Croker cracker a real season saver

IF there was such a thing as a water-cooler culture in this country, that spot so central to almost every office in the USA, from the most minor portable building to the most major multi-floor conglomerate, the hot topic yesterday would surely have been Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC quarter-final between Tipperary and Galway.

Even for those with only a passing interest in anything GAA it had everything; a rip-roaring contest with fortunes swaying first one way and then another. There were six outstanding goals, 33 points of the highest order, and drama at the end as Tipperary fought to hold on to their slender one-point lead while Galway battled for the equaliser. Game of the year, without question, but it was more than that – it could even have been the season-saver for the GAA.

Let’s be blunt – it’s been a very poor year for the GAA in terms of profile. A few decent games in football, a hell of a contest between Cork and Waterford (twice), but other than that, it’s all been negative with the Leinster final controversy a low watermark for the Association.

Then came last weekend. In football Kildare, Dublin and Down all won comfortably, but even in Limerick, where Cork won a fierce contest in extra-time, it made for hard viewing, for the neutral particularly.

The first game on Sunday was the first of the two All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals and again, nothing for anyone to get excited about as Cork eased to victory over Antrim. Then came Tipperary/Galway, and a season that was dying on its feet came alive, and how.

From start to finish, with never a hollow period, it was a quality game. The final score – 3-17 to 3-16 – would suggest that it was simply a scorefest, but it wasn’t. A couple of soft scores conceded, right enough, but for the most part both sets of defenders more than played their part, and most scores were hard earned, taken from difficult angles and distances, and nearly always under pressure. Coming so soon after those two Waterford/Cork games, this was another tonic, and the fact that it was a prime-time Sunday game live on TV has got to help the GAA.

The pity, of course, is that there had to be a loser, and one couldn’t but be moved by the reaction of Galway manager John McIntyre afterwards, praising his players but, voice quavering, struggling to contain his emotions. “I couldn’t be more proud of them,” he said, and why not? But, somebody has to lose, and on Sunday it was Galway.

Even as we celebrate that game today, then, let us pause to consider what it means to those who lost – let us listen to Damien Hayes, for example, heroic again for Galway, scorer of 1-3 from play, in line surely for man-of-the-match had the Tribesmen triumphed. Yesterday, even as the rest of us were marvelling at the display of both Tipperary and Galway, Damien was back at home in Portumna.

“I have a pain in my stomach since it happened, I’m not going to try and pretend it isn’t hurting. Everyone is devastated. We thought we were entitled to a free at least at the end. The ball broke, Niall Healy controlled it, and he was tackled, very heavily – he hit the ground so hard that there was blood coming out his nose. We’re not saying that’s why we lost the game, everyone makes mistakes, but we did think it was a free. But I don’t want to be coming across as a sore loser – the game is over.”

Think also of Limerick footballers today, of Sligo, Louth and Monaghan, of the Antrim hurlers – what makes losing even more painful for all those is the amount of effort it takes to reach even that stage of the championships.

“Everyone is putting in a massive effort,” says Hayes. “Even the lads who didn’t make it, the work they were still putting in. Lads were even going to yoga sessions, trying to get more flexibility. People will never realise. We’ve won a National Hurling League title and the Walsh Cup, and while I know they’re not the biggest prizes, it’s still nice to win them. But this is hard to take, it’s sickening, that’s the word for it, and there’s no consolation.”

And yet, says Damien, even now, even at this low point, there’s hope. “It’s important now that we stay together as a group. All the team went in to Galway last night; if we won we were going there, so we went anyway. I don’t drink, so I came away home today, but I’m going back in to meet them again this evening.

“We have to stick together, and stay at it.”