KILLINAN END - A success to savour

This was an All-Ireland Minor title to savour if ever there was one.

Rarely can a team have emerged from the county with such cold courage and resolve as this your side displayed throughout the season. Adversary was the inspiration rather than the enemy and despite the misgivings of many in the public domain about Offaly’s defeat and its manner it was a worthy win. Was it lucky? Has any unlucky team ever won an All-Ireland? But can anyone seriously say that Paddy McCormack’s goal was lucky? Jumping in the busy square and connecting was method not luck. The scope for Paddy Phelan’s (no bad name for a hurler either) free to go wrong – short or long – was considerable. Yet it was floated to perfection. Lucky? Hardly.

There were those who argued that the tackle on the Offaly defender at the end was a free out but had the match not hinged on that passage of play nobody would have batted an eyelid. Brutal honesty might salve some of Offaly’s disappointment. With six minutes regulation time left they led by six and had a man extra. In the remaining time they were outscored 1-5 to 0-1. Possession was also given away in the lead-up to Tipp’s goal and again after the puckout. Not automatically the stuff of champions when you unpack the evidence in the cold light of day. Not many All-Ireland finals are seen out by the winners in this manner.

As for the last-minute goal? Remember the 1997 Munster Under-21 final in Thurles. Tipp were ahead by two before Timmy McCarthy’s last-ditch goal saved Cork’s bacon – how many tears were shed across the nation on that occasion? It is hard-core character-building, and it is brutal and sudden.

All that said, Offaly too were brilliant. From a corner-forward in Aidan Screeney who looked like George Best had returned only this time as a hurler – the swivelling hips and natural movement was remarkable, to a defence that managed quite a good job on Tipp’s perceived scoring threats. Their problem was that they never quite created enough of a gap when on top. Indeed, Tipp might have had a goal – probably should have – earlier in the second-half.

Reference was made by a few people to the spread of clubs on the Tipp team and it was indeed remarkable to see a full-back line made up entirely of players from the South division. Overall, the Tipp team featured six players from the South, four from the North, three from the West and two from the Mid. Time was when the South was the poor relation with its ability to produce exceptional talent betraying maybe the lack of opportunity those players had. You were good if you made the breakthrough because you had to be. Not only had they six starters but had eight players on the pitch at some point. Some fourteen clubs across the county provided the starting fifteen players – only the inevitable strike from Borris-Ileigh to win an All-Ireland assured us that indeed the more things change the more they stay the same. Paddy McCormack did what Borris’ people do.

You can only wonder at how well managed, coached, not to mention fed and watered this Tipp team was in the background considering that they were still going strong and showing clear heads in those championship minutes when several opponents were showing signs of battle fatigue. These clear heads would put older more experienced people to shame – Aaron O’Callaghan’s late point looked like a chance spurned yet in the end it was a winning point and proof of a cool head when it would have been easy to try something heroic.

The long-rang point of Sam O’Farrell was matched by his subsequent eloquence at the microphone as he brought the Irish Press Cup back to Nenagh. You can only imagine the surge of emotion in those young players when the final whistle went.

The question of where the Minor final should be played – Croke Park before the Senior final or as a stand-alone fixture was answered in emphatic fashion though there is little doubt that the presence of Offaly and the freshness of all that contributed hugely. A smaller venue is probably a good help in generating a buzz around such a match. You would think that maybe a Cork-Galway final in Limerick or Thurles, for example, would be a harder sell. What can be said is that by and large whoever wants to see the Minor final can do so under this arrangement which includes families, friends, and club-mates, without the inconvenience and expense of a day in Dublin and having to be in competition for tickets with people who’d hardly know the Minor game was on. It also means that for those who have the need to see the Senior final things are eased somewhat on the ticket front, though you suspect that that’s probably more a theoretical matter than a real one. Tickets for the big days tend to follow the path of least resistance and find a home somewhere.