There’s something about the sight of six-foot-plus, heavily-tattooed fellas with biceps the size of Kilimanjaro, and hairdos that look like they were sawn rather than styled, bawling like babies at the end of sporting contests that would thaw the most frozen of hearts.
We had one such scene in Tralee on Saturday when Dingle/Daingean Uí Chúis ended just a 77-year wait for a senior Kerry football title when they beat Austin Stacks. The field was littered with sobbing Dingle lads overcome with emotion, among them Paul Geaney who is not exactly a stranger to footballing success. But with his county, rather than his club.
“Ten years ago we decided the sky was the limit,” he told TG4, but they lost their deposit a few times along the way, so the sky was proving a bit beyond their reach. Until Sunday when Geaney’s two late goals pushed them past the quota.
He kept his chat with TG4 brief because he wanted to join the red-flare-wielding euphoric crew over at the other side of the pitch, so off he ran in to their bosoms where he had the bejaysus hugged out of him.
Saturday? The field was littered with sobbing Lucan lads overcome with emotion after Na Fianna’s Sean Currie left their hearts shredded with a stoppage time winner in the Dublin hurling final at Parnell Park.
“That is absolute heartbreak for Lucan,” sighed Joe Fortune in the RTÉ commentary box, Cathal Mullaney, beside him, close enough to being lost for words over the cruelty of it all.
Yes, yes, that’s sport, but Sarsfields have never won the county title, and only ever appeared in one final before, back in 2013, so this would have been the west Dublin town’s most treasured day since Brush Shiels penned the lyric, “there’s something cookin’ in the Spa in Lucan”.
“Their day will come,” Joe promised, but Lucan probably had no Tiocfaidhs left to give after that anguish, them having led by two points when the game entered added time.
No such heartache for Ballyhale Shamrocks over on Clubber, them winning their 21st Kilkenny hurling title with a comfy enough triumph over O’Loughlin Gaels.
Captain TJ Reid, need it be said, had quite an influence on the game, his 11 points proving useful. One of them was an otherworldly sideline cut. “You have Pele, Michael Jordan, Tiger, Schumacher and TJ,” said Tommy Walsh. “He can do the impossible, hands of an absolute God.”
It proved, of course, to be a busy day on the box. Sky were showing so many Premier League games, they had to put Wolves v Burnley on their Formula One channel, which would have left the petrolheads highly confused – and probably aggrieved – when they tuned in.
And on Sky Golf, you could watch either Wolves v Burnley, Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest, Arsenal v Crystal Palace or Aston Villa v Manchester City, with not a four iron in sight.
No offence at all to Wolves and Burnley, but Real Madrid v Barcelona on Premier Sports seemed like a better prospect than the second half of their tussle at Molineux.
“How excited are you,” Eoin McDevitt asked Guillem Balague. “It’s just the best game of the century – this year,” he replied. That left Eoin and his other pundit, Gaizka Mendieta, looking a little dazzled, although that might have been more down to Guillem’s shirt which appeared to have been designed by someone who was hallucinating.
“It’s the kind of game where if there is a defeat, there is a victory,” Guillem continued, neither Eoin nor Gaizka arguing with him.
As is the tendency with these El Clásico things, the line-ups gave the game a bit of a Harlem Globetrotters feel, most of the lads on the pitch spending a good deal of their spare time selling us speedy cars, watches, fine wines and apartments in Dubai.
VAR, need it be said, made a hames of the contest, even if it got most of its decisions right, the interminable waits to discover if, say, Kylian Mbappé’s left ear lobe was ahead of Eric García’s right knee proving a bit tiresome.
And when Wojciech Szczesny saved Mbappé’s penalty, with a right hand of an absolute God, Phil Kitromilides and Terry Gibson opted not to celebrate the Pole’s heroics lest VAR spot that an Lamine Yamal eyelash had been a bit previous on entering the area.
Mind you, Sarsfields could have done with a smilier inspection of the penalty incident in their game. Never mind, their day will come. There is, after all, something cookin’ in Lucan.
