“If Na Fianna can do what Cuala did last week, we’ll be happy,” quipped Gavin.
His words would be wrapped in a golden ball. And in a golden goal.
In the Donnycarney car park on Saturday evening, the FM104 Roadcaster had rolled in.
Recalling the days when Larry Gogan was the Pick of the Pops. And his 60-seconds, Just-a-Minute Quiz.
“Where is The Taj Mahal?”
“Opposite the Dental Hospital!”
The big RTÉ trucks were inside Parnell Park. For the meeting of two juggernauts in the Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin Senior 1 Hurling Championship final.
Na Fianna have 4,049 members. Kilmacud have 5,700.
Na Fianna’s Tom Ryan was at the gate. And in the programme.
Next month, he will be entering the Friends of Dublin Hurling Hall of Fame.
He has devoted a lifetime to the games. One of his many roles was with the Dublin minor hurling team of 1983.
They reached the All-Ireland final. They were captained by John Murphy. And there was a tall chap in the attack by the name of Niall Quinn.
Dónal Burke’s advice to juvenile players is to practise, practise, practise. The birds on the Mobhi Road would tell you Dónal practices what he preaches.
His favourite player is Tony Kelly. Fergal Whitely also values the extra hours in the rehearsal studio.
He admired the craft of Dotsy O’Callaghan. An elegant artist of the city.
The opening fixture of the double-bill was the Dublin Senior 2 Hurling Championship final. It was a Kilbarrack exhibition.
Brilliant Barróg overcame St Oliver Plunkett/Eoghan Ruadh.
The flags of the children welcomed Na Fianna and Crokes onto the stage. Aoife Maguire of Scoil Uí Chonaill sang the National Anthem. A Dublin and Leinster Scór champion.
The former GAA President, Larry McCarthy, was in the house. Diarmuid O’Flynn skipped up the steps.
For so long, he graced the pages of the Examiner. And here was a match that would have made music on the banks of his own Lovely Lee.
Or, indeed, on the hallowed sod of The Mardyke where Christy Ring sported and played.
Mick Seavers spoke in the programme about the huge interest in hurling from visitors.
“We have had tourists from all over the UK, Europe, US, Canada and Australasia. And we have had such positive feedback,” related the Chairman of the Dublin County Board.
From the first seconds, the yellow sliotar was dancing in the moonlight.
And the finale to a throbbing thriller had more suspense and mystery than who shot JR!
It was a chilly, clear night, but there were some raindrops. The RTÉ umbrellas went up in the corner outside the pavilion.
The RTÉ panel were positioned there. Damian Lawlor had two cultured teammates – Eoghan O’Donnell and Chris Crummey.
The cherry-picker camera was behind the goal. That wasn’t possible at last week’s gale-force football final.
The crowd wasn’t as big for the small ball, but it was a decent attendance just the same.
The kids went home with magic moments humming in their ears.
They got an early Halloween treat. Gavin King’s side-line cut was the first score of the game. It was a thing of beauty.
He was in front of the main stand on the right. His aim was like a Luke Littler dart as it sped over the bar at the church end.
Then there was the back-flick in full flight from Kilmacud’s Brian Hayes. A touch of the Joe Canning’s.
And a magnificent catch from Crokes’ Brian Sheehy as he climbed to the top of the Choir Balcony.
But the biggest lesson of all the young people left with was that of resilience.
The will to keep going. To walk on. Into the wind and the rain. Especially when the hill feels it’s getting steeper.
At one stage during the first half, Na Fianna were nine points down. “Crokes were playing so well. We just couldn’t get into the match,” reflected Glasnevin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin.
Yet, during that spell, Niall stood on the sideline, looking as relaxed as a fella waiting for a bus.
He made a gentle gesture with his two outstretched hands, encouraging his players to stick with it, to keep playing their game.
He knew there would be a fork in the road at Temple Hill. And they’d have the breeze in the second half.
And, in the weekend that was in it, he believed in Bill Shankly’s words that it would be a marathon and not a sprint.
And, sure enough, the tide began to change. Na Fianna had reduced the deficit to five points at half-time. “We managed to keep in touch, and that was important,” stated Niall
Midway through the second period, they were level. A monster strike from right half-back, Paul O’Dea, struck from Harte’s Corner.
The duel had now reached Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch. The tale that featured Niall Quinn’s old club, Arsenal.
Crokes pulled clear again. By three points. Another free from Colin Currie brought it back to two points.
But the tie had crept into additional time. It appeared that Kilmacud would prevail.
Then another Na Fianna attack. A mighty scramble. In the stand, the spectators were on their feet. On the pitch, the players were out on their feet.
A Na Fianna free. The last-chance saloon.
The Na Fianna ‘keeper, Jonathan Tracey, jogged out from his goal. Like Stephen Cluxton. On his way to Tesco.
The clock was in its third, and final minute, of additional time.
The new Dublin boss went onto the pitch to offer a word of wisdom.
Tracey’s shot was blocked. The rebound fell to O’Dea, who was steaming in on the right.
His drive ricocheted off a cluster of bodies and flashed across the goal to the far left-hand post, where Ciarán Stacey was waiting.
His volley to the net would have done justice to Roger Federer.
As Niall Ó Ceallacháin well knows, a hurling game can turn in the blink of an eye. Or in the flick of a wrist. Ciarán Stacey’s wrist.
Na Fianna jubilation. The champions retained their title. By a fingernail. By a point, 3-16 to 2-18. A crown they had waited so long for.
Their manager remarked that “there was nothing between the teams. A bounce of the ball”.
He was as composed as when his boot was on the other foot after Na Fianna lost a nine-point lead, and the 2021 Dublin final, to Crokes.
“We’ll learn from this,” he commented that day. And learn they did.
Here is a man who treats triumph and disaster just the same.
Up on the podium, Mick Seavers declared: “What a fantastic game of hurling.”
Fáilte Ireland can rest assured that the tourists will be back.
Parnell Park – the new Temple Bar.
