Christy O’Connor: Celebrate the physics-defying magic of McGinnis and Reid
Kilkenny's TJ Reid celebrates scoring a goal against Tipperary. Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
It’s possible, more than likely probable, that Killian McGinnis was just trying to keep the ball in play, or even pass it across the goal, but McGinnis would never admit as much. And he’d be right not to. When a player scores an audacious point just centimetres from the endline, he deserves every ounce of credit attached to such an incredible score.
Maybe the above assumption is doing a complete disservice to McGinnis. Maybe the Dublin player did mean to clip the ball with the outside of his right boot over the bar from the endline, especially when the ball was rolling wide and McGinnis couldn’t pick it up with Cian Hernon right behind him. Hernon didn’t even attempt to shoulder McGinnis or engage him in the tackle because he saw no danger. But the Galway full-back looked as perplexed as the rest of his team-mates when the ball flew over the crossbar.
It was a score for the ages but it was that kind of afternoon. In the 64th minute, Hernon – almost as if to say he wasn’t going to be outdone by McGinnis – kicked the equalising score with an incredible point from the 13-metre line. Hernon drove right under the ball and skied it over 20 feet above the height of both posts but he still managed to curl it inside the posts.
McGinnis though, was outstanding, finishing with 1-3 and the standout moment of the match. A week earlier, Seán O’Shea recorded another score for the ages when letting fly on a rolling ball from outside the 2-point arc and driving it straight over the crossbar.
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O’Shea’s dead-ball genius made it seem less spectacular than a similar score would have been deemed for any other player but its execution was still of an absolute elite quality.
O’Shea would have been excused – even if the ball had gone wide or been blocked – for taking on such a shot. His class grants him that pardon, but very few players attempt that kind of audacity, or are encouraged to do so, when such a low percentage play is so routinely discouraged in the modern game.
On the other hand, there have been clear hints during this league of players leaning more towards an increased level of individual expressionism. That has been particularly evident – especially on Sunday – around long-range points. And the willingness to take on those two-point attempts.
The game’s increasing evolution and development under the new rules has created the conditions for that greater level of individual ingenuity, innovation and expressionism. And that is always to be encouraged and applauded. Because that’s the kind of stuff that always gets people out of their seats.
When John Donnelly’s point attempt came back off the post in the 64th minute of Saturday’s Tipperary-Kilkenny game in Thurles, TJ Reid was onto the rebound in a flash. In just 0.34 of a second, Reid had flicked up the ball and dinked it over the crossbar.
The play was even more mesmerising again considering what Reid had tried to do, and how little time it took his brain to compute what he wanted to do, considering Ronan Maher – Tipp’s All-Star centre-back – was right beside him, and Rhys Shelly – Tipp’s All-Star goalkeeper from 2025 – was right in front of him.
Reid was only a foot outside the square when he tried to caress the ball over Shelly’s head with enough of a cushioned-touch so that the sliotar would dip just below the crossbar. The mathematics just didn’t allow Reid to balance the equation and the sliotar just grazed the crossbar.
When the geometry was more favourable 12 minutes earlier, Reid had executed more or less the same play – just in more time, and space. Robert Doyle – Tipp’s All-Star defender – was hot on his heels but once Reid picked the ball inside the 20-metre line, he immediately dinked it over Shelly’s head as the goalkeeper advanced to meet him.
Two weeks after the embarrassing performance against Galway, Kilkenny needed more than just a result on Saturday night. They got a performance with enough defiance and class to dilute some of the pain from Salthill but the biggest plus for Kilkenny was the performance of Reid – returning for the first time this year - and the comfort that will have given to Kilkenny supporters.
As Kilkenny struggled throughout the league, nobody was fully sure where Reid would fit in when he returned. Turning 39 in November, could Kilkenny keep depending on the Ballyhale Shamrocks man? Would he start in the championship? Would he come off the bench? Is there 70 minutes in him anymore? Where will he play?
Those are all still legitimate questions but Reid delivered plenty of solid answers on Saturday. Kilkenny didn’t go away from their main (new) principles of necklacing their short-passing game through the middle but having Reid back, and at full-forward, gave them more of a licence to go long and be more direct. That licence extended even further when Ed McDermott, a man-mountain while still under 20, appeared in the full-forward line in the second half alongside Reid.
Reid shared some of the freetaking duties with Cian Kenny but he was highly productive all evening; as well as scoring 1-4 from play, Reid could have had two more goals, while he had two direct assists along with making himself enough of a nuisance under a long ball to open the door for Mossy Keoghan’s goal in the fourth quarter.
Ronan Maher is still finding his form after a long injury layoff but he struggled on Reid all evening. Maher needed this game but it was also a reminder to him – and everyone else – that he wasn’t marking any ordinary player. This was another illustration of Reid’s extraordinary and eternal genius.
When the Cork players and management met in the International Hotel before they played Kildare last weekend, the players were told that there would be no communication before throw-in of how the Derry and Louth match had ended, or how Meath and Tyrone were progressing.
However, if the players had heard the Louth victory called out over the tannoy minutes before the game in Páirc Uí Rinn got underway, they knew the door was now wide open – because Derry had left it open. And Cork emphatically drove through it in their last two matches.
They had no other choice considering how much of a bottleneck the top of Division 2 had become. Cork and Meath qualified on 12 points but this was the first time since the league was redrawn in the last two decades that the 3rd and 4th placed teams in Division 2 ended up on 10 points.
There had only been three occasions in the last 20 years that the 3rd placed team in the division had registered 10 or more points; Derry accumulated 11 in 2022, Derry ended up on 10 in 2011, while Kildare amassed 10 in 2009.
This was the first time in the last two decades though, that the 4th placed team registered 10 points. There had only been one occasion when the 4th placed team amassed 9 points – Tyrone in 2011.
This year’s Division 2 was the closest to that 2011 campaign in terms of competitiveness between the top four teams. Derry, who finished third on 10 points, actually won more games than Donegal – who finished top – in 2011 but Donegal and Laois edged out Derry on scoring difference.
Promotion didn’t come down to scoring difference yesterday but this Division 2 was a sprint to the tape between the top 4 unlike anything seen in an age.
