Christy O'Connor: Why Saturday's All-Ireland finals double-header was the best we've ever seen

All four teams in the junior and intermediate hurling finals were heroic

Philip Wall of Kilbrittain celebrates with his brother Jamie Wall. Pic: ©INPHO/James Lawlor

Late on in extra-time of Saturday’s All-Ireland Club Intermediate Hurling Championship final, the match had effectively evolved into a game of pinball, the sliotar flying from end-to-end in a crazy fusion of chaotic excitement and Hitchcockian drama. Goals. Saves. Constant attacks. Manic defending. A Hollywood scriptwriter couldn’t have dreamed it up.

Upperchurch-Drombane scored two goals in the first half of extra-time but could have raised five green flags in that period. The Tipperary side were hunting goals as much as points when the space opened up before the last five minutes of the second half of extra-time exploded into a shootout unlike anything ever witnessed before in Croke Park.