"IMAGINE ... a voice piped up in the press box as, through the curtain of wind-lashed, freezing rain Camross's Joe Dollard could be seen receiving attention for a heavy knock, against the background of an advertising sign disintegrating in the gale.
"...you're there on the bench," the voice continues, "the second half has just started, nine points down and someone turns around and says get togged, you're going on.
Dollard survived, and so for some potential sub the Camross nightmare was slightly alleviated.
The Laois champions had reached yesterday's AIB All Ireland club hurling semi final at Thurles on the basis of carefully planned and well executed performances where their calmness and battling qualities overcame higher rated opponents. If anyone had foreseen the appalling weather, they would have quite fancied Camross's chances.
Instead, the match was decided at one extreme on the band of possibilities. Athenry's young team had sufficient heft to compete happily in the physical stakes and their superior skills flourished in Semple Stadium's big spaces.
The final total of 4-17 came exclusively from the forwards who tore Camross's less pacy defence to pieces.
There is a tendency to forget that advantages of skill aren't always cancelled out by bad weather. As the conditions deteriorated, it was the Galway side who raised their game. The only thing that could have detained neutrals at half time (apart from the certainty of dying from exposure within seconds of departing the ground) was the frequency with which goals were flying in.
Athenry made some tactical adjustments before the match with Joe Rabbitte moving out to the wing and Eugene Cloonan going to full forward, with Cathal Moran replacing him in the corner.
Sometimes it's hard to fathom why Rabbitte, so strong and skilful, should be so at home on the comparative periphery of the wing. Probably because it gives him an amount of freedom to crop up when and where he likes.
Yesterday he was in a providing mood and was integral to half of his side's total. He also worked immensely hard and even at the end, when Camross were well into the filth decade of the Sorrowful Mysteries, it was Rabbitte who emerged from the goalmouth with ball in hand and made the clearance.
Up front he was assisted by some nippy players in the full forward line. Last year's star minor Cloonan racked up 1-9, while Cathal and Donal Moran used speed and elusiveness to terrorise Carnross.
In the Athenry defence, Brian Feeney was again a commanding figure. On either side of the Athenry captain, his wing backs Brian Higgins and Paul Hardiman were almost flawless - Higgins small and busy, Hardiman using his height to show for ball and clear it.
Camross fought hard. They were dealt a hard blow when conceding a soft goal on the stroke of half time which fatally holed their desperate attempts to keep afloat. Up until then, Dollard had striven to ignite the attack and Ollie Dowling showed fire at midfield. But there were too many areas where they were simply being outhurled.
The first score of the match, in the third minute, saw right corner forward Donal Moran scurry behind the Camross defence to strike a confident goal in a manner that was to become grimly familiar to the Leinster champions.
Playing into a gusting wind, Camross kept in touch for most of the first half. There was no doubt which team looked the better, but Athenry's attempts to put distance between the sides were undermined in the 11th minute, when Ollie Dowling's 65 dropped unhindered into the net, and 15 minutes later when a long Dollard clearance put Damien Culleton in on goal from the left and he netted. (In between, Eugene Cloonan had missed a penalty but mitigated the loss by pointing from the ensuing play.)
As they did each time they conceded a goal, the Galway players bounced back with three unanswered points, but it was an injury time incident that finished the match.
Brian Hanley, who used height and diligence to fine effect on the left wing, sent a hopeful ball lofting up from 65 metres. Tim Lowry in the Camross goal appeared to be ushering it wide, and for a second it looked to have dropped into the side netting. It was only when the relevant umpire pointed across at his colleague that the majority of the 4,138 crowd realised what had happened.
The goal turned a vaguely manageable six point deficit into a three goal margin. Neither the wind nor the flakiness of some of the Athenry defending were likely to bridge that sort of gap.
Even the second source of optimism ran dry for Camross. Seven minutes into the second hall, Athenry's goalkeeper, Michael Crimmins fumbled a long range strike by the persistent Dollard into the net. But thereafter, Crimmins for some reason became more confident and dealt effortlessly with the remainder of the dropping ball entrusted to him.
At the end of the third quarter, Cloonan was set up by Cathal Moran and Rabbitte for a goal chance he kicked emphatically to the net for a 12-point lead, 3-14 to 3-2. In the time remaining, the winners outscored Camross 1-3 to 0-1 - Donal Moran grabbing a second goal having been put up to it by the irrepressible Rabbitte.
