Last year’s pain was this year’s gain, claims Corcoran

BRIAN Corcoran has only one regret about Sunday’s Guinness All-Ireland hurling final – that the players didn’t have time on the field to themselves to savour their victory, as they had five years ago.

It denied him the opportunity to shake hands with James Ryall, the Kilkenny player who ended up marking him, he pointed out, or to embrace any of his team-mates.

"Back in '99, the crowd wasn't allowed on to the field, which meant we were able to celebrate, commiserate with the opposition and do a lap of honour.