Cork prove immovable in defence

All-Ireland SHC Final: No complaints. No queue of customers saying they were unhappy with the product and wondering if they could hear a little about the refund policy. Cork won. Galway lost. Experience and wisdom prevailed.

All through the afternoon Cork hurled with the more confident stroke and with the greater faith in their patterns of play. They made little adjustments to their usual style, hurling the balls longer from their puck-outs and from defensive play and placing Galway on the back foot as often as possible.

And for their part, as befits the young challengers, Galway got a little flustered at times and forgot what it was that made them so intoxicating to watch in the semi-final against Kilkenny.

They never got the ball in behind the Cork full-back line for their speedy forwards to run on to; their touch was jumpy; they went hunting for goals when points still offered a remedy.

Still, Galway will be forgiven because their sense of adventure lit up this hurling summer and their production line of young talent (which continued with a minor All-Ireland win yesterday) when processed through a championship system which gives them adequate experience means they will be serious contenders for years to come.

They will recover from yesterday and a game which addressed itself to the emotions if not the hurling intellect. This was an All-Ireland final that had the good grace to be exciting without being excellent, to be close without being nailbiting.

It was error-strewn without being bad. Galway battered themselves gamely against Cork's sturdy ramparts and we thought to ourselves if anything gave way there would be trouble. Nothing gave way.

Ironically, Cork's imposing solidity was never more evident than after the Galway goal on 48 minutes. Donal Óg Cusack conjured up a fine save, one of a series he produced yesterday, but was unfortunate to see the rebound meet the timber of Damien Hayes. The ball limped into the Cork net and Croke Park erupted.

Everybody loves an underdog.

There were just two points in the game at this stage and the next score was going to be critical. It went to Cork, and came off the stick of John Gardiner, a 67-yard free from out on the right touchline. Gardiner bisected the posts more casually than he might on a summer evening tip-around in Farranree.

Galway sensed these were the critical minutes of the game, and within seconds Ger Farragher had closed the gap again.

Cork were implacable though. Implacable and indomitable. And a pair of fine points from Tom Kenny and Ben O'Connor effectively ended the argument.

For Cork, back-to-back All-Ireland victories mean validation, and several key players who were yesterday winning their third All-Ireland medals jumped to nearer the top of the rather crowded list of Cork legends.

And for the side's likeably unassuming manager, John Allen, the win puts an end to questions about his sanity. When he took over from Donal O'Grady last autumn he was told he was mad and the only way he could justify himself was to bring home another All-Ireland.

Yesterday he nailed down his reputation as a manager of substance. The two high-profile players he substituted in last month's semi-final against Clare submitted huge performances for him yesterday.

"Well, Brian Corcoran, the fella works so hard from beginning to end," said Allen.

"If he wasn't getting the ball out there today, well, nobody was. And Ronan Curran, his form was much better. He was back to his best."

Indeed for Cork all the main working components ran smoothly yesterday. Corcoran inflicted various forms of torture on Tony Óg Regan, winning great amounts of ball, scoring two points, registering three wides and setting up several scores.

At centre back, Ronan Curran swept and mopped busily, and as a collective the Cork half-back line gave its best performance of the season, stifling Galway's creativity and always looking for those raking, diagonal balls into their own full-forward line.

"I'm especially delighted for Seán Óg Ó hAilpín," said Allen when talking about the contributions of various players.

"He's been a model in every sense. A model person. A model athlete. He's everything good you can have in a sportsman."

Seán Óg himself recalled being in the Cusack Stand as a young child not long installed in the northside of Cork by his parents. Galway were on top for the first half that day. Comfortably on top. It stuck in the young man's memory.

"They have the pedigree hurlers. We knew this would be hard. This was the one big performance that we needed.

"We started very well. Fellas realised that during the year as a team we weren't clicking together. All the pressure was on Galway after their semi-final.

"We thought about ourselves over the last three weeks. Fellas were getting in the odd flick, they (Galway) were missing the odd pull. We were composed."

Cork, of course, wouldn't be Cork were it merely composure which separated them from the rest of the pack. It is confidence and self-belief and the inability to be happy with what most counties would consider to be enough.

Already in the corridors under the Hogan Stand there were wonderings about the three-in-a-row.

"Next year will be harder," said Seán Óg. "Last year we won the All-Ireland comfortably enough. Next year will be tighter again, but sure you might as well make hay while the sun shines."

It shone yesterday evening with a reddish glow.