pablo
Well-Known Member
As Pablo and others here have said, John McEntee going off early in the game was a big blow. We took a while to adjust to that. Kerry did run us ragged for about 15 mins if I remember after that. But we inched our way back into in towards the end of the half. It was a new and different game in the second half. Much less open. Kerry just did not get the same spaces to run into that they did in the first half. On another day Kerry could have taken 1 or 2 of their goal chances and been out of sight. But we were overdue a bit of luck against them. It was our turn.
I think we also missed a few goal chances that normally we might have expected to put away. The penalty was an obvious one, but also the balls-up that occurred between Marsden and O'Rourke in the second half. If we had lost that game we would have been lamenting our bad luck-missed chances, injury to John Mc, and two of our players colliding with each other in the second half (Clarke and Stevie). For a while, things were not going our way. I still think Kerry were used to flattening the opposition over an intense 20 or 30 minute spell. But we hung in there and by the second half I think they (Kerry) had already thrown at us all that they had with nothing else in the tank to call upon. Easy to say now, but looking at the replay of the game, I think we deserved to win by more than the one single point.
Watching the replay of the whole event on TV (including the BBC coverage kindly uploaded by An Port Mor on YouTube)-honestly have you ever seen such an outpouring of joy at Croke Park? I know as supporters we are all emotionally involved when watching that event again, but those scenes after the final whistle have to be truly one of the iconic moments in Irish sport-for anyone watching. The sheer delight of a whole community of people pouring onto that pitch, wonderful and it still brings a lump to the throat.
I think the for Hurling Final that year, no pitch invasion-and Kilkenny paraded around the field with 'Congratulations' by Cliff Richard playing over the PA. Sheer Naff. But we brought back what it was all about a few weeks later.