As I was walking out of Cusack Park yesterday evening after the Inagh-Kilnamona versus Sixmilebridge Clare semi-final, I got talking to my great friend and former Clare team-mate, Jim McInerney, about the compelling drama that had just unfolded. It was an enthralling afternoon’s entertainment but Jim wanted more of it – just not yesterday evening, but next week.
Jim, like many people in the GAA, just doesn’t like penalties. I’d agree with him but only to a point. Cusack Park doesn’t have floodlights. If it had, maybe a replay on Wednesday night would be a fairer proposition. On the other hand, Jason and Aidan McCarthy are due to play a senior football football semi-final with Kilmurry-Ibrickane against Cratloe next Saturday, with a handful more of their team-mates involved with Ennistymon in the other semi-final against Éire Óg on Sunday.
In a split season, the time just isn’t there anymore – unfortunately. While you may not agree with penalties, nobody can deny the drama and excitement they bring. As soon as the supporters knew which goal the penalties were taking place at, throngs of people started gravitating towards them. Hordes of young lads from Inagh-Kilnamona and Sixmilebridge were banging the advertising hoardings as soon as the shooters were about to pull the trigger.
The two goalkeepers, Derek Fahy and Eamonn Foudy, gave an exhibition of striking as both buried their two penalties, while also making some excellent stops, but unfortunately – especially when it goes to sudden death – there has to be a fall-guy.
David Fitzgerald had a brilliant season with Clare but, after scoring his first penalty, he missed his second, driving it over the bar, to the delight of the Bridge crowd, and to the absolute chagrin of his own people.
If I was to change any rule about penalties, I don’t think it’s fair that the same five lads have to line up again. I was just glad that the lads who had missed the first time around didn’t have to go again but it is mentally exhausting and extremely challenging to have to go twice after physically emptying yourself over the previous 80-plus minutes. Once is hard enough – twice is murder.
I think if you have to go down the line, the lads who end up taking the sixth or seventh (or eighth of ninth if it comes to that) shouldn’t feel as much heat if they do miss – because everybody knows they weren’t anywhere near first choice strikers anyway. Maybe I’m only reaching there but, if you’re trying to justify penalties, I think there is another way of doing it better than it currently is.
It’s nicely teed up now for the Bridge with Feakle in the final, who were full value for their win on Saturday, even if Cratloe feel they pucked it away with so many missed chances. The Bridge might be slight favorites (because of recent tradition) to win in two weeks but you really have to admire the resilience and fortitude of this Feakle side.
Shane McGrath is 31 now but he was absolutely outstanding, the best player on the pitch by a distance. He’s always been an excellent player but he’s not a big name like plenty of other marquee figures around the county who have had much less of an influence on this championship than him.
Yet that’s Feakle for you. I was the coach of two Clarecastle minor teams in 2012 and 2013 where we beat Feakle in successive semi-finals in those years. Looking at the programme, I’d say there are up to nine or ten lads from those sides involved, which is massive when compared to how few Clarecastle lads are still even hurling.
Then you look at all the young lads they have added in, talented players like Adam Hogan and the O’Connor brothers, guys who won an U21A title with Feakle-Killanaena last year.
I watched the Feakle-Cratloe game on my laptop because I was also streaming the Glenmore-James Stephens relegation final in Kilkenny at the same time. I remember meeting Brian McEvoy at the Galway Races back in July and he said that the Village would be up against it this year given how many players they had lost. They probably still thought they’d stay out of relegation but now they find themselves having slipped through the trapdoor.
The red card so early in the game was costly for Brian Cody’s side. Glenmore used Shane Murphy really smartly as the extra man and he just gobbled up a world of ball. Billy Reid had a fantastic game too at wing-back, while the three goals were decisive, especially with those green flags coming so early in the game.
I genuinely feel for any club – especially one as proud as the Village – that finds themselves in this position, because I know too well how hard it is to stomach after Clarecastle went down last year. O’Callaghan’s Mills experienced that bitter taste too yesterday after losing to Corofin – just four years since the Mills were in a Clare senior final.
It’s crazy trying to keep an eye on everything over the weekend. The Galway quarter-finals were intriguing, especially Cappatagle’s incredible late comeback against Sarsfields on Saturday, while St Thomas haunted Turloughmore again yesterday. They’re now just two steps away from that target of seven-in-a-row in Galway, which would surpass what Turloughmore – or anyone else – has achieved in the past in Galway.
We have an exciting final to really look forward to in Cork in two weeks with Imokilly and Sarsfields. I got to see all of the Imokilly-Blackrock game before having to rely on Mark Landers for updates on the Midleton-Sars game. Imokilly were out of the traps like lightning and while, the Rockies looked in serious trouble, they appeared to have real momentum when they had the margin back to three points at 1-15 to 1-12. And then, in fairness, the Barony’s true warrior – Seamie Harnedy – stepped up and delivered for them once more.
He hadn’t really been in the game up to that point but then Harnedy sniped two points and set up two more to steady the ship and steer Imokilly home. Another warrior, Brian Lawton, was equally as outstanding and influential with 0-5 from play from the middle of the field.
When we were down in Blackrock on Tuesday for the podcast, a former Imokilly player Jimmy Smiddy came up chatting to us afterwards. At one stage during our discussion on stage, the question was asked about whether Imokilly had the same spirit that drove them to county title titles in the past. ‘Don’t worry,’ said Jimmy, ‘that spirit is there.’ The only problem I have now is that the Clare and Cork finals are fixed for the same day in two weeks. That won’t be an easy one to get around, but I’ll find a way.
At this time of the year, with so much entertainment on show, you just have to.
