Strength on the bench a bonus for crafty Cats

DUE to circumstances beyond my control – and beyond my understanding, because why any hurling county would schedule its own championships on a day when the All-Ireland semi-final was taking place is baffling – I wasn’t in Croke Park yesterday.

Instead I was in the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick where the team I’m coaching, Kilmallock, won their county quarter-final. This, then, is the first time since I started doing this column for the Examiner that I wasn’t able to actually see the game ‘live’. I did, however, see it on television, and you know what – though you do get a far better idea of what’s happening, I’m sort of glad I wasn’t there. I did notice though, on the television, that those who were on the Cusack Stand side of the ground at least got a bit of sunshine for their troubles – they didn’t get a contest.

For about 20 minutes, this was a contest, Cork contesting everything, closing down space everywhere. And then, like the old soldiers a lot of them are, they just faded away.