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Content Zone
Sun 06-Sep-2009 23:56
More from this writer..
Henry Martin
Kilkenny worthy 'four-in-a-row' champions
The four in a row has been achieved, and done so with many talking points.
It has been widely acknowledged among Kilkenny grass roots supporters that their great team are on the way down, having already climbed the hill. The peak was unquestionably in last year’s final. Understandably so, their one great fear approaching this game was that they would get caught today and their opportunity to create history would be denied. It very nearly happened. For history’s sake it wasn’t the case, and Kilkenny are the only team in hurling history to win a four in a row of provincial and All Ireland titles together. The one question mark that hung over Cork’s four in a row was the provincial title they failed to secure. Kilkenny have the bragging rights now.
We should laud their great team because those of us that witnessed today may never again see such an achievement in our lifetimes.
Perhaps it’s a personal reflection based on my own hectic schedule since 2006, but in many ways, the four in a row seems to have slipped on top of us really quickly. Could the next twelve months pass equally quickly with Kilkenny sneaking another title out of Henry Shefflin, Michael Kavanagh, Martin Comerford, and Derek Lyng who will be entering the twilight of their careers? One assumes that Noel Hickey will finally depart after three years of speculation, but the one positive created by the void in his absence today may well be an All Star for PJ Ryan. We saw the best saves in an All Ireland final today since those of Joe Quaid in 1996 and David Fitzgerald in 1997.
As for the game itself, Cody’s spat with Marty, gloriously sidestepped the real issue. Was it a penalty or wasn’t it. Ger Loughnane spelled it out in black and white while Marty was ‘on the floor’. It was either a standard 21-yard free or a free out for over carrying. Cody might feel that every referee’s decision in the game needs to be analysed equally, but there were few decisions in any game that were as close to a gamebreaker as this one. This was no fiddle faddle free in the middle of the field! And at that Cummins very nearly stopped what was a bullet from the nerveless Henry Shefflin, a player who takes his points from penalties more often than most.
However, the real gamebreaker was what followed the penalty. Michael Kavanagh showed great presence of mind to keep the ball in play when the rest of his body was over the line. All Ireland finals are won on fine lines and small margins. A line ball to Tipperary at that stage might well have split the uprights. Instead it ended in a goal at the other end. Michael Duignan may have justifiably queried the use of Michael Kavanagh as that old chestnut of the extra man but it certainly worked well for Kilkenny in this and other instances.
Apart from the gamebreaking incidents mentioned above, there were two more that made a huge difference in how the pendulum swung - the sending off of Benny Dunne and the superb save from PJ Ryan from Seamus Callinan. Tipperary were in the ascendancy in both cases. That particular save more than any other made today was most significant because Seamus Callinan would have no regrets in terms of the cleanness of the strike or the placing of the shot. It was just one of those truly great saves.
Liam Sheedy may have more or less exonerated Benny Dunne for the sending off, but the brother of the man who last captained Tipperary to All Ireland success lost if for those vital few moments. He is not a dirty player and it was not a dirty game, but it was one of the most horrific strikes to the head of a player ever seen in championship hurling and justifies the need for helmets for all players from next year on. Sheedy believes that it rallied Tipperary, but Tipperary were going strong anyway. Henry Shefflin’s resultant monster free proved a real rallying score for Kilkenny in that it demonstrated that they still had life in them.
The scenes at the very end of the game were farcical. The GAA need to cop themselves on and allow the pitch invasions. It would be more in their line to challenge the claims of the soft compensation seekers than to try and deny their grass roots supporters their greatest memories. It was enthralling as a Limerick supporter to be on the pitch in Thurles after the Munster under 21 final replay of 2002 and for the All Ireland final later that year. Who can forget the pitch invasion at the end of the trilogy with Tipperary in 2007? Its even more enthralling to look at the Youtube clip of Limerick supporters on Croke Park as Eamonn Grimes received the Trophy in 1973 after 33 years of waiting.
One contested case that went to court wouldn’t be long sorting out those who pretentiously slip as they enter the Croke Park pitch. If the stewards opened the gates and allowed people in it might also help. One could have predicted the Christy Cooney spiff from the microphone ala Kieran McGeeney in 2002. If taking the microphone back from Michael Fennelly was a publicity stunt to generate a hype machine aimed at preventing pitch invasions it hasn’t worked. Pitch invasions are not as dangerous as they are made out to be and should be embraced as part of our culture. We are not English Soccer hooligans. Speaking of which, Michael Fennelly’s mastery of our native language won’t ever see him compared to Joe Connolly, but he won’t mind. He has an armchair memory forever more as being the man who captained Kilkenny to the four in a row.
PS: While collecting for Coiscéim Eile today at Newlands Cross, I met a man from Gowran by the name of Denis Joseph Carey. A gentleman by all accounts, it crossed my mind that he was now the forgotten man of Kilkenny hurling. He was a good one and he smiled when I mentioned that but insisted that he had his bit done. That is the GAA for you, and passing on the torch on the eve of the Munster final symbolises what DJ and Eddie Keher before him did: Wearing his jersey, which is now so graciously worn by the players of today, and then passing it on to the next man.
PSS: If the side of Cody we saw in the after match interview with Marty Morrissey today, comes through in his book, it will be a book well worth reading and could be a dark horse in terms of controversial GAA books this winter!
Linked article:
Sheedy's men outmaneouvred at the death - Conor Power
‘We talk just like lions, but we sacrifice like lambs…’.
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Mass, the Mater, ‘The Dergvale’ and Mullingar…
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