Finnerty savours the chance of another "last hurrah"

ANTHONY FINNERTY had his mind made up well before last Sunday's All Ireland. It was going to be his last and he was going to savour every moment. He was wrong, of course, but he's not complaining - now he gets to do it all again.

Being a disciple of John Maughan, he makes it clear that winning comes higher on the agenda than enjoying the event. But enjoying it is not incompatible with winning, as any Wexford hurler knows, and Finnerty values an All Ireland occasion too highly to be blase about it.

"The All Ireland final is one of the greatest sporting occasions, not just in Ireland but in the world," he says, with an enthusiasm that relegates the Grand National, Superbowl and English FA Cup final to the also rans.

A survivor from Mayo's 89 expedition, Finnerty knew just how quickly the day and the game would pass. "The 70 minutes can pass you by just like that so l made up my mind to enjoy the occasion because it was going to be my last All Ireland - I didn't think I'd be going back in two weeks' time!" he explains with a chuckle.

"We just hope we can finish the job the next day," he adds. And there's the rub. He rejects suggestions that Mayo somehow recoiled from victory when they were within sight of the winning post.

"I wouldn't say that, I wouldn't see it as the Mayo team having a fear of winning. Every team has a period of dominance in a game and we dominated for nearly an hour so a period of Meath dominance was to be expected - it just happened to come in the last 10 or 15 minutes.

I think our problem was that we started to defend our lead when we went six points in front instead of attacking and building on it. Our half forward line drifted back whereas if they defended from the half forward line they might have picked up some of the breaks that started to drop behind midfield. Meath picked up six or seven balls that dropped behind midfield in that period.

"It was similar to Down in 91 when they went 10 or 11 points up and started to defend their lead. They nearly got caught but they had a big enough lead built up to withstand Meath's comeback, we didn't."

They didn't but they should have he agrees: "You can't expect to win an All Ireland scoring 1-9. To win an All Ireland you'd want to be scoring 14 or 15 points. We're hoping to play as well again the next day but to put more scores on the board.

"But Meath are one of the hardest teams in the country to play against because they put you under so much pressure when you have possession. Our forwards needed better ball but you're not going to be given time to send in quality ball. Meath hunt in packs, they keep grinding it out.

A sort of knee jerk consensus has emerged since the drawn match that Mayo "left it behind" the first day and that Meath now hold all the aces. They tied the game without playing well - a 10 or 20 per cent improvement will suffice. Finnerty is adamant, however, that the psychological advantage lies with Mayo.

"I think Mayo might have been telling themselves they were as good as Meath before the game but, at the back of their minds, they might have had fears about them. People were using words like awesome to describe the Meath performance against Tyrone. But we now realise exactly what we're up against and we know we're equal to Meath, if not better."

Finnerty was sprung from the bench in 89 when he eyeballed Cork's John Kerins before crashing the ball, home.

His third All Ireland appearance from the bench awaits him. He has, by his own admission, "a cute head" and he's not talking about his looks.

"I've always been very proud to put on the Mayo jersey, and putting it on in Croke Park has to be one of the proudest days of your life. I won't be intimidated by the occasion, I'll be inspired by it."