“JJ’s hook, you could talk about that forever.”
So said Brian Cody to the gallery. And you really could, so we will. They are content to live it all again. Over and over. Later on JJ Delaney does like the others, putting his own bag and taped hurleys onto the team bus. Even the driver has the air of a champion.
“Good boy JJ,” murmurs the old man.
Jackie Tyrrell bounces past grinning. The younger Power follows his brother's detour to avoid the vultures. Shefflin, he of the 10 Celtic crosses, already spoke officially in the press conference. The king slots his hurleys onto the bus and walks on.
In all of this JJ’s achievements could so easily be forgotten. Nine All-Ireland’s now. Life as a man marker in hurling, of all sports, tends to be short-lived. The good Shepherd, this man makes assassins look like sheep.
The goal that never was
Séamus Callanan’s apparently certain goal that never was, nor will be, is top of the menu. Tipperary’s chief marksman was closing in on the hurler of the year when sprinting onto Bubbles O’Dwyer’s neat hand-pass. Delaney was on his shoulder then a yard away, then two yards.
Too far to foul. He waited, and waited, before the hook of the century just as Callanan cocked the trigger.
"Last-ditch effort. You are trying to keep your hurl in there. Lucky enough I got the hurl in. But look, massive team effort. The amount of hooking and blocking going on around the field. Conor Fogarty gave an exhibition of it. Michael Fennelly. "
We bring him back to the hook. Tempted to dive in?
“Ah, I knew I wasn’t going to catch him for pace so I just kept at a hurl’s length. Right place at the right time.”
Yeah, right.
The incident presented Cody with the perfect opportunity to obliterate the widely spread belief that his elderly hunters are sluggish.
“Run at our lads and you’ll slaughter them? You would want to realise that it doesn’t work like that”, he said. “You’d want to know what you’re talking about when you write those things.”
These really are men, not machines, but the hardness makes that difficult to comprehend. Tyrrell appeared to tell referee Brian Gavin to feck off when told to leave the field as blood gushed from his forehead.
Dislocated finger
Delaney had to be corralled to the sideline by Kilkenny’s doctor when his finger dislocated.
“The top of it dislocated. It popped back in.”
You were in agony?
“The doctor had a few goes at it, it eventually went back in. Adrenaline had kicked in at that stage.”
Bit of cramp at the end?
“That’s the old age kicking in unfortunately.”
He’s 32. Pay no heed to him. JJ Delaney instinctively understands the plan of succession.
“You’re looking ahead for the next one is all you are doing. We’ll celebrate this ninth one now. Coming into the game there was a few looking for their first one. The first one you never forget. ”
