HERE’S HOW IT goes.
You set out to do a forensic study of the closing stages of the 2013 All-Ireland hurling final, inspired by (ahem, copying?) something similar you read in The Guardian about England’s Euros final defeat.
It’s the classic Sliding Doors moment. Clare hang on for the replay. Paul Kinnerk suddenly becomes the most desirable object in the GAA. Cork’s wait for an All-Ireland endures. There’s a lot going on since.
So you start with the last five minutes, but you rewind for the last ten. And another five before that. And on it goes until you’ve watched the whole damn thing only in reverse, taking five-minute segments before watching the ten-minute chunk that preceded it until you have the story and plot deconstructed and a feeling of dizziness not helped by comfort-eating your way through a full tub of M&S chocolate rolls.
Darach Honan opened up the scoring for Clare after a clever sideline, the Cork defence sleeping. “I’m surprised Cork weren’t ready for it,” said Michael Duignan on co-commentary for the day on RTÉ.
Kinnerk. He had them in the ‘Wide Awake Club’ that day, as Big Ron might say. More of which to follow for the next decade.
By the 20-minute mark, five of the Clare forwards had scored from play as they were double scores up on Cork, who had Patrick Horgan to thank for keeping them in it with frees, 0-8 to 0-4.
Let’s push on now for a bit. Not that the action wasn’t frantic and panicked and worthy of All-Ireland final status. But come 40 minutes Conor Lehane takes the ball and heads for the Hill.
It’s the type of goal that has everyone immediately commencing the inquest. ‘Who the f**k is meant to be marking him?’ Instead it’s clear to be seen. His marker Patrick O’Connor is wading through treacle, several yards behind and while Domhnall O’Donovan senses the danger and leaves his own man to deal with it, Lehane’s strike is too quick to block.
What really makes it though is how Patrick Kelly is made to look clumsy in the Clare goal, having to switch his grip on the hurley to get it across his body. Too late. Cork are one point off them.
Onto 55 minutes. Anthony Nash pucks out for Cork. William Egan gathers the break and sends one into the dangerzone. Luke O’Farrell is flattened by a thicket of Clare backs.
Nash is beckoned forward and several Clare players act like a UDR patrol in the ‘70s. He’s not getting up the pitch handy.
By the time he gets there, he’s even more nerveless. He picks the ball at the 20-metre line and flings it forward. By the time he strikes it, he’s 14 metres from the goal line.
As he looks at the goal, he sees Colin Ryan, Patrick Donnellan, goalkeeper Patrick Kelly, David McInerney and Patrick O’Connor on the line.
Colin Ryan lifts a stick up, half a second after it whizzes past him, already falling out of the net to the ground.
Two-point game; 57 minutes played.
Take us up to 61 minutes. A Nash puckout. Conor Ryan hadn’t played a championship game for Clare before the quarter-final win over Galway in late July. Here he was though, catching a puckout in the middle of Croke Park and taking his steps. Feinting to strike off his natural side, before swinging over and striking off his left side.
Clare are four points up and in complete control.
Cathal McInerney came on for Darach Honan and he takes a routine shot. It comes back off the post and sits up beautifully like an unexpected gift for Podge Collins.
There’s a variety of ways he could approach the chance. In the end, you suspect some of the oul’ football influence was strong, handed down from father to son. He tries to boot the loose sliotar.
Call it a combination of an advancing Nash and the headlines writing themselves, but he misses it completely.
Stephen McDonnell gets it out of the way to Daniel Kearney. Down the line and the delivery gets a kiss off a hurley, into the path of substitute Stephen Moylan, with the left wing of the Clare defence emptied out.
Moylan carries, draws a defender and dishes off to Pa Cronin coming on the loop. He takes aim and fires to the net.
Level. 64 minutes gone. Best game ever? Yeah sure. The best hurlers are yet to come, as Ringy says.
And at that point the game takes a dip. The energy had been manic throughout but the pace was relenting and now showing. With a minute to go, even Cork substitute Stephen White feels it. Under no pressure at all, he flakes a stickpass over the line right beside him.
In the next play, Conor McGrath finds himself helping out at corner-back for Clare. A ball up to Podge Collins sticks, until it doesn’t stick but Cork can’t even get it up the pitch. They have the sideline though and there is two minutes left of added time.
Christopher Joyce takes the cut. Patrick Horgan reads it first, collects it and sends the ball over the bar. Hill 16 goes nuts. Cork are up.
THIS IS NOT A DRILL. CORK ARE UP IN THE LAST MINUTE OF THE ALL-IRELAND FINAL.
3-16 to 0-24.
Patrick Kelly’s puckout is long and it squirts about after breaking. Cathal Naughton grabs it and tries to stretch his legs. Patrick Donnellan flicks it away. Stephen Moylan chances a shot.
It falls short to Clare goalkeeper Kelly. He runs out with it on his hurl towards the Cusack Stand. Unfortunately for him, Luke O’Farrell is a persistent bugger and hounds him all the way until Kelly is sprawled over the sideline.
The clock is reading 71 minutes and 29 seconds. There was to be two minutes extra played.
The smart thing is for Cork to just dilly and dally and take the maximum time possible. Kelly looks furious with himself as he runs back into goal.
On the sideline, Moylan addresses the ball for the cut. On the far sideline, Jimmy Barry-Murphy and Kieran Kingston are locked in some dizzying conversation.
Duignan has seen this scenario before. “It needs to go dead, and the game is over.”
Moylan flakes the ball wide. Why did Patrick Horgan not take it?
The camera cuts to JBM again. “Jimmy Barry-Murphy looks like he’s done it,” says commentator Ger Canning.
“He looks like he’s brought a Cork team from nowhere, to win the championship,” says Canning. He’s a Cork man. There are things we could say at this point, but we are too classy, see?
Referee Brian Gavin allows one more play.
Patrick Kelly wastes no time. All structure and shape for both teams is completely out of whack. Clare had pushed an extra couple of bodies forward, which is why corner back Domhnall O’Donovan is contesting the puckout in the left half forward position with the over-worked Stephen Moylan.
It breaks between them. Pat O’Connor gets the loose ball. He shuffles it to substitute Nicky O’Connell who lofts it in the path of O’Donovan.
The Clonlara man couldn’t be more than half a dozen paces from the sideline. He’s hitting it off his weaker side to guard against the incoming hook from Stephen White. He gives his swing a little kick upwards at the end, to make sure it carries over the crossbar. It does. Level.
The camera scans to Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald, looking into the crowd in disbelief, his hands on his face. There’s not even time for the Nash puckout to land to the ground before the final whistle sounds.
It’s a replay. Clare deserved it. The managers exchange brief greetings. Players the same. The atmosphere seeps out of the stadium. Spectators are either in shock, or delirium.
In all, O’Donovan was with the Clare panel for six seasons. His appearances were sporadic, playing just 13 championship games.
That was his one and only point. It forced the replay that Clare won.
And for the replay, Davy Fitz unleashed Shane O’Donnell, a teenage outsider who landed a hat-trick of goals inside the first 20 minutes of the replay.
But for certain, O’Donovan’s point is the most famous point in Clare hurling history of the 21st century, if not more.
What a legacy.
