Has your All Ireland semi final treachery been forgiven yet?
Had a great chat with the uncle today. He was buzzing. Had tickets for him but he just isnāt able for it anymore.
Weāll worry about the Dublin/Tipp dilemma some other day. Would be a nice problem to have.
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Being a great player is not a USP for being a pundit. Gooch and Lee Keegan and Michael Murphy and Conor McManus are contemporary Gaelic football examples.
In hurling punditry you can be an incisive straight man with gravitas (Duignan, Cummins, Hogan), an āIām very successful in lifeā business conference type speaker (Sheedy) or you can be a passion merchant (Mullane, Tommy Walsh, Griffin, Daly, Loughnane), or a lovable piece of furniture (Cyril), or a slightly edgy maverick (Bubbles), or a headbanger with the potential for clickbait fodder soundbytes (Cusack and some of the passion merchants), or some combination of these. Shane Dowling tried to pioneer the buffoon super fan genre of pundit but that didnāt work.
Hurling has never really had a proper example of the WUM genre of pundit.
Canning and Tyrell donāt really have any of these niches ticked. But theyāre still better than Shefflin both in terms of the visual aspect and in terms of the accent and speaking aspect. Thereās just an unmistakable bang of Cora Staunton off Henry. Television is a brutal business.
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Ger Loughnane was a great wum in his Star column and constantly winding up Davy but was more of an all sort on the Sunday Game. I think he was consistently taking snigs at Galway too for a few years after he left unceremoniously.
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Thereās a genre of gruff old school hurling man newspaper pundit mainly occupied by Tom Ryan. Did Babs Keating ever have a column? I never read Gerās columns because I never bought the Star.
Thereās a genre of gruff hurling writer who wants to be Dylan Thomas occupied by Kevin Cashman and I think by somebody else.
Thereās also the Sun Tzu devotee genre.
And thereās the Sunday Miscellany genre.
Davy should give up the coaching and go into punditry full time. He is the hurling WUM in waiting, or more likely the WUMmed. Whatever he would be there would be fireworks.
I had to go back and watch the second half there myself out of pure curiosity.
While no doubt rocked by the first goal, Barrett should steady the ship with his immediate pointed response, Corkās first score of the half. 1-17 to 1-18. Game on. Over the next five minutes though, absolute panic sets in. This sequence is interspersed with multiple shots of Cork fans in the crowd watching on through increasing levels of horror and despair, some look genuinely sick:
Harnedyās first shot since his introduction sails wide
A Niall OāLeary brickflick is intercepted by Connors and laid off to John McGrath who taps it over with minimum fuss.
Brian Hayes hits a speculative effort from the Cusack side wide.
The first shot of the Cork management team conclave is shown.
A Cork Maor CamƔn is booked.
Darragh āRomain Teuletā McCarthy sends over a free from the middle of the park to extend Tippās lead to three.
Darragh Fitzgibbon bursts down the left flank but overhits a ball across the goals harmlessly to the other wing.
PENALTY. RED CARD. GOAL. RED ROVER.
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Just watched the second half there as well. Itās one of the most remarkable 39 minutes of sport and sports phycology youāre ever likely to see.
To be fair to Cork, the catalyst for a lot of this was John McGraths first goal. Darragh Fitz (i think) had a shot 30 seconds beforehand. Should be a routine score at this level. Instead it hits the post, and it looks like it somehow hits the far post as well. But could be wrong on that. Cork were asleep to the break. 25 seconds later Collins makes a calamitous mistake and McGrath pounces.
On another day, that ball goes over the Tipp crossbar, and it probably settles Cork into the half. Instead more mayhem reigned. And Cork crumbled.
He has to.
Just watching it back there again. You could on second viewing only notice the jog of them coming back out for second half. Cantering is all.
No way are you sauntering back onto the field of an All Ireland against Tipp.
How he didnāt try and work the short puck out, get it through the lines and draw tipp out. Anything.
They absolutely took Tipp for granted and the Barrett goal only further induced their self confidence.
Tipp were ravenous in the tackle throughout the field in the second half but were also sloppy in defence at times but Cork couldnāt punish anything.
Daragh McCarthy chasing Fitzgibbon & Joyce like a demented terrier in final 5 mins just showed the difference in mentality that Cahill & Ryan could imprint in their charges.
He lost it with OāMara for driving a bad wide in first half, went full buck ape on the line.
Caroline Currid can name her price in Limerick or cork next year
Jesus I would have thought you would have recalled Babs having a piece for The Sunday Times back in the early noughties. He might have had a column in a tabloid also after that
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The eye rolling gestures of the young blonde lady in the Cork jersey sitting behind the Cork management team in the Hogan Stand as Eoin Downey makes his way off are priceless. She looks like sheās just been given the wrong perfume as a birthday present, the one she specifically told her boyfriend NOT to get. Itās the face of utter entitlement having just met with a rude life lesson. Thatās a self consciously sexist comment but Iām going with it anyway.
A few seconds later in a shot of Baseball Cap Fella giving instructions to Damien Cahalane just before Cahalane comes on, thereās a chap in the front row with a biro pen in his mouth. He takes the biro pen out and suppresses a laugh, and looks at Baseball Cap Guy giving the panicked instructions to Cahalane, and shakes his head while smiling with that bemused āwhat the fuck?ā look before pointing to his head as if to say ātheir heads are friedā. Itās Shane OāDonnell.
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I canāt remember which goal it was but the camera cuts to some Tipperary women celebrating on the Hill (I think) & thereās a Cork lass behind them giving them filthy looks. Proper if looks could kill stuff.
That one was half understandable at the time. The one near the end was funnier with the game well past won
Well spotted. OāDonnell is having a good laugh at what he was seeing.
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He was chuckling away like a mate witnessing his best friend getting eaten by their mother. 
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How did the hurling show go in drom
That first goal. Its all unfolding in front of you but then you have a chance and miss itā¦all of a sudden Morris has it 50 or so from your goal and he is about to narrow it to one and make it very edgyā¦then Collins loses his head and the Cork backs are still in the dressing room. Now its unravelling
Heās not a good shooter outside 20 yards
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