Good year for football, great year for Cork
Having waited 20 years, a Cork captain finally climbed the Hogan Stand steps to collect the Sam Maguire.
It was a fitting and deserved ending to a great year for Conor Counihan’s men.
Any team that wins the NFL Division One title has to be good but to add the Championship to the trophy cabinet leaves no room for argument as to who is the best team in Ireland.
There was much that was admirable and pleasing in Cork’s success on Sunday and it was fitting that a player of the calibre and commitment of Graham Canty should captain the side.
Canty epitomises all that is good in Gaelic games.
It seemed as if injury would deny him the great honour of collecting the cup on the greatest day of his sporting life, but his perseverance and the wisdom of the selectors ensured otherwise.
Indeed, no praise is high enough for the performance of the Cork selectors last Sunday. They get full marks for keeping Canty in reserve and his introduction proved a master move. If he started and had to limp off after 15 or 20 minutes, as happened to Henry Shefflin in the hurling decider, it would have been a huge psychological blow to Cork. Counihan and his men also resisted the temptation to spring him at half-time. They cleverly waited until the 41st minute which gave the Cork team and supporters a huge lift. Canty immediately lifted his colleagues and the team grew in confidence from there until the end.
If Canty’s arrival was inspirational, Nicholas Murphy’s was pivotal. Murphy caught a few magnificent balls in the middle of the park and with each successive catch, Cork players and fans grew more confident. These two substitutions alone reflected a management team that knew its business and its players and had the wisdom and bottle to make the big calls.
You can have all the possession you like but if you haven’t the forwards to turn it into scores you will win nothing. In this regard Cork had two aces. Donncha O’Connor and Daniel Goulding were outstanding from play and placed balls. Without them would Sam Maguire be returning to Leeside?
Of course, this was a great team effort by a group that have soldiered long and hard and suffered some bad days in Croke Park. But all good things come to those that wait. Well Cork waited 20 long years for this success. Only a very poor sportsman would begrudge them victory. They have won the ultimate honours with a team made up of great sporting ambassadors and a manager who both as player and manager has served his county with distinction. Conor Counihan will get a lot of praise for this victory. But he’ll make no money out of it. Nor would he want to. What a manager, what a man.
Yes, a good year for football and a great year for Cork.
IT was a very good week for Cork. Granted their minors were a shade unlucky not to at least draw with Tyrone but the ending of the 20 year famine was a major milestone. The minors will come again and indeed, sometimes one gets more at senior level from a defeated minor team than a winning one. No, this senior success was special not just for Cork but for the GAA.
If Cork had lost on Sunday the damage done to the county psychologically would have been immense. They would have been in the same mould as Mayo who, unfortunately, just haven’t been able to get over the line for 60 years now.
In terms of population the GAA needs a strong presence in Dublin and Cork.
ALL-IRELAND finals will never be the same now that Micheál O Muircheartaigh has retired from broadcasting. He has been a one man promotional machine for the GAA now just in Ireland but around the world.
His departure, though, leaves a void. Now that O Muircheartaigh has departed the scene, RTÉ may have a battle on its hands to retain the loyalty of his thousands of fans and admirers and, may face strong opposition from other stations like Today FM and Newstalk for the radio broadcasting rights. It will be interesting what will happen but for today let us salute and pay tribute to a marvellous man who has played such a role in the lives of all GAA fans at home and abroad.
WHILE one Kerry man commentated on his last All-Ireland final on Sunday, another Kingdom native was attending his first decider having missed out on playing in the minor showpiece at Croke Park in 1954.
Fr Donie Sheahan (San Diego and Kilcummin) was part of the Kerry panel that qualified for the All-Ireland MFC final 56 years ago but as he had entered the seminary, St Kieran’s of Kilkenny, he was unable to join the squad.
After ordination Sheahan was based in the USA for over five decades and never managed to return home for Gaelic football’s showpiece day.
Until Sunday that was. What’s more our mutual cousin, Paddy Kelly, was on the Cork team.
So if Fr Donie couldn’t see Kerry winning the next best thing was seeing a cousin dressed in red and white do the business for Cork.
