Category: Sport

CLARE’S latest addition to the Ladies Football calendar of events reached its conclusion last Saturday when the finals of Cooraclare’s Peggy Kelly Memorial Shield for Under 15 players were played out. In the B shield final, host club Cooraclare had a win over Doonbeg and in the A Shield, West Clare Gaels had a victory over the Banner to take the title.

The competition, co-ordinated by Cooraclare’s Joe Downes, was played out over the last three weeks and also included teams from Fergus Rovers, Éire Óg and Doora/Barefield. Peggy Kelly gave many years of service to the Cooraclare GAA and Ladies LGFA clubs and this competition in her honour is a mark of the club’s respect and rememberance.

Peggy’s brother Tommy Clune presented medals and shields to the teams and paid tribute to her memory.

Inagh 5-4 – Tara (London) 2-4 at Killegland West, Ashbourne, Meath

THE ROMANCE and prestige of the All-Ireland Club Championships hit home for Inagh on Sunday as they became the first ever Clare camogie side to claim a national title. That achievement in itself deservedly puts Inagh on a pedestal of their own but the real satisfaction of the victory is that this was an immense local effort transferred to a national stage where the parish of Inagh, Kilnamona and Cloonanaha combined to reach the pinnacle.

In what was a whirlwind six week period, Inagh captured three different crowns, with sheer momentum, hard work and a never-say-die attitude catapulting them from the county final through the provincial and All-Ireland series culminating in Sunday’s unprecedented success.

What seemed like romance to Inagh on Sunday could be more aptly summised as an unrequieted love affair in previous campaigns as Newmarket-on-Fergus, Kilmaley and Corofin all fell at the final hurdle. However, the difference on Sunday was that Inagh, bolstered by their near exit in the semi-final, appeared a side that refused to be beaten and were willing to leave everything on the field in the pursuit of that goal.

Of course, every final needs leaders and while this was a team effort of tireless endeavour, two players must be singled out for special mention. Centre-back Christina Glynn belied her mere 17 years to produce one of the most mature displays ever seen by a Clare player in a national final. She was seemingly everywhere over the hour, comfortable in sweeping up at the back as she was marauding forward to set up attacks

The undoubted player of the game though was All-Star nominee Fiona Lafferty who was at the heart of all things positive for Inagh. In total, she was instrumental in all but one of Inagh’s scores, grabbing 1-4 herself and through her incessant movement and incisive runs, Tara were simply not able to deal with her all afternoon.

It wasn’t as if the opposition were substandard either as London champions Tara, likely aided by vast Irish emigration, had all the appearance of an inter-county or national side, with players from over ten different counties making up the team.

Tara had a romantic angle of their own as the three-in-a-row London champions were bidding to complete their 25th anniversary with an AllIreland in what was a London representative’s first ever appearance in an national club decider.

And they couldn’t have been handed a better platform to build on either after Grace Hamilton batted to the net for Tara in the opening minute of the game to stun the Clare champions.

However, scorewise at least, that was as good as it got for the threein-a-row London champions despite the best efforts of Bid Grennan and Angela Kenneally who were their standout performers on the day.

Instead, wind-assisted Inagh, led inspirationally by Lafferty, would keep their opponents scoreless for the remainder of the half while tacking on 1-3 themselves. The dual star grabbed the three points while she also set up the goal for Emily Lynch in the ninth minute when her delivery from halfway went over the top of the full-back line with the onrushing corner-forward applying the finishing touches from close range.

Inagh had successfully bounced back from three points down to lead by the same amount at 1-3 to 1-0 at the interval but in truth, it should have been a more convincing advantage after hitting six wides in the opening half while also seeing four goal chances repelled by a stubborn Tara rearguard.

Playing deep as a sweeper, Kilkenny native Angela Kenneally was to the fore for Tara in frustrating the Banner outfit and on the turnover, was just as instrumental back in the forward line despite her side falling six points behind after Fiona Lafferty grabbed a 39th minute goal. This time Patricia O’Loughlin picked up a break around halfway before finding Lafferty to pull to the net via the stick of goalkeeper Niamh Dolan.

It should have made things more comfortable for Inagh but instead, in what was their best period of the game, Tara responded with four successive points in a seventh minute purple patch, two from Kenneally and two from their top scorer Denise Gilligan. Inagh couldn’t have grumbled had one or two of those efforts ended up below the crossbar either as Tara began to find their rhythm and had the deficit back to just two.

However, they were to be suckerpunched, only seconds after their fourth point when a Lafferty free from 45 metres broke for Patricia O’Loughlin to finish to the net for the Clare side and still reeling from that blow, Tara conceded two more in the next seven minutes that ultimately sealed their fate.

The first came in the 53rd minute when Helen Hehir received a pass from Emily Lynch to cut in from the right and beat Dolan at the near post. And only two minutes later, a flowing move involving Glynn and Lafferty set up Hehir once more but her rasping shot crashed off the crossbar

“PATRICIA McCarthy, you have given such commitment this year as a trainer and player. You have been absolutely brilliant and thank you from each and every one of us.”

Joint Captain Michelle Wynne’s words of appreciation in her acceptance speech for Inagh’s most experienced player and also undoubtedly one of the most passionate.

This was Patricia McCarthy’s moment, the dream of a lifetime of playing and at 43, to finally win an AllIreland title was extra special.

“It’s an absolute unreal feeling. All year was simply surreal of how far we could bring this young team to. We won the county and we won the Munster and we knew it was in us today. From the start of the year, we said that there was only one place we wanted to be and that was in an AllIreland club final and now that we were here, we said we weren’t going to leave it behind us. We had to leave everything on the field, die for every ball and it was an absolute team effort from one to fifteen.”

Her undying belief in her teammates was summed up by her first half opinion.

“Ten minutes into the first half, I said to myself this game is ours. Now I wouldn’t say that to the girls because you have to keep their two feet firmly on the ground. We just weren’t converting the scores, we weren’t looking up and we weren’t calling for the ball and I said if we start doing that, we will take our scores. All we had to do was to put fast ball into the full-forward line and I knew we would score and that’s what we did in the second half, we came out and we scored four goals.

“I’m extra proud of every one of those girls. It was pure hunger, passion, pride in the jersey, determination, courage; you can use all these words and you have to have confidence in your own ability and the girl beside you. It’s a huge amount of factors that it came down to today and I must also say that the support today was absolutely fantastic.

“It’s going to be some celebration tonight in Inagh and for a couple of weeks to come.”

Plenty of time then to saviour the realisation of a lifelong dream.

FLAN Garvey has ran many’s the election race but probably never envisaged the marathon campaign of unprecedented success that 2011 would bring to his native Inagh when he took over the reigns during the summer. The former Mayor of Clare could be mistaken for President such was the amount of hands he was shaking at the final whistle but once there was finally a fall-off long after the presentation, he finally put his year into words.

“It’s a marvellous achievement in these my twilight years to have such a fantastic success. I was called into action on June Bank Holiday Monday and wasn’t looking for the job but the girls said they were stuck and needed someone. So I got Noel Hehir and Anne Wynne on board which made us a good backroom team.

“The girls were fantastic all year. There were some awful training days in the muck and dirt, wind and rain coming down on top of us but they slogged on the whole time under the inspirational Patricia McCarthy about three times a week. There were no prisoners taken, there was no messing. Players were told to shut up and worse when training was on, they trained very hard and they have the fruit of that training now.

“We initially set out to win the county championship. We knew Truagh/Clonlara had beaten us in the League final, we knew we threw it away so we wanted to prove the point, win the final and get back to where we should be. And we did win it, in a tough game we won it well and then went straight into a Munster final against An Rinn. We expected to win that believe it or not and we did win it easy as they didn’t score in the second half.

“The next one was not an easy one against Four Roads. We got a major fright that I think in hindsight won us this All-Ireland today. They frightened the life out of our girls and to say that we didn’t score for 25 minutes, I just couldn’t believe it but by God today, they got it right even though Tara got off to a good start.

“When we beat Four Roads, we knew that they were the All-Ireland champions so surely to God, we were as good as what was there in the championship. And we knew we were as good as Tara, we thought we were that bit better and we proved that today.”

And the added bonus of being the first Clare camogie club to ever win an All-Ireland title just seems to top off an already perfect day.

“It’s mighty. We are a small parish. I mean the whole parish of Inagh, Kilnamona and Clounanaha is roughly 1,700 people. How many of those are girls and then how many play camogie? It’s fantastic and it will be a while before we realise how fantastic it actually was.”

He’s now got the rest of the winter to let it sink in.

SEAN Stack lifted the Munster Cup in Thurles back in 1984 – at the end of this game he knew his Na Piarsaigh side were inches away from bringing the same cup back to Caherdavin for the first time.

“We had chances,” he says. “We had a couple of chances to win it and pulled a few saves out of Donal Tuohy, while our keeper was idle for a long time. We had a few point options that finished up inside in Tuohy’s hands.”

Those missed chances aside, Stack was happy to be still standing, after being out-gunned for long periods and under the vice-like grip of the Crusheen backs before Shane Dowling’s frees helped bring them back from the brink.

“We needed a second green flag to ask some real questions, to put doubts in their mind,” he says. The lads will know themselves that they didn’t play to the top of their game. A few underperformed. That was due to their markers too.

“Cian Dillon is a fabulous centreback. Cathal Dillon a super player too. It’s difficult to play against guys like that. We’re as good as we’re let.

“We had targeted Cronan Dillon a bit, but he had a great game and four players went in on him. Crusheen have a fair outfit. Any inter-county forward line would struggle against any of those six backs and we did.”

Still, you sense a creeping confidence in Na Piarsaigh – according to Stack they’re not overawed about have to face those backs once more.

“Maybe the tide is turning in our favour,” he says.

“We’re really confident because we know that half our forward line did not perform to the best of their ability.

“It’s going to be a bruiser and it’s going to be who comes up with the best mental attitude that will carry the day. Who gets it up for next week will be the team that will come out on top.

“The prize is huge – Munster club champions and facing into an AllIreland semi-final against Loughgiel Shamrocks. The prize is enormous. Who gets their head around it this week, that’s the team that’s going to win.”

“SWINGS AND roundabouts,” says Michael Browne when summing up the first episode of Munster final drama served up by Crusheen and Na Piarsaigh.

An episode that saw influence and dominance drift this way and that before Johnny Ryan’s long whistle meant that they must do it all again.

Browne goes through each phase meticilously.

The slow start: “We started ok in the sense that we were playing reasonably ok, but we weren’t putting away the scoring chances we created, running out over ball and stuff like that. That would appear to indicate that there was something in the minds of the players.

“Maybe too much significance was attached to the occasion and as a result we made those few little slips early on. Early on in that game we could have been four or five points up had we taken the right options and the right choices.

“The magnitude of what we were trying to do was probably at fault, even though we had worked hard at trying to keep it as low-key as we could, but still it’s inevitable that little things like that happen.”

The second half when they surrendured a four-point advantage and then drifted behind with three minutes remaining: “It shows that the further on you go in these competitions, the higher the standard of the opposition is,” he says.

“Na Piarsaigh had the ability to put us under a bit more pressure and get those couple of scores to comeback. They came back into it and that’s what you expect when you get further and further into the competition.

“I had great confidence that we could get the ball up to the forwards and get that score (equaliser). I was still hoping it was a game we could have snapped at the end.

“You have to give the lads credit. They worked so hard right throughout that game. We were up against a quality team with quality forwards who were capable of getting excellent of scores.”

The replay: “The reality is that which ever team learns the most and comes out and performs best on the day will win.”

Teacher Michael Browne will be going to school in the next week with his team.

Then again so will teacher Sean Stack.

Crusheen 0-14 – Na Piarsaigh 1-11 at Semple Stadium, Thurles

STRANGE game really.

There were times when Crusheen looked to be on their way to the title, when they were so utterly in control of things that victory was a given.

Like when they hit five unanswered points before half-time to open up a 0-9 to 1-3 interval lead.

Like when the biggest roar of the day rose up from the Crusheen kop five minutes into the second half after Fergus Kennedy’s point put them four clear for the first time.

But that was it really – from there the county champions were fighting a rearguard action against what was a one-man show from Shane Dowling, who chipped away at Crusheen’s lead, all the time the Na Piarsaigh tide rising.

So much so that when David Breen landed his first point of the hour in the 57th minute, the Limerick champions sensed history, while Crusheen seemed had seemed burdened by the prospect of same for much of that second half.

It would have been rough justice on Crusheen had they lost – after all five of their forwards had scored from play, while theirs was a more rounded performance against a Na Piarsaigh outfit too reliant on Shane Dowling’s frees for scores.

That it didn’t happen was down to Paddy Vaughan’s 58th minute free that restored parity, with a mightily relieved Crusheen glad to hear Johnny Murphy’s final whistle and escape with their title ambitions still afloat.

Just about. The final 20 minutes of this game had belonged to Na Piarsaigh, as Crusheen’s trademark second half performance had failed to materialise and they fell very flat.

They showed admirable fortitude in the first half when, after an unsteady start, as Paddy Vaughan missed a few scoreable frees and then the concession of a goal from a Shane Dowling penalty on 17 minutes left them 1-3 to 0-4 in arrears.

However, from there they hit Na Piarsaigh for five points, while the backs were totally dominant against a one-dimensional Na Piarsaigh side for whom their trump cards Shane Dowling, Kevin Downes and David Breen were making no headway against Crusheen’s inspirational set of backs.

Cronan Dillon the rock at full-back – the Brigdales on either side of him were terrier-like, while the half-back line was also well on top.

A couple of smart Paddy Meaney points from play got Crusheen going by the 20th minute and leveled matters before an effort from play by Fergus Kennedy and pointed frees from Ciaran O’Doherty and Paddy Vaughan put them in firm control by half-time.

Positional switches made during that first half had worked well, with Fergus Kennedy growing into the game around midfield, while his point five minutes into the second half after an earlier strike from Gerry O’Grady helped them into a 0-11 to 1-4 lead.

From there it was hard to see Crusheen not become Munster champions, but just when everyone thought they’d up the ante like they did against Sixmilebridge and Carrigtwohill in previous games, they gradually lost their way and were left hanging on for dear life at the end.

Shane Dowling’s accuracy was key – a couple of frees by the 40th minute changed the whole complexion of the game and brought the gap back to two points. From there it was all about Na Piarsaigh as they upped their performance level around the field, while Crusheen flagged, especially among the forwards where the scores dried up completely.

In the end it was only Paddy Vaughan who kept them afloat. After another Dowling free in the 43rd minute reduced the margin to the minimum, it was Vaughan who stopped the rot with a 46th minute free.

Then he intervened again in the 51st minute to restore Crusheen’s lead with a brilliant point from play after Cathal King had raided from corner back to land a point and another Dowling free had brought the sides level for the first time since the 20th minute.

But the sea was very blue in Thurles as Na Piarsaigh seemed to be on their way to winning Limerick’s first Munster club title in 17 years when substitute John Madden and countyman David Breen fired over inspirational points by the 57th minute to edge them a point clear.

They had out-scored Crusheen by 0-7 to 0-2 in the previous 20 minutes and looked set for victory until Paddy Vaughan’s 58th minute free saved Crusheen’s blushes.

It would have been an awful game to lose, given how much control they exerted either side of half time.

They didn’t. It could make them, but the fact that Na Piarsaigh played so poorly for so long and still drew could give them the confidence to finally break Crusheen’s resolve.

Sunday next will tell all.

Banner Ladies 6-8 – Kilmihil 1-9 at Hennessy Memorial Park, Miltown

BANNER Ladies added the Div. 1 league title to the senior championship crown for 2011 when on Sunday they accounted for the holders Kilmihil with 13 points to spare.

A blistering start to both halves proved crucial and once more it was Niamh O’Dea who did the damage. If the first attack of the game a quick free from Louise Henchy to O’Dea who lined out in her familiar full forward position proved fruitful when the minor drove it to the net just under the black spot. It was all Banner in the opening minutes and points from Rebecca Culligan and O’Dea put them 1-2 to no score ahead.

Then Kilmihil got going and soon as they did they began to whittle down the lead. Two points each from the Considine sisters Ailish and Eimear saw them trial by three with a quarter of an hour gone while Banner had been reduced to fourteen players following the sin binning of Katie Cahill for a dangerous foul on Eimear Considine while Suzie McNamara and Niamh Keane had pointed for the winners.

Niamh O’Dea then goaled again when she was first to flick a high ball in a race with Kilmihil keeper Edel McMahon who picked up a knock in the process. Another fine spell from Kilmihil yielded points once more from the Considines before Emma O’Driscoll came to her side’s rescue with a super save from Eimear Considine at a crucial time. Centre back Rosie Currane added a point for the west Clare side and O’Dea had the final say of the half with a pointed free while Susie McNamara was sin binned in injury time and so it was the senior county champions Banner Ladies who led 2-5 to 0-7 when referee Sean Ryan blew the half time whistle.

Within five minutes of the restart Banner Ladies had this game wrapped up as Niamh O’Dea added 1-2, all from play.

She followed with a pointed free while her sister Eva put the Ennis side 4-7 to 1-7 ahead when she finished to the net with still twenty to play.

While Eimear Considine did raise a green flag for Kilmihil, Banner did not ease up and scored two more goals courtesy of Rebecca Culligan and substitute Orlaith Lynch to run out deserving winners on a final score of 6-8 to 1-9.

Niamh Keane became the third Banner player to be sin binned when she was yellow carded with time almost up.

Niamh O’Dea with 3-5 was the star of the show for the winners. Emma O’Driscoll made two excellent saves while Louise Woods, Niamh Keane and Suzie McNamara who was surprisingly substituted all played well while Louise Henchy and Naomi Carroll also had their moments. Eimear Considine was Kilmihils top player on the day while Rosie Currane, Becky Mahon, Ailish Considine, Ellie O’Gorman, Orla Keane and substitute Moriah Lineen all played their part.

Banner Ladies
Emma O’Driscoll, Sinead O’Keeffe, ClareWalsh, Laurie Ryan, LouiseWoods, Katie Cahill, Eva O’Dea 1-0, Shona Enright, Louise Woods, Suzie McNamara 0-1, Naomi Carroll, Niamh Keane 0-1, Rebecca Culligan 1-1, Niamh O’Dea 3-5 (0-3f),Aoife Cavanagh (capt).

Subs
Grainne Nolan for Aoife Cavanagh,Aoife Keane for S. McNamara, Orlaith Lynch 1-0 for Eva O’Dea, Niamh O’Brien for R. Culligan, Rachel Grogan for S. O’Keeffe.

Kilmihil

Dr Crokes 0-12 – Kilmurry Ibrickane 0-9 at Lewis Road, Killarney

WHAT might have been for the bravehearts from Kilmurry Ibrickane!

If only they had lasted the course of this titanic affair in Beauty’s Home!

They led by three points seven minutes into the second half, inside another seven they had a numerical advantage after Dáithí Casey was sent off in the 43rd minute, by which time Dr Crokes had picked up more yellow cards than scores.

But the Crokes still had their trump cards in All-Ireland winners Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper and Eoin Brosnan – between them they brought a halt to Kilmurry’s train, derailed it and ambushed what should have been Clare football’s greatest day in Kerry.

But it wasn’t to be and Kilmurry couldn’t complain after they failed to score in the last 23 minutes, allowed Eoin Brosnan dominate at midfield and were then powerless to prevent Cooper from rattling off the final four points to give them a deserved, yet very flattering three-point win.

It was very much a case of cometh the hour of need, cometh the bluebloods from Kerry as they overpowered Kilmurry down the home stretch of a gripping championship encounter that saw the pendulum swing in both directions before the assured left peg of Cooper settled it.

Cooper had been brilliantly marshalled by Shane Hickey for the first 48 minutes of the game and Kilmurry were brilliant, but ultimately perished because of their failure to press home their numerical advantage when they led by 0-9 to 0-7 after Casey was marched.

The initiative was lost in the few minutes they were deciding who was the best man to adopt the role of free man, a hesitancy that was ruthlessly exposed in the final 15 minutes when the Crokes reeled off five points without reply to book their final date with University College Cork.

All that after Dr Crokes had looked to be at sea at various intervals of the game – at the start when Kilmurry hit them for three points inside as many minutes; early in the second half when the Clare champions’ sheer enthusiasm opened up huge chasms in the Dr Crokes defence as Enda Coughlan and Noel Downes bagged points to put them 0-8 to 0-5 clear.

It was hugely impressive stuff from Kilmurry, with their dream start setting the tone for a cracking contest when each point was better than the next. Only 40 seconds in Ian McInerney fed Noel Downs who turned and fired over with authority – the big pity as the game wore on was that Downes, who had the beating of his man all day, only bagged one more point.

Enda Coughlan thundered through the middle in the second minute to land a great point before Michael Hogan’s shot from distance, after great work by Stephen Moloney and Downes, saw another white flag raised.

For a few minutes, thoughts of last year’s first half meltdown against Nemo Rangers in Mallow must have flashed across Dr Crokes’ minds, but not for long because they soon came to life and hit four points inside 11 minutes to move 0-4 to 0-3 clear.

Daithi Casey got them going with a point from play before two Kieran O’Leary efforts and a Casey free saw them hit the front and quench Kilmurry’s early fire. But it wasn’t for long because a brilliant solo effort from Evan Talty after he raced up the right wing and arced over a great effort from 45 yards.

It was defiant and it showcased Kilmurry’s first half performance that was at times fearless. This was added to by an Ian McInerney free and a Johnnie Daly effort from play by the 25th minute, before Johnny Buckley stemmed the tide with a point on the stroke of half-time that left Kilmurry 0-6 to 0-5 clear.

It was there for the Clare champions, especially after a six-man moved that started in the left halfback position and involved Peter O’Dwyer, Michael Hogan, Stephen Moloney and Declan Callinan before Enda Coughlan angled over a brilliant point from 35 yards.

That came in the first minute of the second half and was added to by Downes two minutes later as Kilmurry started to turn the screw – winning every break around the middle and being patient and measured with ball in hand.

Crokes got off the mark in the 35th minute when Cooper placed Casey for his second from play but when Johnnie Daly floated over a free in the 37th after a foul on Downes, it was Kilmurry who were closing in on the Munster final.

That it all went horribly wrong is reflected in the sobering statistic that they failed to score again, while a fisted effort by sub Chris Brady in the 42nd minute was the start of the Dr Crokes revival that ultimately swamped Kilmurry’s brave resistance in the final ten minutes.

Cooper’s first point levelled matters in the 48th minute – two more from play in the 52nd and 61st minutes came either side of two missed Kilmurry chances that could have swung the tie back in their favour.

Noel Downes got a fist to Ian McInerney’s centre in the 54th minute but it came back off the post, while Michael O’Dwyer shot wide from 30 yards.

By then Enda Coughlan had been sent off as Kilmurry’s noble effort just came up short.

Agonisingly so.

Kilmurry Ibrickane
Peter O’Dwyer (7), Martin McMahon (7), Darren Hickey (7), Shane Hickey (8), Declan Callinan (7), EvanTalty (7) (0-1), Paul O’Dwyer (7), Enda Coughlan (7) (0-2), Peter O’Dwyer (7), Ian McInerney (7) (0-1f), Michael Hogan (7) (0-1), Mark McCarthy (6), Stephen Moloney (7), Noel Downes (7) (0-2), Michael O’Dwyer (6).

Subs
Johnnie Daly (7) (0-2, 1f) for McCarthy [22 Mins], Niall Hickey (6) for Hogan [58 Mins].

Dr Crokes

IT was the celebrated and much quoted coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince ‘the Lip’ Lombardi who said “if football is a game of inches, so is a career success”.

Kilmurry Ibrickane coach John Kennedy didn’t dip into Lombardi’s library for that one, but he might well have, such was the thinness of the line that separated his side from trumping Dr Crokes in this epic Munster championship encounter in Beauty’s Home.

“The ball that came off the post at the end, if that had gone in,” he says. “It was inches,” he adds.

And, it’s true. Kilmurry were that close to victory. Dr Crokes were that close to defeat.

“It was a great game,” continues Kennedy. “We gave it everything and you have to be hugely proud of the boys. The boys played very well. We had a gameplan and the boys moved the ball very well and took some great scores and I suppose our kicking was good. We hadn’t many wides and we were disciplined.

“We emptied the tank and have no excuses. We came down here to the lion’s den and were up three points early in the second half, playing great stuff. We were on top and going well early in the second half and needed to get another point or two to kill it off. Three points ahead, one point they were back in it and that’s the way it happened.

“The injury to Cookie was a real psychological blow. He was a huge loss. We had Odran out and our bench was kind of limited. I’m not making excuses, but you can’t ask anymore of the lads. They battled right to the end. The Crokes had the bit of craft. They got a few scores near the end and that made the difference,” he adds.

Another difference, Kennedy concedes, was the sending off of Daithi Casey that give Kilmurry a numerical advantage they failed to exploit.

“Sometime an extra man can be difficult,” argues Kennedy. “When you have a man less, you actually work that bit harder. Maybe we went into a false sense of security when they went down to 14 men. We weren’t getting a lot of ball around the middle at that stage and even though the Crokes were down they were still holding possession.

“We had a lot of energy emptied at that stage and it was a high tempo game with a lot of hard hits. Crokes are a superb team and we knew that coming down. They are worthy winners and came out of it in the end. We had no excuses.

“They had leaders there when they needed them, but having said that with five minutes to got it was still in the melting pot and if that ball that came off the post had gone in, it could have different.”

Vince Lombardi’s inches again.