All-Ireland epic shows why hurling will never be beaten

There’s no point trying to add to the realms of superlatives that have already been written about Saturday’s extraordinary All-Ireland Final replay – except perhaps that even the glowing critiques still couldn’t capture the spellbinding drama that unfolded on hurling’s greatest day.

Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it – a teenager no one outside of his own county had ever heard of it thrown onto centre-stage and then rattles in a hat-trick of goals like he’d been waiting all his young life for this moment.

Shane O’Donnell could have been straight out of One Direction – and there are those boy band types who will wonder how he kept the hairstyle intact for 70 minutes under a sweaty helmet – but, if he hurls until he’s fifty, his was an achievement that will never be surpassed.

And yet, a young man with a broad smile like a window that showed he could scarcely believe what had just unfolded still had the presence of mind to articulate what this meant to him and to everyone else on a day that will live long in the memory.

Because this was a day to lift to collective spirits in a way that nothing else can. It was a triumph for Clare’s young lions first and foremost, but it was also a day when the rest of us could smile because we’d seen something very special.

It’s a pointless exercise to indulge in the debate as to what might be the greatest sport, but if entries were required for adjudication, then Saturday night’s events would be hard to best.

The passion, the commitment, the courage, the drama, the spellbinding pace of a game that can defy the eye’s ability to keep up – and yet two teams who gave it everything did just that for 70 minutes on top of the 70 minutes they’d already produced at the start of the month.

Even the Cork fans emerging from Croke Park – not the most unassuming race by their proud nature – readily acknowledged that they had been beaten by a better team….and therein lies the real beauty of the GAA.

No police on mounted horseback to separate rival fans, no crowd segregation, no rioting, no trouble – just two counties who do battle on and off the pitch for 70 minutes and who then shake hands and acknowledge the victor as decent sportspeople should.

Those who experience hurling for the first time cannot make head nor tail of it – not least because it’s so fast it’s hard to see what’s happening. 

But while they marvel at the pace and the passion of it all, they are truly astonished by the banter between rival fans who will roar their team with everything they’ve got, but then accept their lot with joy or resignation.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.