Win chiselled out of mediocrity
It isn't, but it doesn't make the strange tale of Kilkenny's 28th senior title any easier to recount.
In years to come, Croke Park anoraks will have dizzy heads explaining the summer of 2003. Remember the year Kilkenny beat Cork 1-14 to 1-11? D.J. Carey never rose a flag, ditto Eddie Brennan, and Brian Cody rejoiced in a win chiselled out of mediocrity.
Cork, despite 18 wides, had five scorers in their attack. Kilkenny had three, who claimed 1-13 between them.
Almost 80,000 spectators groaned through a first half so turgid, one wag suggested the teams were preparing spectators for the all-Ulster football final in two week's time.
There was one key difference though and it re-emerged to tell a tale in the frantic finale; Kilkenny's forwards produced when the need was greatest. Cork's didn't.
Fifty-three minutes had elapsed when Setanta Ó hAilpín galloped through to net an equalising goal. It's timing was sublime. Cork's head of steam was at boiling point, their remarkable support fuelling the comeback from a six point half time deficit. Within a minute, Niall McCarthy, in a frenzied state claimed the lead point for the Munster champions.
There are moments in team sport which define the character of the individual when it all comes down to one play. Nothing better illustrates it than American Football, when a defence is faced with a goal line stand. Concede territory, concede the game.
This GAA championship season has had its compelling moments, and Cork's lead point presented one yesterday. It was game on. "Cork were on a serious roll," reflected Brian Cody afterwards. "It was just about hanging in there. I was roaring and screaming at my lads."
By the time Martin Comerford equalised for Kilkenny four minutes later, Niall McCarthy had spurned two glorious chances for Cork, one coming back off a post and Timmy McCarthy had dropped possession after being teed up for a point by Joe Deane. Notwithstanding the customary bedlam of the last ten minutes, you sensed these were a pivotal four minutes.
"When a team comes back at you, it's hard to arrest the slide," Cody reckoned. "But it's a savage battle. All-Ireland finals are won by men, men with character, heart and guts.
"When people reflect on this, we knew that nobody was going to question whether we are able to hurl or not. But there would certainly be question marks over our heart for the battle, whether we were able to dig in and fight our corner. All those questions they were never in my mind, but they don't arise now."
Cork selector John Allen provided a lucid, if straightforward analysis of those missing minutes.
"When we went up a point, the game turned on the two subsequent chances. The difference between the teams was we missed our chances, they didn't.
"We had two chances to be up three points at that stage we might have killed off Kilkenny had we scored. The four of us (selectors) could not say that anyone should have been taken off, or that we had to change our tactics. We couldn't fault the players for heart, and we had been six points down at half time before playing badly. The difference this time was that we were still creating chances that we couldn't take."
With nine minutes remaining, Henry Shefflin found an astonishing plot of freedom on the right wing to claim the lead point, and six minutes from the death, he edged the sliothar through to Martin Comerford for the decisive Kilkenny goal.
The Cats' full-forward was cast as the toiler for Carey and Brennan, polishing their rifles and supplying their bullets. In keeping with the unscripted nature of the story, he claimed 1-4 from play and vied with full-back Noel Hickey for the man of the match award.
It was the only occasion the Kilkenny forwards saw the white of Donal Óg Cusack's eyes.
Cork, meanwhile, had three clear goal chances, all falling to Setanta Ó hAilpín.
The first came after 23 minutes, at a point when Kilkenny enjoyed an 0-8 to 0-1 lead and Cork couldn't buy a score.
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