By Cian O'Connell
It ended with the sidelines animated and the tension sky high, but Joe Canning stayed cool. Under crushing pressure the prolific Portumna forward converted the last gasp free to force a replay.
Ultimately that is what mattered most at the end of a compelling contest. Kilkenny and Galway both lived to fight another day. Survival was most certainly the name of the game at the end of an edgy encounter at GAA headquarters.
For the first time since 1959 an All Ireland Hurling Final finished level. Amazingly there would be subsequent September draws in 2013 and 2014, but this stalemate meant Barry Kelly’s full whistle time was greeted with an air of disbelief.
The closing moments had been so chaotic. Kilkenny edged ahead when Henry Shefflin rifled a penalty over the bar following a James Skehill foul on Eoin Larkin.
“I shrugged my shoulders and said do whatever you think yourself, to be honest about it,” Brian Cody remarked afterwards.
“You can’t inspire Henry Shefflin over what to do with a penalty. He decides that himself. If he scored, he would have been a genius. If he missed, he would have been a lunatic. But we got a score, it was a vital score.”
Moments later Iarla Tannian whipped on a loose sliotar under the Hogan Stand, Davy Glennon gathered possession and was deemed to have been fouled by Jackie Tyrrell.
Cody and Galway manager Anthony Cunningham exchanged words, the intensity and noise went up a level.
“Look, there were 81,000 people there and they were roaring and fairly excited and surely to God the two managers of each team would be entitled to be fairly excited and not agree with everything as well,” Cody commented.
“If that is a strange thing to see, then you haven’t been at too many hurling matches. It happens every weekend at club matches. Bit of excitement. No big deal. Shook hands at the end. Best of luck, Anthony, see ya in three weeks’ time.”
Brian Cody and Anthony Cunningham during the tense closing stages of the drawn 2012 All Ireland SHC Final at Croke Park.
“I saw it in a split-second. This game – we don’t have any excuses. We weren’t robbed in this game by a long shot.
“I am sure every Kilkenny person out there thought it wasn’t a free and every Galway person thought it was. The only thing that matters is that Barry Kelly thought it was a free.”
Canning supplied the grace note with trademark aplomb. “Joe composed himself, took his time over the ball, and stroked it beautifully over the bar,” Galway selector Mattie Kenny remarked.
“Who better can you have standing over the ball in that pressure situation than Joe Canning to deliver that final score for us?”
A replay would be required.
Early on the signs had been encouraging for Galway, boosted by Canning’s first half goal. The daring Leinster Final win of 2012 when Kilkenny were stunned wasn’t a flash in the pan.
Kilkenny, though, prompted by Shefflin’s willingness found a way back into the reckoning. “They had turned the screw a bit,” Cunningham admitted.
“They were matching what we are doing in the first half. They upped their intensity. Kilkenny are Kilkenny. They play their system. They’ve deadly forwards and their defenders’ tackling rate is very high. It was nothing new for us with how Kilkenny came out there.”
Shefflin continued to supply scores and a source of inspiration for Kilkenny. “To play so well in September at 33 years of age brought enormous satisfaction,” the Ballyhale Shamrocks clubman later acknowledged. “Particularly after three years of constant rehab.
“The inner belief that surged through me since I held my own in the 1999 All-Ireland final had started to wane because I couldn’t get the body to follow my every command.
Joe Canning converted a last gasp free to force a draw in the 2012 All Ireland SHC Final.
“I needed some time with Brother Damien Brennan to get the head right. For me it wasn’t about chasing Noel Skehan’s nine All-Ireland medals, but everyone else was on about it. You can’t avoid the talk. The stress of 2010 ruined my sleep patterns.”
When Canning stood over the last gasp free Shefflin simply tried to make sense of it all. “People might find this hard to believe, but I don’t think it was fair that he might go down in history as the man whose miss had got us there.
“Don’t get me wrong. Given my choice at that moment, I wanted the ball waved wide. But when the Galway roar erupted, part of me was relieved for Joe. Relieved that history wouldn’t identify him as some kind of fall guy.”
With parity prevailing it was unfamiliar territory for Cody. “Sure it beats losing,” Cody reflected.
“You couldn’t be satisfied with not winning. But certainly we’d be very, very dissatisfied with losing. “It just means we start all over again. It doesn’t really matter right now, dissatisfied or not. That’s the way it panned out. Now we start planning ahead. It’s only three weeks. It will arrive.
“I’ve won some, lost some, but never drawn one. But any time you’re told you’re in an All-Ireland final in three weeks’ time you’d be excited. If it was six months away you’d still be excited. It will change the scenario for club fixtures, and that’s serious. But it’s so seldom you get a draw in the All-Ireland final, and it is a strange feeling, for both teams, I’m sure. Very unusual.”
Cody wasn’t getting too excited. Within seconds of Canning’s leveller his thoughts switched to the next instalment.
“It was a decent second-half performance by us, after a first half in which Galway were definitely the better team,” Cody replied.
“At least we put ourselves in a position where we were competitive in the second half. And I think the players performed at a very decent level, their intent, and you couldn’t ask more that than. I’m sure everybody got great value for money out there, and will look forward to the replay.”
Valuable lessons were learned by Kilkenny. Walter Walsh was summoned for action the next day out and the Liam MacCarthy Cup remained with the striped team.
