GOLDEN CHANCE MISSED

IMAGINE Limerick goalkeeper Nicky Quaid having a Bruce Grobbelaar moment. Coming over all wobblykneed as Peter Duggan prepared to lift and strike a penalty.

Recreating the iconic spaghetti legs moment from Liverpool’s 1984 European Cup title shootout against Roma for a hurling audience would be pure theatre.

Instead, after 100-plus minutes of unimaginable drama between Limerick and Clare at the Gaelic Grounds, the first National League free-taking shoot-out from the 65-metre line, felt strangely bloodless.

There is something unsatisfactory about the free-taking contest that is gnawing away at managers, players and supporters.

‘We’re just a little bit disappointed with the way the whole thing finished up,’ said Clare joint manager Gerry O’Connor.

Limerick manager John Kiely described the novel ending, after a second bout of extra time couldn’t separate the sides in a truly epic quarter-final, as ‘a crazy event’ and added: ‘It’s drama but not the drama that you want. It’s certainly not the way any person involved in hurling wants to see a match finish, taking 65s like that.’

None of the various stakeholders have really taken to it.

Why? Because there is something artificial about it all. It doesn’t exist outside itself, as an actual part of the game. In a match situation, a 65-metre free is only awarded when the ball goes out after a last touch from an opposition player. Any player standing over one has an array of players in front of him, and a goalkeeper on the line.

Not an empty field and an empty goal.

Ultimately, it is a hollow, manmade artifice. There is nothing in it that connects to the crowd, it doesn’t stir the soul.

Now it is hugely important that the GAA has established the principal of inter-county games being finished ‘on the day’, to give more certainty to the club calendar which suffers the greatest disruption due to any unscheduled replays.

And this is a creative solution to that problem.

But there is a better, simpler one and it is penalties.

Rather than just a player being cast as a villain of the piece by missing — such as Clare’s Niall Deasy who ended a run of 12 converted frees — it’s often as much about the goalkeeper making a hero of himself.

Soccer has a long and storied tradition of penalty drama. Often it is not just part of the story but becomes the story, from Grobbelaar’s (pictured) eccentrics to David O’Leary recasting himself as an iconic goalscorer for Ireland in Italia ’90.

With the change in hurling to a one-versus-one approach with the ball being struck from outside the 20-metre line, it’s made for drama and excitement, made for the fan in the ground and the viewer at home.

Same in Gaelic football. Anyone at Páirc Tailteann in January for the first football version — the O’Byrne Cup semi-final between Meath and Longford being decided by 45metre frees — also spoke of it being a strangely soulless experience, for all the novelty.

A ‘golden score’ in hurling would only likely end up as a ‘golden contentious free’, given the ability of players now to score from such long range.

A simple system to mimic soccer would be a better alternative, where nominated five players square off before sudden death in the event of it being tied. Instead of the GAA version where the same five players rotate around again, Deasy suffering the unkindest cut after showing plenty of bottle in pointing the first time around. The fact that it reached 6-6 without a player missing shows how easy it is for players to score a 65-metre free with modern, lighter sliotars.

One example? Peter Duggan sent over a monster free on the hour mark, from 10 metres inside his own 65, into the breeze.

When Limerick’s Colin Ryan etched out his own footnote in history by firing over the winner in the shoot-out, the reaction from the players gathered around the middle of the field was subdued. The TG4 cameras caught the designated takers sharing a joke in between strikes, showing how surreal it all was. A contest that provided four goals and 54 points deserves to be remembered for much more. Peter Duggan broke the 20-point mark for scores when his two shootout frees were added to a remarkable 19point haul. Tony Kelly showed the sort of form that made a bit of history by scooping Player and Young Player of the Year in 2013, hitting six points from a variety of angles on the run.

Cian Lynch performed his trademark bounce pick-up. Podge Collins reminded us of his AllStar quality, flicking the sliotar up into hand via his boot. Aaron Gillane’s one-handed flick to the net was class. Colin Ryan’s beautifully judged sideline cut forced extra time. Then followed Diarmuid Byrne’s free through a thicket of bodies to force a second stretch.

And yet the talk afterwards was how the new shoot-out would be received if a team was knocked out of the Championship in such a manner. Because that is a distinct possibility. But only in football in relation to the qualifiers after a decision at Special Congress and only in relation to the preliminary quarter-final stage in hurling.

Which means that if teams are level after two separate bouts of extra time, the first lasting 10 minutes a side, the second lasting five minutes a side, a free-taking competition will decide the winner. Just like the Gaelic Grounds. And just like the Walsh Cup hurling final at Nowlan Park between Wexford and Kilkenny. And just like the O’Byrne Cup semi-final.

If the Super Bowl can finish on the same day, then so can a National League quarter-final. Or a Championship qualifier for that matter.

Penalties though, rather than a bloodless free-taking exercise, might just offer a better way.

“None of the

stakeholders have really

taken to it”