What did you expect? Brian Cody and Henry Shefflin are not melodramatic people but for the last two decades they have lit many Irish summer afternoons with their shared genius for transcendent hurling days.
For all of those years, they also shared the black and amber colours of their home county. Now, on an unseasonable Sunday in Salthill, they squared off in opposition corners. It started off at a hundred miles an hour and broke all kinds of limits in speed, skill, emotion and excitement from that point. Inevitably, they were deadlocked after 73 minutes of riveting hurling and the injury-time had officially lapsed by the time Conor Cooney addressed the free that ultimately turned the day maroon.
Strange for the St Thomas’ man to be tasked with such a strike in the knowledge that his manager is among the coldest free-takers in the history of the game. For Shefflin, the break in play was a chance to place order on an understandable series of emotions which have little to do with sport.
The Shefflin family is in the early stages of grieving the loss of Henry's younger brother Paul. Preparing an intercounty hurling team in those circumstances must be extraordinarily tough. And Shefflin had, in the 70th minute, sent TJ Brennan, boyfriend of the Galway camogie star Kate Moran who tragically died in a game earlier this month, onto the field of play. Pair the swirling emotions with the pressure of managing against Cody, the greatest influence on his hurling life and well: it was a few seconds that challenged even Shefflin's heightened self-possession.
“Yeah, it was for various reasons,” Shefflin said later.
“I suppose the last free there, there are moments to think about people. And I obviously think about my brother. It was nice to get TJ running on as well and obviously it has been a very hard time for TJ and the Moran family as well.
“Look, at the end of the day, it is a big game. But it’s sport. That’s all it is. It’s a game or hurling. But we love it. We love it for those moments that you don’t know what is going to happen. That is why we all play from a young age and it is a brilliant game. I am just glad that the occasion today lived up to the billing.”
It did. It was a huge cymbal-crash from the get go and time seemed to travel at a faster pace as the teams hurtled to the 1-24 to 3-17 conclusion. Cooney's free came just seconds after John Donnelly had finished a goal which Kilkenny concocted out of nothing: one of those Kilkenny goals that they score because, well, they have to.
Contentious
The free was tough: Paddy Deegan rose for the ball and actually got to it but he also clattered through the back of Tom Monaghan, the Galway midfielder who had a fabulous afternoon.
All afternoon, Cody and Shefflin were kept apart by the distance between the dugouts and although we rubber-necked, all of us, for any exchange between the pair, none came until the final whistle. What is destined to become one the GAA’s more famous handshakes was, on the surface level, a difficult read. No smiles. Shefflin looked uncomfortable. Cody’s expression was set in stone. But then, he was absorbing the facts of what was a tough defeat and afterwards he declined the invitation to analyse the post-match exchange.
“I have no idea what’s tense about anything to do with anybody else, because whenever we play a match as long as I’m involved with it, it’s got absolutely nothing to do with who’s in charge of any team. It’s got everything to do with who is on the pitch. The Kilkenny players were out there representing Kilkenny today, and I’d be very happy with the way they represented Kilkenny.”
Shefflin, too, made light of the reunion.
“Well I didn’t notice any tension. I shook hands. For me there was a lot of different emotions. But no, look, for me, the handshake happened. I didn’t see anything in it.”
The championship statistics will show that this was a round-robin game. But if it felt like a standalone occasion, that’s because it was. Hurling history and one of the most absorbing sports relationships Irish society has seen came together. It was, as Shefflin said, just a game of hurling. But the tricky stuff of time and old accomplishment – and future ambition – was at play as well. No wonder we couldn’t keep our eyes off ’em.
