No rogue specimens found as sliotars pass forensic test

CLOSE examination began early in Croke Park yesterday. Latecomers to the stadium missed minor referee Jason O’Mahony paying forensic attention to the towel brought in for Cork minor captain Patrick Horgan after 10 minutes of the Leesiders’ clash with Galway.

No rogue specimens were found, and the ball was put over the bar.

Contrary to some suggestions, the referee for the senior game, Brian Gavin, didn’t emerge with a bagful of sliotars slung over his shoulder like Santa Claus.

When Gavin strolled down to speak briefly to Clinton Hennessey and Donal Óg Cusack he didn’t ask them to turn out their pockets either, and seemed more interested in defining the limits of the square for puck-outs.

Both sides had suspicious -looking bags near their goals, but Gavin didn’t appear to have a Geiger counter or any other form of measuring device when speaking to the ‘keepers; neither Hennessey nor Cusack were stopped by umpires brandishing weighing scales either.

Waterford broke with a (very) recent tradition on Cusack’s first puck-out also. On three minutes Cusack found himself unchallenged by any opposition mentors when winding up to send the ball long, and he didn’t have to resort to tossing disputed sliotars into the crowd behind the Canal End goal as he’d done early on in the Munster final this year.

That other must-have accessory this season, the towel, also appeared at regular intervals, and given the dampness of the day that was hardly surprising.

In contrast to (alleged) behaviour in previous games, all the towels were empty. Perhaps, like the sliotars, they too had been tested rigorously in DCU during the week. As for that other glamorous change to the wardrobe being sported by all the best people — the lump at the back of the shorts — there was very little evidence of that either yesterday. Which either suggests that Cork and Waterford are some way behind Paris and Milan as centres of fashion, or that nobody felt the need to smuggle anything anywhere.

Of course, penalties would have provided the ideal laboratory conditions for a re-run of Thurles and Sliotargate, but defences were too disciplined for that. Eoin Kelly and Cathal Naughton’s goals weren’t dependent on the brand of sliotar either.

Oddly enough, the game hinged at the death on a free which just didn’t carry a foot higher to give Waterford a draw. But nobody made a big deal about it. Nobody suggested that had another ball been used, the result would have been different. It was just one more part of the ball game.