Time for a clock to take away all the uncertainty
In injury time Patrick Horgan, with a beautiful piece of stickwork, brought the sliotar down and fired a brilliant shot over his right shoulder. Game over. Or so we thought.
Clare corner-back Domhnall O’Donovan stole up field to take the pass from Nicky O’Connell and score a glorious equaliser.
After Pat fired that score he knew there was still work to be done but when Luke O’Farrell harassed Clare keeper Patrick Kelly into carrying the ball over the sideline, it looked like Liam MacCarthy would be a guest of the Rebels for the winter.
“When we had the ball down in the corner, the 72 minutes gone, I thought yes, it was after doing it for us. I thought then all we had to do was get the ball out of play and it was over. But they got another chance and took it.”
It’s one of the GAA anomalies. When the board went up signalling there would be two minutes of injury time the announcer clarified: “There will be at least two minutes of additional time.”
Referee Brian Gavin played on, Kelly took the puckout in the following 32 seconds O’Donovan wrote his name in All-Ireland final legend.
Fair dues, says Patrick. “Sure look, we might claim he should have blown it but if you’re Clare you want another chance too. It works both ways. Maybe it’s something they [GAA] could look into.”
Time now surely for a clock, take away all such uncertainty.
“Right now we’d probably say yes but the wheel will turn, the shoe could be on the opposite foot on another day. Maybe it’s a good idea but nothing we can do about it now anyway. ”
Where does it leave Cork now though. Psychologically down after having the win snatched from them after being outplayed for long stretches or bouyed by getting another chance?
“A bit of both to be honest with you,” says centre-back Brian Murphy. “Any time you draw there’s a lot of what-ifs. If you did this you could have won, if you did that you could have lost. Fellas are in good enough auld form. We have another bite of the cherry, can’t complain.”
And Clare were the better team for most of the game, surprised most observers by reverting to the traditional line-up, eschewing the sweeper system but outplayed Cork at the back leaving Brian and the other defenders to cope with six flying forwards. The Bride Rovers star though wasn’t surprised.
“Nothing surprises you with Clare, Davy is doing a very good job. Ultimately it’s 15 against 15 anyway, no matter what tactics are used you just get on with it.
“Look, they’re a good team and have shown that all year. We knew we were really going to be up against it at different times in the game but we stuck in there, which is the big thing from our point of view. I thought we showed great character, all the lads.”
Overall, as they headed a recovery session, the feeling among the Cork players was positive and forward-looking. Defiant, as articulated by Patrick.
“With us, we don’t ever panic. We had two more 21-yard frees, their goalkeeper saved one when he shouldn’t have [came out to meet the ball]. Maybe another day those would have went in and we’d have been in the driving-seat, another two goals.”
However, also realistic, acceptance of the fact they hadn’t played well, as articulated by Brian: “You play as well as you’re left and in fairness Clare didn’t allow us play for long periods of the game. That’s something we’re going to have to work on for the next day.”
