Pundits should remember winning ugly beats losing a classic

Midway through the first half of Sunday’s All-Ireland final, I felt a tight, heaving sensation in the pit of my stomach.

Officially a neutral, I should have been unaffected by the emotion of the occasion. But the tension got to me. The game was so tight, so cagey and so finely balanced, it was impossible to stay at a professional remove.

And I would question how anyone with a beating heart could not have been engrossed by that contest.