Poetry, ballet and the O.K Corral shoot-out

A second nip-and-tuck encounter probably ended in a draw too. Davy Fitz couldn’t bring himself to eyeball Claire McNamara like he did Ger Canning the last day, but he still didn’t give much away either.

“A lot of things out there I could talk about, but I’m just going to leave it be.”

With evident anger and frustration bubbling out of every pore, Claire decided further enquiries were necessary.

Claire: “Are you left with some anger and frustration?”

Davy: “People aren’t blind. Just leave it at that.”

Claire: “Do you want to elaborate on anything else?”

Davy: “No, no, no.”

Claire: “Do you think that should have been a sending off?”

Davy: “I don’t know. Ye’re the ones with the cameras. In fairness, we like to play 15v15.”

On, then, to the Sixmilebridge interpretation of the Jose Mourinho mind game handbook: “We’re only the small little fish out there, so we are. We’re trying hard to make it through, but it’s hard to get the breaks when you’re the smaller fish. The opportunities that were presented to Cork were… and presented to Cork… were fairly unreal. But we kept coming back. I’m extremely proud of them.”

JBM as ever, was in statesman mode. “I thought we might have nicked it. We probably wouldn’t have deserved it; Clare were outstanding on the day. But our lads showed great character. I think it was a very fair result.”

And there was commendable poise from Anthony Nash, who put any talk of regrets into perspective with a thoughtful remembrance of Barry Kelly’s late wife Catherine.

Everyone else was left to unravel the mysteries of a match that wound up as a riddle.

Before it got started at all, Cyril Farrell had thrown a kitchen sink of metaphors at Cork’s promise: “It’s like poetry in motion, it’s like a ballerina. If they’re allowed to float, they’ll float… and they’ll beat you in a shootout at the O.K Corral.”

The Rebels hadn’t done much rhyming, dancing or firing in the first half, but were still in touch, a state of affairs Cyril, in more succinct style, probably summed up best.

“They are staying in the game, even though they are out of it.”

After a second half in which Cork were peppered, but produced three telling blasts of their own, an old credo had to be re-purposed slightly: “Usually goals win matches.”

Onto the controversies; and that age-old GAA battle between the spirit and the law; the tendency for grey to emerge in any showdown between black and white.

Eddie Brennan: “The one thing that will cause a little stir; two minutes was put up.”

Cyril: “Ah go way our that Eddie, for God’s sake.”

Eddie “That’s grand when you’re leaning for Clare, Cyril. Cork will say; why wasn’t it blown?”

Sheedy felt Cork could have taken the clock wind-down into their own hands.

“I’m not sure why they went for that sideline ball. I’d have knocked it into the corner and tussle for it.”

Eddie: “Like the soccer boys.”

Helpfully, Michael Lyster produced the technical term: “Start arsing around… ”

Rules is rules? Not according to analysis of that first half exchange between Darach Honan’s head and Shane O’Neill’s hurley.

“If you were following by the rules,” suggested Sheedy hesitantly, as if such zealotry wasn’t really realistic, “it could have been a red card.”

“There have been sendings-off this year for things not related to that,” remembered Eddie.

And we know which one, in particular, he was referring.

Cyril: “If it was refereed the way it was refereed early in championship, he’d be gone. But this is a final and the same old thing happens every year.”

Same old thing. Yet, we hadn’t seen too many like it. Before Claire let him off the hook, even Davy was smiling.

“Didn’t it show some heart at the end, when the game looked over, to go back up that field? If I had to pick one to score a point, I don’t know if I’d have picked Donny, but he did the business.”