Who’d be a hurling goalkeeper? It is a vocation that requires a player to imperil body and soul, and where in a single moment the teeniest lapse in concentration or a capricious gust of wind can supersede a lifetime of dedication and excellence. It hurts physically and mentally.
Other players can get away with making a geansaí load of mistakes, but a single goalkeeping hiccup is generally the costliest of errors. Those who choose to play there understand the terms and conditions, but all the while hoping not to be cast as a villain in the half-time/post-match analysis.
Cork’s Patrick Collins was unmasked and undone 16 seconds into the All Ireland Hurling quarter-final defeat when he misjudged the flight of Galway corner back Jack Grealish’s long-range point attempt. The sliotar eluded his grasp and ended up in the net.
The RTÉ commentary team of Marty Morrissey and Anthony Daly tried to ‘look away’ verbally but that proved increasingly difficult given several replays. In the end they arrived at a consensus that, “these things happen”, and sure “isn’t there still another 69 minutes-plus of hurling to come?” They were right on both counts.
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A lingering shot of Collins disappearing down the tunnel at a trot upon the conclusion of the first half offered a spoiler for what was coming next.
In a lofty studio perch in Semple Stadium with a set that looked like it had been purchased from the old television programme Blind Date, minus the partition, the first item on Joanne Cantwell’s half-time agenda was Grealish’s goal and she tossed it in the direction of Davy Fitzgerald.
There is honour among goalkeepers, past and present. Fitzgerald wrapped gentle criticism in a quasi-eulogy to Collins. He ventured: “The first goal was fortunate to be honest about it. Patrick Collins is normally one of the top goalkeepers, very reliable. He had to take his eye off the ball (for a split second).
“It is a simple goal, one that shouldn’t have happened. For a goalkeeper of that class, he will be so disappointed with that.”
Fitzgerald also threw an eye over Galway’s second goal, praising the work of Conor Whelan (1-2) and suggesting that “if he is one-on-one with Sean O’Donoghue that’s trouble all day long”.
For the most part it proved a tepid half of hurling with Cork’s tally of wides threatening to eclipse their scoring rate. The Leesiders also spurned three good goalscoring chances, for which Joe Canning doled out some stick. The former Galway great knows a thing or two about scoring but his message wasn’t triumphalist, instead delivered in a tone of relief that Cork had been so profligate.
While praising Galway goalkeeper Éanna Murphy for making three saves, he dissected the Cork chances and felt that all three should have ended up as goals. He concluded: “I am happy we’re ahead but realistically I don’t know why we are ahead.”
Former Cork camogie star, Anna Geary, the third member of the panel filed it under the heading, ‘lost opportunities,’ the only consolation for her that Cork were creating chances and she felt they would eventually take one. It was a prescient observation.
Cork dominated possession but were ludicrously wasteful, accumulating their 13th wide within 90 seconds of the restart. Shane Kingston’s goal briefly revved up the contest but as a game it simmered away, never really coming to a boil.
Cork introduced “Hoggy” (Patrick Horgan) as Marty and ‘Dalo’ referred to him upon the player’s arrival for the second half. There was some excellent long-range point-taking from both sides – it did raise the question as to why that accuracy was missing in the first 35 minutes when far easier chances went abegging – but the game largely lacked tension until its dying embers in injury time as battling Cork reduced a three-point deficit to one.
Twice shots came back off a post. It was that sort of day for Kieran Kingston’s side. Cork did not lose the game because of goalkeeping error; that defeat had a thousand fathers.
It is rare that a commentator will voluntarily categorise or downplay a match as disappointing but Morrissey’s post-game appraisal that “it was never a pulsating contest, but it kept us intrigued along the way” was a pretty accurate and honest summation.
A word too for the studio panel. Individually, and as a collective, they were easy and engaging to listen to because they gave each other time and space to make and take points, and run with them, the analysis footage spliced and shared equally with Cantwell facilitating the dialogue. Now if they can just source that partition . . .
