THIS is one of those articles where every reader will have their own view.
I have selected the following ten matches which, when I checked against other lists, would be close enough.
I am also ignoring the game which lives at the front of my mind, the drawn 1966 Carlow senior football final between Tullow and my own club Kildavin. Refereed by the late Eamon Moules of Aughrim who, despite the tough tackling and hard hitting, when a player was slow to pick himself off the ground, Moules would comment as he passed by: “Get up to f***, this is a man’s game”.
The game kept flowing and frees were few. The match ended 1-6 each. Tullow had picked up a few injuries and informed the county board they were unable to field a team for the replay. Kildavin were duly awarded the title, which was the first in their history.
So to the main business … and here, in no particular order, are my ten best games in what we will call the modern era.
No 1: The 1977 All-Ireland semi-final between Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park on 21 August. This is still regarded by most observers as the greatest game of all time. It followed the Kevin Heffernan-trained/Tony Hanahoe-captained Dublin success over a surprised Kerry in the previous year’s final, after which Heffernan resigned. So Hanahoe doubled up as manager and captain for the ’77 campaign. On 17 April that year, Kerry beat Dublin 1-8 to 1-6 in the National League final and headed into the championship semi as warm favourites. But Dublin had not beaten Kerry in the All-Ireland in consecutive seasons for 50 years. Sure enough, Kerry had the better of the first half – a Seán Walsh goal giving them a 1-6 to 0-6 lead; Anton O’Toole kicking some exquisite points to keep Dublin in touch. With Brian Mullins taking charge at midfield for Dublin, goals from John McCarthy, David Hickey and a cracker from Bernard Brogan gave the Dubs victory by 3-12 to 1-13. The previous Sunday, in another exciting game (largely overlooked because of the Dublin-Kerry encounter) saw Armagh and Roscommon play out a 3-9 to 2-12 draw, with Armagh winning the replay in another cracker by 0-15 to 0-14. In the final, Dublin beat the Orchard County by 5-12 to 3-6. This was the first all-ticket game ever played in Croke Park.
No 2: Back a year, to one of the great Munster finals. This was a replay, as Kerry and Cork had drawn 0-10 apiece when they played the first match. Did you know that Cork did not always wear red and white (also called the blood and bandage)? Their original colours were a blue jersey with a saffron ‘C’ on the chest, white shorts and blue socks. This kit was worn from 1888 to 1919. The blue returned for the 1957 All-Ireland loss to Louth because of a colour clash – the same year that Cork played Dublin in the All-Ireland hurling final. The week of the game, British soldiers raided Cork county board offices and took away all of the blue jerseys. Cork borrowed the red and white of the now defunct Fr O’Leary club and duly won the game. It was then decided to retain the red and white. Back to the replay at Pairc Uí Chaoimh. This was an exciting and controversial game, which went to extra time. Kerry were on top early on and Mickey O’Sullivan lashed in a great goal. Then Dennis Barrett sent in a high ball, which was punched to the Kerry net by Seamus Coughlan. Pat Spillane and Seán Walsh added goals for Kerry, the latter being hotly disputed as it seemed to have been taken off the line and played out by the Cork defence. However, the umpire said that it had crossed the line and the goal was awarded. Meanwhile, Jimmy Barry Murphy gathered what can only be described as a shocking kick-out from Kerry goalie Paudie O’Mahony and buried it in the back of the Kerry net. More misery was heaped on Cork when what looked a good fisted goal from Seán Murphy was disallowed just coming up to full-time. Many of the attendance knew it was a draw, while many thought Cork had won by two points. But the official scoreline stood at 2-16 to 3-13. Extra time gave Kerry the victory by 3-20 to 2-19.
No 3: Was it one of the best or was it the unexpected nature of how the game unfolded that elevated the 1982 All-Ireland final to most people’s top ten? No-one can deny this was an exciting final, with a knockout sting in the tail. On 16 September at Croke Park, Kerry were hot favourites as they chased five titles in a row against Offaly, a feat no county had achieved. The previous year, the Kingdom had an easy enough victory by seven points over the same opposition. But this was a different ball game, with never more than a couple of points between the teams – Offaly ’keeper Martin Furlong saving a Mikey Sheehy penalty. With just two minutes remaining, Kerry led by three points. Matt Connor pointed a close-in free. Now the margin was two, and then Offaly full-back Liam Connor collected the ball just inside the Kerry half. He hopped it once and lobbed a high ball to the left of the Kerry goal. It was fielded by substitute Seamus Darby, who pivoted left and buried an unstoppable left-footed shot into the top of the Kerry net to give the Faithful County victory by a point.
No 4: This is not just one match – it is the epic four-game saga played out in the 1991 Leinster championship first round between Meath and Dublin. You could pick any of the games – they were all thrillers. The first was played on 2 June, and a late PJ Gillick point gave Meath the draw at 1-12 each. Seven days later, it was Dublin’s turn to come back from the dead to draw 1-11 after extra time. And on 23 June, they had to come back once more to take the match to a fourth game, again after extra time – Meath 1-14, Dublin 2-11. The final chapter was played on 6 July. Dublin led 0-15 to 1-9. With 50 seconds remaining, a great Meath move saw wing-back Kevin Foley lash the ball to the Dublin net to level the scores. Meath then went ahead with a David Beggy point before Jack Sheedy missed a long-range Dublin free with the final kick of the game. Meath won by 2-10 to 0-15.
No 5: The Leinster semi-final between Meath and Kildare in 1997 was another classic that took three games to resolve. The first encounter finished on the scoreline Meath0-12, Kildare 1-9. The replay was the shining light of the three encounters – another draw – with Kildare scoring 3-17 to Meath’s 2-20. Meath eventually won the tie at the third attempt by 1-12 to 1-10.
No 6: The Leinster final of 2009 was another cracker. Fourteen-man Dublin (centre-half-back Ger Brennan was sent off in the 19th minute for punching Ken Donnelly), inspired by full-forward Bernard Brogan, who kicked his team’s last five points in a man-of-the-match performance, giving them victory over Kildare by 2-15 to 0-18 after the Lilywhites had led by a point at half-time. Two of Brogan’s points came from rather dubious frees, but you can’t take that away from his performance.
No 7: Back to 2006 and Mayo’s one-point (1-16 to 2-12) victory over Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final on 28 August – the same margin as they had at half-time. Ciaran McDonald kicked a marvellous left-footed point from close to the left sideline two minutes from time. The cheeky Mayo ploy to warm up at the holy grail of the Dubs, Hill 16, did not go down well at all with either the Dublin team or their supporters, but who said Dublin have a divine right to the Hill?
No 8: The Ulster first round championship game of 1994 pitted Down against Ulster and All-Ireland champions Derry in a game of class remembered by many who were used to watching dour Ulster football. It was graced by an outstanding point from James McCartan, and the final score was 1-13 to 1-12.
No 9: Staying in Ulster, and the senior championship. Tyrone v Armagh 2002. It went to a replay, which the latter won by 2-13 to 0-16 in a good match, but it is the drawn game on 19 May at Clones that is considered the classic, where it was 0-6 each at the break and 1-12 apiece at the finish.
No 10: For sheer local pride, the drawn game (3-6 to 1-12) between Carlow’s Éire Óg and O’Donovan Rossa of Cork in the 1993 All-Ireland club final on 17 March in Croke Park … those were the days!
We will look at hurling in a few weeks’ time.