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Aug 13, 2023

Hurling's 'game of inches' came into focus last weekend

RTÉ Hurling Analyst Life's just a game of inches - and so is the All-Ireland

RTÉ Hurling Analyst

Life's just a game of inches - and so is the All-Ireland hurling championship

Minute 73 ticks away on the clock in the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick are up by a point and a draw knocks Tipperary out.

I’m perched in the radio box atop the Mackey Stand with Marty Morrissey and we’re trying our best to describe to the listeners the epic that is unfolding before our eyes.

Never in my life was a Tipperary person so happy to see a Limerick man - in this case Gearoid Hegarty - snap a ball from Nicky Quaid's puckout, shrug off a tackle and nail it straight between the posts to put some breathing space between the teams.

Al Pacino's speech from Any Given Sunday came to mind on the way home as I waited in line at the toll bridge near the Caherdavin exit.

Life's just a game of inches and so was the round-robin of the hurling championship - in both Munster and Leinster. Credit to our Leinster comrades they stepped up and provided us with great excitement last week in Croker and Wexford Park and perhaps none more so than the Joe McDonagh epic finale on Saturday.

Inches... that's what it came down to. At the Gaelic Grounds where Limerick edged out Cork, in the dying seconds if Gearóid Hegarty does not catch that ball and it breaks to the floor, there'd have been a battle to the death, like a pack of hyenas fighting over the last bit of meat.

Then if there's a 50/50 call to be made, we could easily have seen the Rebels win a free to level the game up.

In the form Patrick Horgan was in on Sunday, scoring 1-14, I’ve no doubt that even if that free was out near the KFC drive thru on the Ennis Road he would have fancied it, and probably nailed it.

I then thought the noise barrier would have been shattered if the PA announcer came on to say to the 40,000 fans, 'it's a draw, but guess what, Tipp are gone'. Me and Marty would have been lifted clean out of the media box I’d say.

Cork have possibly been the biggest victims of these inches as they exit stage left of this year's championship following a win, a draw and two losses both by a single point each.

But at the end of the day they played four games like every other team and if they are to bridge that ever widening gap for an All-Ireland they are going to need to close out those games and take those chances because they won't just be handed to you. You’ve got to claw with everything you have to take those opportunities.

Maybe Cork need a burst of new blood in the form of their up-and-coming under-20 players and if one man can see the potential in these players and will give them the opportunity it is their current manager Pat Ryan.

Cork are gone from the championship but there's a hope there now amongst the Cork public that things are heading in the right direction.

That's little consolation for the likes of Horgan, one of hurling's greats, who sees another year slip by and at the age of 35 the window for an All-Ireland winner's medal becomes smaller and smaller.

Does he deserve an All-Ireland? Yes, 100%, but how many more players could we say that for? In life and hurling you don't always get what you deserve, you get what you take.

Now the PA announcer in the Gaelic Grounds post-match was as busy as Will O’Donoghue had been in the middle of the park during the game. It was a like a scene out of Killnaskully.

Firstly the announcement came that a child was looking for his parents, standard enough practice at these events especially when the children are of an age that they run off at the final whistle to try and meet their heroes. Then another child and another. And then the comedy started.

Mobile phones, wallets and even passports were handed in, I know it might be a spin from certain parts of Cork but I didn't think a passport was needed to gain entry into the Treaty County. All this was going on while Freed from Desire was being belted out around the Gaelic Grounds.

Finally, the PA had enough of waiting and like the angry mammy sick of calling their children in for dinner said, "We’re closing now lads in five minutes and I’m telling ye, ye will miss all these things in the morning". Only in the GAA. I loved it.

But back to the inches. Imagine if Waterford scored the next point after Limerick's Gearoid Hegarty saw red in the first round rather than hitting the next two balls wide, or hitting nine wides in that half of hurling which they were well on top in?

They ultimately lost by two points. Perhaps a victory there would've launched their season, but rather it was defeat and deflation for them.

The inches for Tipperary were evident when John McGrath gained control of the ball in the final play of the game between Limerick and Tipp in the 76th minute and won a free to try and salvage a draw for his county.

Perhaps that was single-handily the most important strike of a ball in that game for Tipp as that score and the draw helped send them through to the All-Ireland series. If he missed, and with all that unfolded on Sunday, Tipp would now be out due to Cork's score difference.

Thank you, John, we owe you one.

The inches that mattered in Leinster were more towards the bottom half of the table with all the excitement and unbelievable atmosphere created by Wexford, who claimed a great victory over the old enemy Kilkenny, a win which keeps them at hurling's top table.

The final play of the game could have made the outcome and atmosphere so different. The ball was sent in around the Wexford square, they need a goal, TJ Reid wins it, pops it across the square to Alan Murphy who buries it into the net. However, it was blown back for a free out for a throw.

We've seen plenty of these 'throws' throughout the season but they don't always get called.

Wexford were an inch away from a handpass and a throw, an inch away from the Liam MacCarthy or the Joe McDonagh next year.

And we saw the inches in the Joe McDonagh final at Croker on Saturday, when the ball fell to Offaly's Adrian Cleary with the final puck of the game in extra-time. He'd nailed three points already that day and hurled very well, but his effort drifted narrowly wide and that meant Carlow were champions.

Ifs and buts but for me they are the inches and the difference between euphoria and dejection.

Now the round-robin is over we know our provincial finalists, we know the last eight teams left standing in the All-Ireland championship fighting it out to lift Liam MacCarthy. I have no doubt there will be many more plays where the inches will mean everything in reaching the Promised Land.

The Banner have made the call to travel back into the lion's den to face Limerick on their own patch in a Munster final, a call that makes a lot of sense logistically for so many.

John Conlon lives closer to the Gaelic Grounds than the majority of the Limerick players and the agreement made between county boards of 50/50 with tickets and gate collection also makes sense. Kudos to all involved for making this happen.

It's damned if you do and damned if you don't with this decision for Clare. If they win then it looks like a great call, having it on just down the road, beating Limerick not once but twice at home and in a Munster final, one which the Banner county needs to win. The stuff of dreams.

If they don't win the cries will be, 'What in the name of Jaysus were they doing agreeing to play Limerick there for?'.

It will be another epic episode in the award-winning drama series that has been the Munster hurling championship 2023. I think that Clare got into the den last time and got out with the prize after fighting off the lion but now the lion has become stronger, and even hungrier. Limerick won't be letting anyone out this time without a fight to the death.

Does the Munster final matter? What do you think?