Bearing the burden

WHAT IF. Two of the simplest words in the English language, two of the most profound words and one with which John McIntyre and Denis Walsh will have spent the winter cudgelling themselves.

What if Ollie Canning hadn’t got injured and Galway, two points up three minutes from the end of normal time, had gone on to close out proceedings against Tipperary in the All-Ireland quarter-final last July? What if, moments after Tony Browne’s equalising goal, Michael Cussen had found the range with practically the last puck of the drawn Munster final?

Now granted, to decree that either Galway or Cork would have kicked on from there and lifted the MacCarthy Cup is overdoing it wildly. But it wouldn’t have taken much for McIntyre’s team to have reached the All-Ireland final had they beaten Tipp, while silverware in Munster would have guaranteed that, if nothing else, Cork didn’t finish their summer by copping a trimming from Kilkenny.