All Ireland holds its breath

Brendan Cummings
But all eyes are on Kilkenny

© tribune.ie

Record breaking Poc Fada champion, four time All Star, All Ireland champion Brendan Cummings cried his eyes out as a child in Croke Park when Kerry were thwarted five All Irelands in a row by Séamus Darby’s wonder goal. Kerry had beaten Offaly in the final the previous year and the Faithful had waited for their revenge. And they got it.

That was then and this is now.  Just as he has done for the last fifteen years, Cummings will be between the sticks for Tipperary. But part of him will almost be with the Cats who are looking to pull off what has never been done. Part of him. Almost.  Because part of him is still with that Kerry team which fell just short of achieving immortality. All eyes – even his – are on Kilkenny.

Scenario A) Kilkenny win

They become the first team ever to win five All Irelands in a row and solidify themselves as one of the great teams, to be remembered as long as the game is played (and beyond).

Scenario B) Kilkenny lose

Much of the above still applies.

Because Kilkenny are that special.

Special manager. Special players. Special team.

The recovery of Henry Shefflin from a torn cruciate knee ligament four weeks after the injury demonstrates commitment. Ferocious commitment. Shefflin received treatment from world renowned expert Gerard Hartmann who has in the past salvaged the careers of Ronan O’Gara, Sonia O’Sullivan, and Colin Jackson (the Limerick based physio has been responsible for healing over 50 Olympic and world championship medallists). O’Gara described the treatment as “murder, the hardest thing I ever had to do in my career.”

So that’s huge commitment shown on Shefflin’s part.

But 8,000 people turning up at Nolan Park to see Mr Lazarus run out with his team mates for a training session demonstrates something else entirely. Something bizarre. Something obsessive. Something even a little terrifying.

Apparently word spread around the town. Shops were abandoned. Car doors left open. The terraces packed. And they all nodded and gasped on seeing Shefflin running, tackling, and scoring. And now he's on the starting lineup for the match.

Mad isn’t it?

Jackie Tyrell (2006), Henry Shefflin (2007),
"Cha" Fitzpatrick (2008), Michael Fennelly (2009)

Living in foreign as I do, I have often tried – with little success – to describe the GAA to friends for whom Ireland is just a blob on a map. It’s an amateur game. Played countrywide, nearly 2,500 clubs. An amateur game. Third biggest stadium in Europe. Amateur game. Teams throughout Europe, North America, Australia, Argentina, Japan, Taiwan... Yep an amateur game. Men and women, schools and communities, North and South. Fun? Passion? Rivalry? You better believe it.

We tend to explain so many of the eccentricities of the GAA to ourselves with phrases like “Sure hasn’t it always been like this” and “Don’t we go for the love of the game?”. But after seeing dedication shown by the likes of Shefflin generate such extraordinary responses, I am left as gobsmacked as my foreign friends.

A loss will take little away from the Kilkenny team. It would be akin to the great Don Bradman falling for a duck in his final innings and missing out on perfection. It might be summed up by a famous Joey "the Lips" Fagan quip (spoken at the end of Roddy Doyle’s “The Commitments” after the band has fallen apart and everything lies in tatters): "Sure we could have been famous and made albums and stuff, but that would have been predictable. This way it's poetry."

Win or lose, Kilkenny make a remarkable story and Shefflin will be forever remembered as its protagonist.