Possibly only George Hamilton could find a link between the Australian Air Force and the Republic of Ireland women’s team. “Through adversity to the stars,” he told us was the motto of the former, but considering the journey these players have been on down the years, he reckoned they should adopt it too. Quite right.
Stephanie Roche experienced plenty of that adversity along the way during her Ireland days, so it’s little wonder that when the team emerged from the tunnel in Stadium Australia she classed it as “a pinch-me moment for Irish women’s football”.
And then Amhrán na bhFiann filled the Sydney air and you’d have been black and blue yourself from the pinching. “It’s been a long time coming,” said an emotional Stephanie, “now it’s their time to shine”.
Back in Dublin, Evanne Ní Chuilinn, Karen Duggan, Megan Campbell and Richie Sadlier, no more than ourselves, had heroically tried to sound gutted on hearing that Sam Kerr would miss the game through injury, her absence making the test ahead seem marginally less terrifying.
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Match time and George was reading the game so well he was able to tell us what happened 10 seconds before it actually did. Like, say, “great save from Brosnan” while we were watching Katie McCabe marauding up the left wing. And occasionally himself and Stephanie were inexplicably repeating themselves and saying things like “de... ba... pi... mo... chu”. It wasn’t until RTÉ offered “apologies for the poor sound quality” that you could stop worrying about the pair of them.
For the first half-hour you’d be forgiving enough – look it, technical glitches happen – but when the issue still wasn’t fixed by half-time, you’d have been demanding that George be summoned to appear before an Oireachtas Committee to explain why he was getting ahead of himself.
The chief impact of the situation was that you’d have been so distracted you wouldn’t have known how it was 0-0 at half-time. “Not too shabby,” as Evanne put it, the panel all highly content with the scoreline too.
“It’s not going to set our world on fire watching a game like this,” said Karen, “but we’ll take a 0-0 all day.” Megan and Richie agreed, “so far, so good”.
Second half. George had lost his crystal ball and was no longer able to see in to the future – which was a pity because he could have warned Marissa Sheva that she was about to shove Hayley Raso in the back and give away a daft penalty.
A goal down, then, which led the entire nation to holler as one: ‘BRING ON AMBER!’ Soon after she rose from the bench. And then sat back down again. Which led the entire nation to holler as one: ‘HUH?’
Instead, it was Abbie Larkin and Lucy Quinn who came on with big Louise Quinn shifted up front, so you had a notion the closing stages wouldn’t involve Total Football. Nearly worked, though, but nearly never made it. “A defeat,” said George, “but a defeat with honour”.
Poor old Sheva was in tears at full-time over her “moment of clumsiness”, as Richie described it, the panel left deflated by a what-might-have-been kind of game.
Quinn up front? “It’s not a tactic, it’s a hope,” said Karen, who wished Ireland could have started the game the way they ended it. “We have to be braver, we have to start playing before going a goal down.” A plan B? “They don’t have one.”
Not the start we dreamt of, then, but a magical morning all the same. It was, indeed, a long time coming.
Who’s next? Oh, Canada. Yet more adversity, this time in the shape of the Olympic champions. If only George could tell us now that we beat them 1-0.
