All that was missing, really, in Croke Park on Sunday was Spidercam deflecting an Evan Comerford kick-out in to the path of an onrushing Kerryman for him to get the winning point in the last second of the All-Ireland semi-final. But even in the absence of that drama, there was still plenty to be emoting about.
And if you were flicking between RTÉ and BBC Norn Iron, you’ll have noted a similar theme.
“They have ONE job,” said Paul Flynn of the umpires’ (alleged) failure to spot a non-penalty, a square ball and a ball over the line.
“Seriously, it’s a bad call, he’s standing right beside it, that’s his job,” said Philly McMahon back on the Beeb of the official located closest to ball-over-the-line-gate. “And I don’t want to sound like Roy Keane here.”
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In some senses, Kerry v Dublin is a little like the England v Argentina of the Gaelic games world, without an actual war. A rivalry that has spanned the ages and produced some encounters of the very epic kind.
RTÉ paid homage to this history in the opening to their coverage of the game, as did the BBC where a very, very hoarse Oisin McConville turned up for punditry duty despite it being a mere 20-ish hours since he led Wicklow to glory in the very same Croke Park – them coming from just the 13 points down against, well, Down.
His fellow panellists Philly and Killian Young have, Sarah Mulkerrins reminded us, 12 All-Ireland medals between them, but “we have a Tailteann Cup winner here”. “And these two boys can’t say that,” Oisin noted. They can’t either.
Back on RTÉ, Joanne Cantwell was telling us that David Clifford had scored 27 points from 28 shots in his 2026 All-Ireland games so far, pointing to a fairly drastic loss of form by his standards, but still, Tomás Ó Sé was confident that Kerry would prevail – by “five or six”, or even eight.
Half-time. All square. “How’s your eight points going now,” asked Flynn. “It’s not over yet,” Ó Sé warned. Nor was it. But you can be sure the whole country’s hearts went out to the Dubs when they found themselves on the wrong end of a decision or three.
May we briefly interject here with a small observation? Is there a more beautiful sight on earth than a jammed Croke Park on a sunny day? It’s glorious. Although we’ll never stop worrying about all those young Kerry supporters swinging their jerseys above their heads while An Poc ar Buile filled the north Dublin air. You could see the sunburn creeping up their arms to their shoulders in real time.
But what of the controversies? “This was a game of inches, and I think all of the inches were taken by Kerry today by some of the officiating,” said Flynn come full-time, the general consensus among the non-Kingdom pundits on the two channels being that it’s time to introduce a form of VAR to Gaelic football.
This could, of course, be a ‘careful what you wish for’ kind of moment, VAR’s effectiveness being somewhat questioned in the latest batch of World Cup games. It all kicked off, with the Egyptians, Norwegians and Swiss among those left severely peeved.
One decision that did appear to be correct was the overturning of a penalty awarded to England in their triumph over Norway, Djed Spence adjudged to have gone down a touch too easily when he draped his leg across Oscar Bobb, prompting him to plummet like he’d been struck by an Exocet missile.
“Spence has done well, he’s manufactured that,” ITV co-commentator-supreme Lee Dixon declared, “and I don’t care”. Okay. “That shouldn’t have been overturned,” he added, aghast when VAR objected to the manufacturing. We will, need it be said, expect Lee to be as magnanimous if an Argie manufactures something similar on Wednesday.
No matter, England are in the last four, so we have to salute them. No, come on now, we do. And we certainly cannot be as mean as CBS pundit Mike Grella. “It was a really poor performance,” he said of the Norway game. “But the impressive part is how poor you are and you’re able to get away with the win. It’s like having the world’s ugliest daughter and saying, ‘you’re beautiful baby!’” Okaaaay.
