It was worth the wait, wasn’t it? The GAA and camogie intercounty calendar may be as squashed these days as an overworked concertina but the finals – brought to us as part of a marathon finale to the season by the hardworking RTÉ crew – produced what an out-of-breath commentator Ger Canning described as “an absolute camogie classic”.
He wasn’t wrong, after the mother of all finals between Galway and Cork in the senior decider produced the icing on the cake for camogie’s showpiece day at Croke Park, with the Tribeswomen ending the Leesiders’ bid for a generational three-in-a-row.
“Nobody had this on the cards,” remarked co-commentator Elaine Aylward. And she wasn’t wrong either.
RTÉ’s broadcasting team must have had their breakfast at Croker, as well as their lunch and dinner and supper, so long were they in GAA HQ for the series of All-Ireland finals that brought us junior, intermediate and finally the senior decider.
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If Damian Lawlor may have felt blessed to be in the company of pundits Anna Geary, Ursula Jacob and Ann Marie Hayes – who between them have a barrow-load of Celtic crosses for their own achievements – the output from the three women and their knowledge of the sport was hugely impressive, not just for the senior match but clearly homework had been done for the junior and intermediate matches too.
Indeed, when Laois cantin Líadan C Fennell joined Damo, Anna, Ursula and Anne Marie down at their television anchoring location in the corner of the pitch by the Nally, her sheer joy epitomised how their victory over Armagh in the junior final contrasted with a year ago when she and her team-mates were on the losing side.
“We just did it for the girls,” said Fennell. “This time last year we had tears in our eyes for another reason and none of us wanted that again.” And while she was uttering those words, Fennell was holding an RTÉ microphone with bloodied fingers; not that she seemed to care.
Anyway, the baton was moved on from the junior final to the intermediate with seamless ease, even if Lawlor and the pundits seemed less than impressed by what had taken place in the first half between Offaly and Kerry.
“Pretty timid,” said Lawlor, adding seconds later, “fairly timid.”
Ann Marie was more to the point. “Flat and dead,” is how she described it.
Although, by match end, with Offaly claiming the title, commentator Marty Morrissey was anticipating something like a Marty Party in the midlands. “The bonfires can be lit in the county of Offaly,” he enthused.
Many hours after getting their cornflakes and porridge, the broadcast finally got to the senior final. “The big one, the showpiece for all camogie fans,” said Lawlor, with the emphasis back on skill, endeavour and physicality for the Cork-Galway showdown with little or not talk at all of the skorts matter which had brought camogie to the attention of the wider public earlier this year.
The montage produced as part of the build-up, though, showed us clips of last year’s final between Cork and Galway, one and all wearing skorts. This year, with the rule change, only a couple of players between both teams wore the skorts.
And, of course, the analysts had their own sense of fashion with their gúnaí. Anna wore a red dress. Ann Marie wore maroon. Ursula wore a neutral blue. And they all had their own brilliantly delivered opinions on what would unfold, with Ursula wondering if some “curve ball” would be thrown in terms of tactics given how well the teams knew each other.
Nobody but nobody, not even Mystic Meg, could have foreseen the first half that unfolded as the two teams produced speed and wizardry and, indeed, a level of physicality that was a world removed from the junior and intermediate finals.
And nobody, except perhaps Ann Marie, who had put Damian back in his box when wondering if there was any fear in the Galway camp of what Cork would bring, had the first half finishing with Galway ahead and Cork a player down after Hannah Looney’s red card just before the break.
“It’s gone from bad to worse,” said Canning of the red card.
Not that there was too much sympathy for Looney.
“There’s no justification, no argument,” said Aylward of the sending off, before adding: “When Galway get to All-Ireland finals you can tear up the script, you can tear up the form book, they bring something different.”
The outcome, though, went to the proverbial wire. “Galway are just running on fumes,” mentioned Aylward, “they’re going to have to find a new lease of life off the bench.”
She was a mystic, wasn’t she? Didn’t Cork only score to draw level. “What a final, so many talking points and no winner,” said Canning. Yet!
There would be a winner, Galway. “An absolute classic. Galway return to camogie’s summit, they’re back at the top,” said Canning who, hopefully, had packed his lozenges after a fine effort himself in the commentary booth.
