ALL-IRELAND SHC FINAL: KEITH DUGGANreflects on an All-Ireland hurling final that brought out the best in a game some regard as the greatest on earth

IT IS a poor consolation to Tipperary that they have gifted this peerless chapter in Kilkenny hurling history something that its patrons may have privately ached for – a great adversary.

The rain let up on Sunday evening and by then all generations were agreed that they had just witnessed an All-Ireland hurling final that somehow managed to strike a perfect note, showcasing the contemporary power and athleticism of two cutting-edge GAA teams, while glorying in the traditional qualities of spirit and honesty and, above everything, sportsmanship.

Losing classic finals is not something that Liam Sheedy’s young team will want to make a habit of, but it should be remarked that when they were forced to concede their All-Ireland dream at around 5pm on Sunday, they did so with such impeccable class and dignity that it would have been no surprise to hear that they attended some sort of finishing school on the subject.

They resisted all invitation to gripe or to dwell on the half-breaks that fall randomly in any match, but that seemed to elude them here. Nobody who sat in front of Liam Sheedy in the press room below Croke Park will forget the look on his face.

Two years ago, Monaghan’s Séamus McEnaney offered a visceral summary of his emotions in the minutes after Kerry had edged out his team after a bravura performance. He said that he felt as if his heart had been torn out without anaesthetic.

That phrase must have flashed across many minds as Sheedy grimaced in response to a question from the veteran GAA correspondent Jim O’Sullivan. “I’m hurting, Jim. Yeah. I’m hurting.”

This was no more than half an hour after the final whistle and, even though Sheedy spoke with admirable candour and lucidity, his mind must have been a riot of conflicting emotions.

His team could have given no more. But there was the matter of those couple of shots that went wide when they had Kilkenny on the run.

There was the matter of those goal chances. There was the iffy nature of that penalty. There was poor Benny Dunne’s momentary departure from his better reason.

Tipperary had hurled with unflinching honesty and self-belief and, in return, the gods had given them zero breaks. They had no luck. And, yet, they came close. Just how close is something that will dawn again and again on them through the long autumn.

There was one play that held the essence of the poise that Tipperary carried into Croke Park. This was in the 62nd minute of the game and Tipperary were just a single point in front, 0-20 to 0-19. But they had been hurling comfortably despite being down a player.

After Henry Shefflin landed a fine point from distance, Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins spied Noel McGrath running into space in front of the Hogan stand. His puck-out was measured to perfection and the Loughmore teenager wasted no time in dispatching it over the bar.

After satisfying himself that his shot was good, McGrath turned and signalled his appreciation down to his goalkeeper.

Here was the most experienced championship player that Tipperary has ever produced working in perfect harmony with the youngest player on the field, a young man who embodies the brightest aspirations of the next decade for Tipperary.

The simplicity of that score and the clarity of thought spoke volumes for where this Tipperary team were at that moment. The last 10 minutes of an All-Ireland final can act like a boa constrictor on inexperienced teams. It is then that they tighten up and play hurried and begin to doubt. But none of those pressures appeared to be bearing down on Tipperary.

Playing against a team that prided itself on mental toughness, the Tipperary boys seemed to be relaxed out there.

Man down or not, they looked to be in control of their destiny.

“I remember it vividly,” says Martin Fogarty when asked about those mesmerising moments between the red card and Henry Shefflin’s penalty. It seemed that Kilkenny were faltering slightly in that period, as Tipperary hurled on, seemingly undaunted by the setback of losing a man.

“They had gone three points clear as the match entered its 60th minute and, after Kilkenny replied through TJ Reid and Sheffin, they were two points in front with McGrath’s opportunist point. Minutes later, Kilkenny had scored two goals.

“You have to shove out all anxiety,” Fogarty says. “In hurling, a lead of three of four points is nothing, really. And we have tried to condition ourselves not to become anxious when we are behind or to get too happy about things when we go ahead because then you can slacken off and that can cost you a game.

“I remember during that time looking up at the clock and feeling that there was plenty of time left in the match for us to respond. And the same would have pertained had the score been the same going into the last five minutes of the match.”

As far as the Kilkenny selector is concerned, the senior management squad was effectively dissolved after Sunday’s win and if they do return for another term, it will be with a completely new slate.

“I don’t want to presume anything. It is not a fixed term, it is a year-to-year arrangement and everything depends on Brian’s decision,” he explains. He was caught between savouring the quality of last Sunday’s final and looking forward to tomorrow’s under-21 final between Kilkenny and Clare, a match which will feature his son, Conor.

The presence of the black and amber jerseys in the last major final on the hurling calendar highlights the fact that, as always, a new generation is pushing through. Richie Hogan is the only player from Sunday’s senior squad on duty this weekend, but, as Fogarty sees it, the opportunities are there for young players.

Nine of the squad he trained at under-21 level broke into the senior squad – including Jackie Tyrrell, JJ Delaney, Tommy Walsh, Conor Phelan and Aidan Fogarty. “And we would have had lads from this year’s panel in at training and in during the Walsh Cup. There is a huge difference between the grades, but the opportunity to make the step up is there.”

Fogarty points out that the minor side that contained Tommy Walsh failed to win a Leinster title, let alone an All-Ireland. Senior success is not predicated on the equivalent at minor level – or vice versa. Talent and application will bring the best players through anyhow, even if the most gifted and senior members of the squad pay constant heed to the rising competition.

The density of talent within the county has enabled Kilkenny, under Brian Cody, to ensure that starting places are precious things, hard won and harder kept.

James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick’s year was dogged by injury and his bad luck compounded by a dead leg acquired at training before the final. But it was nonetheless striking that last year’s winning captain and a sensationally gifted young midfielder did not appear on the field on Sunday.

The furious competition for places keeps players honed. The Kilkenny team were predictably primed for this occasion, but there were passages of play in Sunday’s match when Tommy Walsh seemed to have reached an elevated plane of his own, so magnificent was his form.

And his instantaneous, almost elastic return to an upright position after he was up-ended during Benny Dunne’s instant of rashness was widely applauded.

“That was sportsmanship at its best,” says Richie Bennis. “He didn’t want to make anything of it, didn’t want to have anything to do with influencing the referee’s decision. It was great to see that.”

On Tuesday night, in the midst of an interview on Newstalk, Brian Cody couldn’t help but comment on the vendetta that he felt had been perpetrated on Tommy Walsh’s reputation.

And it is true that the Tullaroan man has drawn some negative comment to the effect that, for all his subliminal skill, there is a dark subtext to his game.

“We would have been disgusted down in Kilkenny at the barrage of abuse and nonsense directed at Tommy,” confirms Fogarty.

“During the season, we didn’t discuss it, didn’t let it in. But we were aware of it and it was completely off the wall. The Tommy Walsh I know is a full-blooded, outstanding player, but the stuff that has been said about him is off the wall. It could be jealousy, I don’t know. Tommy plays the ball and goes for the 40-60 ball but I know that he does not go out to hurt another player.

“It is like this – if we had a player who was dirty, we wouldn’t play him. And, sometimes in hurling, things happen so fast that when they are slowed down, they can look terrible and distort the way things happened.”

Kilkenny are now four years unbeaten in the All-Ireland championship. We are living in the midst of a sporting myth. Fogarty recalls being in the Kilkenny dressingroom and listening to Liam Sheedy speak with such grace that some small part of him travelled across to where the losers were gathered and felt sorry for them.

Not pity – just the empathy of knowing how wretched and low those moments feel. Because that feeling, it is heartbreaking.

But can this Kilkenny bunch truly remember that hollowness?

That is one of the wonders; that they manage to stay hungry. Richie Bennis stood on the sideline for the 2007 All-Ireland final and when he considers the side his Limerick team met then, he thinks that maybe Kilkenny are displaying signs of vulnerability.

“The gap is closing. I think so. Tipperary and Galway are very close now. Tipperary had a great chance in that match. But this is a great Kilkenny team. If I were betting on it, then I would put money on them to finish out the five-in-a-row because they are brilliant and I do think they have enough to get them there. But the others are closing in.

“I think we saw that. One thing I did feel is that the team on top maybe gets the rub of the green with certain referees and that that was the case in this match. We had the same referee when we played Kilkenny in the final and I felt there were certain calls that went against us that day too.

“But then, we probably only notice these things because Kilkenny have won so much. I remember attending a lot of the football matches of the Kerry four-in-a-row team and there was the same tendency to examine every call that they got.

“When a team is winning so much, that happens.”

It seems hard to imagine that this Kilkenny team won’t go on interminably. But above everyone, Cody seems to have a deep appreciation of that truth and has skilfully communicated it to his players as soon as they break into the squad.

Again and again, his players have remarked upon the feeling that it all goes by in a flash.

Predictably, Cody declined to entertain speculation about next season during the televised segments of Sunday night’s victory banquet, gently insisting that, for now, all he wanted to do was to salute what he has memorably termed the ‘outrageous’ achievement of the four-in-a-row team. He has yet to confirm his intention to spearhead the campaign for that magical fifth. But it is reasonable to assume that, even if he wanted to leave things rest, he simply would not be allowed.

When Fogarty sat down to watch a replay of the match, it deepened his conviction that at its best, there is no sport on earth to touch hurling. As a school teacher, he instructs children in music and art and drama and sees the value of each, and more than once has mused about the idea of putting hurling on the national curriculum.

The thought struck him again as he watched the quality and effort that gave substance to one of the great hurling games. He thought about the thousands of hours of practice by each of the players involved and the coaching that they had and the stories and incandescent hurling players from the late 1980s and 1990s that drew them in when they were starting out. Now, more than ever, he is convinced that there should be room made on the Irish curriculum for hurling. “I mean in all aspects, from studying it in terms of its heritage and learning about its history to incorporating it as a game to be played. I’m entirely serious about it. Because it’s like this – if the game dies out, then it will be too late.”

The crowds filled the Marble City on Monday evening and as the team travelled through the medieval streets on their open top bus, the sights and sounds suggested that the old sport is in abundant health in Kilkenny. But Kilkenny hurling is the exception rather than the rule. And even in their hour of glory, the broader welfare of the game matters.

Fogarty’s idea is radical, but may also be entirely sensible. It is a miracle that this unique and undiluted game, requiring untold patience and practice and commitment, continues to flourish. Magical as the afternoon was for the thousands of us tuning in on Sunday, those matches do not happen automatically.

Fogarty’s idea could well serve as a warning. Even on its richest day, the hardy game is fragile and it needs minding.