Sporting geniuses completely altered the course of final

TWENTY-FIVE minutes of relatively comfortable Oulart domination had elapsed on Sunday when two sporting geniuses (one young and one not so young) put their minds together to completely alter the course of the 2017 county final.

Rory O’Connor’s speed of thought further underlines the special talent that lies therein, and if you were to choose one man to provide a finish, the brilliant Ciarán Lyng was the ideal candidate.

Quite simply, it was a game-changer and in one instant gave a wonderful young Martin’s team the confidence to express themselves for the remainder of the game, outscoring the men in red and black by one goal and twelve points to just four points thereafter.

I felt before the game that the Martin’s legs were stronger, but their domination of the second-half took everybody a little by surprise and sent a signal that we could be seeing a lot more of the same maroon hurricane within our boundaries over the next number of years.

They are without doubt the most talented hurling team around, and Tomás Codd must take huge credit in ensuring the collective delivered the goods in 2017. I hope we are not seeing the rise of another Cody for everybody else’s sake. In fairness to Martin Dempsey and Frank Flannery’s men, it was a bitter pill to go in two points down at half-time having been the superior outfit.

At this point my Buffers Alley colleagues and myself were invited onto the pitch to celebrate our ’91 and ’92 victories, and it was remarkable the amount of people (especially ladies) who commented that I was very young looking to be a part of that team. I will confirm that I was in my very early teens when winning those finals.

My pre-match belief that this would be the Martin’s day was stronger than ever as I left the field to return to the press box.

Before moving on I must comment on unsung heroes. Oulart’s ploy of long ball to Garrett Sinnott and Martin Og Storey was unsettling the maroon rearguard for a period, culminating in a sixth-minute Sinnott goal. However, from this point on the St. Martin’s full-back line showed incredible strength of character to redress the situation and their domination was one of the determining factors in the ease of victory.

Willie Devereux, Conor Firman and Patrick O’Connor were outstanding, with O’Connor in particular pushing the inspirational Daithí Waters hard for man of the match.

In truth the Martin’s had heroes all over with Paudie Kelly, Harry O’Connor and Mark Maloney dominating, and up front when the shackles went off their forwards were virtually unstoppable. Special mention here must go to Joe Coleman who had an instant and maintained impact when introduced, while Jake Firman, Rory and young Lyng were all discussed when deciding the most outstanding player.

When all is said and done however, I don’t think anyone could dispute that the towering Waters had few equals on the day. When Joe O’Connor brilliantly finished near the end one could see any remaining tension disappear from the sideline, but truth was the south county men were well in control at this point.

Focus will inevitably shift to the Oulart men and where they go from here. They have over the last number of years been incredible servants to their parish jersey and have seen success that may never be repeated by any club. Keith Rossiter (probably one of our greatest-ever full-backs), Eoin Moore, Shaun Murphy David Redmond, Des Mythen, Rory Jacob, Garrett Sinnott, Conor O’Leary and Nicky Kirwan have been, and in some cases still are, tremendous servants to the purple and gold, never refusing the call, and they owe nothing to Wexford hurling.

Some may think Sunday is the end of an era but I’m not so sure. These men have the character to come back and challenge strongly again and have picked themselves up before. They’ll still be one of the unwanted draws come quarter-final time next year.

For now though it’s all about the Martin’s and will they have the same enduring quality that Oulart have shown? They have the will and the talent but only time will tell.