Good God Almighty! Clash of All-Ireland Camogie ash finishes with Cork on top

The last time Kilkenny won a senior Camogie All-Ireland title, Riverdance was number one. An aeon ago, like.

Especially if you grew up in a time when it was assumed the county’s actual name was “Kilkenny Camogie All-Ireland Champions”, so dominant were they. And that seven-in-a-row seems but a wet week ago, and the reign of the Downeys, Angela and Ann, even less than that.

So, by the time they went six points up yesterday against Cork, you assumed the gap between 1994 and the day that was in it was about to be bridged, and that Cork's drought, which stretched all the way back to the dim and distant past of 2009 would persist.

But as Cyril Farrell declared midway through the second half: "Good God Almighty!"

And that's all you could say, really, about Cork after the break, prompting Marty Morrissey to dust down his calculator. "Cork scored 2-08 in the second half, to Kilkenny's 0-03!"

– so there was no option but to echo Farrell. Good God Almighty!

“They’re having a great battle, like the hound and the hare,” said Farrell, Cork ultimately hounding their way to their 25th title, just one behind Dublin’s record total.

And Patricia Woods was one of the women who helped Dublin reach that tally, winning five All-Irelands in the 1960s, her medals now adorning her wrist on a bracelet, everyone a charm.

Woods spoke to Thank GAA It's Friday, in a lovely piece, about her lifelong love affair with camogie. "I've played since I could walk," she said, reminiscing about an era when the Dubs almost unbeatable.

Tactics? “Get rid of the ball fast, thereby not incurring the danger of a physical encounter with the opposition – it worked extremely well,” she said, as did their pre-match advice: “Go to bed early, don’t have a bath, and don’t drink too much water.” Jim McGuinness is taking notes as we speak.

Woods played 11 years for Dublin, and then got involved in the family business, which includes making the medals for All-Ireland camogie winners.

And Kilkenny's Fennelly clan aren't exactly strangers to All-Ireland medals either, their camogie captain Leann, daughter of Liam and related to about, oh, 96 other Fennellys who are overloaded with All-Ireland charms, also turning up on Thank GAA It's Friday to preview the camogie final, next to all of the childhood photographs we saw of her and her young relations including the Liam McCarthy Cup, which was pretty much part of the family.

Leann was born in 1990, so was too busy learning how to Riverdance to pay much attention to Kilkenny winning their last senior camogie title, grimacing as she noted the gap, close to her entire lifetime.

So, a heartbreaker for Fennelly and Kilkenny in the end. But you have to say, if Briege Corkery didn’t leave Croke Park yesterday with a winner’s medal, it would have bordered on the criminal.

“I don’t know if our heads were in our boots,” said Jennifer O’Leary post-match to RTÉ of Cork’s first-half performance, but they extracted them after the interval, and Good God Almighty!

Any way. The Cork Galacticos prevailed, as did Louis van Gaal’s equivalents yesterday, his 1-0-10 formation working a treat against Qeens Park Rogers, as Radamel Falcao labelled them on Twitter.

“Welcome to the New Age,” said Sky as they ushered us towards a shiny new Manchester United era, Gary Neville all a-tingle in the commentary box. And earlier, Sky showed us footage of Falcao touring Old Trafford, pointing to a photograph of Gary and saying: “Phil?”

Gary: “Good God Almighty!”