kildare and Galway v Kilkenny games.
Should be good stuff!!
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