GAA greats select their favourite moments in time

Dr Con Murphy, Brian Gavin, Tadhg de Burca, Ken Hogan, and Anthony Daly recall their personal standout moments

In the pre-match puck around prior to Cork's 1977 All-Ireland Hurling final v Wexford, Sean O'Leary suffered a nose injury as a result of being struck by a sliotar. Only 14 Cork players paraded before the match as Seanie was rushed back to the dressing room by Dr Con Murphy and Frank Murphy.

DR CON MURPHY

The team doctor: My favourite recovery

I have a couple that come to mind. It’s very hard to settle on just one.

Let’s start with Seánie O’Leary. In the 1976 All-Ireland hurling final, Seánie tore cartilage and had to come off at half-time. Back from that he came. 

In the ‘77 final, he broke his nose during the pre-match puck around. Christy Ring came in with me to help stop the pouring blood. Seánie missed the parade on account of us trying to fix him up. Christy says to him, ‘you don’t need your nose for hurling, get out there’. Seánie went back out and had a blinder. 

He subsequently went into hospital to get the nose looked at and while there they found he had a non-functioning kidney so he lost a kidney. But he overcame this particular setback and won further All-Ireland medals in 1978 and ‘84.

In the 1990 All-Ireland football final, Larry Tompkins injured himself with a quarter of an hour to go when attempting to claim possession ahead of Martin O’Connell. Larry said nothing, continued to play on, and kicked two points between there and the final whistle. 

The following day, he called me in the team hotel and told me he had made bits of his knee. I felt his knee through his pants and it was out like a balloon. I said to him, ‘your cruciate is gone’. He had torn his cartilage, his cruciate and medial ligaments, and yet had still played on for another 15 minutes and scored two points. That’s extraordinary stuff.

Another cruciate victim was Colm O’Neill who suffered the injury three times. Colm is the most amazing. As doctors, we’d almost be crying when diagnosing a torn cruciate because we know the player’s season is over and we know how cruel the rehab is. To get back to where you were is so hard. But Colm came back each time.

Current Cork footballers Brian Hurley and Sean Powter are still operating at the highest level despite numerous torn hamstrings.

The common theme here is perseverance. You can’t but have huge admiration for these people.

BRIAN GAVIN

The referee: My favourite game

Kilkenny captain Colin Fennelly and Shane McGrath of Tipperary with referee Brian Gavin at Nowlan Park. Picture: INPHO/Donall Farmer

I was very fortunate to referee four All-Ireland finals, but the game that stands out is not one of those deciders, rather it is the 2013 qualifier between Kilkenny and Tipperary in Nowlan Park. 

The rivalry was particularly pronounced around that time, what with the two counties having contested three of the four previous All-Ireland finals.

But in 2013, both teams lost their provincial semi-final and found themselves meeting in a knockout qualifier at the beginning of July. It was a heavyweight clash you’d expect at the end of Championship, not in the early rounds of the qualifiers.

The atmosphere and tension that evening in Kilkenny was incredible. Throw-in was at 7pm, but I’d say every person in the 23,000 attendance was in the ground by 5.30pm. The place was full well over an hour before throw-in. 

I’ve never witnessed anything like that before in the GAA. We encountered no traffic driving to the ground because everyone was already in the ground.

The match itself probably wasn’t a classic, but the hooks, blocks, and refusal to die from the word go, I just never witnessed anything like it. And the crowd was so in on top of you. It was an occasion that had everything.

Thankfully, the game went well for me. There was a little bit of argy-bargy early doors. I remember putting my two hands on Eoin Larkin and pushing him away from one of the Tipperary midfielders. I just set out the stall that I was going to let them hurl, but I was in control.

Pat McEnaney and Dickie Murphy came into my dressing room afterwards, they patted me on the shoulder and were delighted with the job I had done. They knew it was a big game and it had gone well from a refereeing perspective. 

My dad, who was one of my umpires that evening, it was his birthday and so we had a barbecue when we got home. 

It is a magnificent memory I have of a fine summer’s evening. It is just one you’ll always, always remember.

TADHG DE BURCA

All-Star centre-back: My favourite defender

Waterford's Ken McGrath celebrates their 2007 victory over Cork at Semple Stadium. Picture: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE

It would have to be Ken McGrath. Ken was a serious player, his hurling was just unbelievable. He was such an intelligent player, a great man to read the game. 

He always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. And he was excellent in the air, he just always seemed to be able to pluck the ball out of the sky.

As a young fella, I loved watching Ken play for Waterford. I loved getting to see him play in the flesh. Fellas like Ken would definitely have inspired me to be a defender and to try and play in the centre-back position.

There was probably a small part of me that wanted to be a centre-back because of having seen Ken in the position and how good he was in it when playing for Waterford.

There are many past and present defenders who I admire and look up to, but Ken gets the nod.

He had so many outstanding outings for Waterford.

KEN HOGAN

The goalkeeper: My favourite save

Ken Hogan in action for Tipperary in 1991. Picture: INPHO

1987 was my first Munster senior final. The drawn game against Cork was in Thurles. Right from the throw-in at the beginning of the second-half, the ball landed into the Tipp square. And as the sliotar hopped, Cork’s Kieran Kingston struck the ball with venom towards the top corner. Thankfully, and out of nothing more than pure instinct, I got my hurley to it to turn the sliotar around the post.

It is one of those moments that sticks out in your memory from the point of view of how the game might have panned out afterwards if Cork had goaled then. It was the importance of not allowing Cork get a goal at that time, as well as the satisfaction of saving the shot. 

Cork were an experienced team, the reigning All-Ireland champions. They had the ability to come out after half-time and blow you away. We were trying to get back and end the famine, which, thankfully, we eventually did.

In terms of saves from other goalkeepers that standout in my mind, there is one from Limerick’s Joe Quaid that I’ll never forget. 

It was during the second half of the 1996 All-Ireland final. I always liked the goalkeeper that improvised, and that is certainly what Joe did in the second-half in ‘96. A shot was struck in [from Larry Murphy] and it was flying towards the left hand corner of the net. Joe just stuck out his hand. And with his thumb and fingers, he prevented the goal. 

He was in a situation where he had no hope of getting his hurley to it. I just thought - and still do - that it was a brilliant instinctive save. I said to myself at the time, ‘my god, that was some improvisation’. It was an unbelievable save from close range that no hurley would ever have reached. 

That’s 25 years ago now, but that save continues to stick out in my mind.

ANTHONY DALY

The All-Ireland winning captain: My favourite speech

Clare captain Anthony Daly lifts the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 1995. Picture: SPORTSFILE

It was definitely the shortest speech Loughnane ever made, but it was certainly the most memorable. 

Ger wasn’t a dressing-room merchant and preferred to say his bit down around the town goal of Cusack Park on the Friday evening before a championship game and in the hotel on the morning of the game. 

That said, when we found ourselves four down to Tipperary at half-time in the ‘97 All-Ireland final, we were expecting — and counting on — Ger to hit the right note before we went back out on the field. But he wasn’t saying a word. He stood by the door, silent.

After three or four minutes of silence, I started talking. Lohan and Mike Mac also spoke, but still Ger said nothing. Next, your man started knocking on the door, it was time to go. I have to say that I was getting annoyed that Ger hadn’t contributed anything.

As I was heading towards the door, Ger put up his hand like a garda stopping traffic. The players were nearly above on my back at this stage, all pent up to go out. There followed another 15 seconds of silence.

Ger broke the silence with three words. “Men needed now.” You could see the fire in his eyes. I looked back at the lads and a roar went up. Sure, it was the best 35 minutes of hurling we ever played. We were four down, conceded two goals in the second half, and still beat them.

It was Ger’s timing. He had that gift where he could smell that now was the right time to speak. We had beaten Tipp in the Munster final and had fairly milked it. Now, it was coming back to haunt us. 

He left us hanging there and then he nailed it in three words. His words left me in no doubt but that we were going to come out and explode.

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