Cappataggle 1-15

St. Thomas’ 0-15

By Kevin Egan at Kenny Park

WHEN Cappataggle supporters spilled onto Kenny Park to hail their heroes at the sound of Liam Gordon’s final whistle, it would have been easy to break out the cliché that nothing had been won yet.

It would have been easy, and it would have been wrong; because even if there was no silverware, it was easy to understand the elation, the ecstasy, even the tear or two that rolled down the wrinkled cheeks of a few supporters who have the experience to understand just how significant a day last Saturday was to their beloved club.

Sure, the fact that they just dethroned the All-Ireland champions was a factor. But much more significant was the fact that for the first time in the club’s history, Cappataggle will be part of the showpiece day on the Galway hurling calendar. To the country at large, the demise of the champions was the story. To those that know Galway hurling, this was all about the winners.

The bookmaking fraternity didn’t wait long to mark out Loughrea as the three-point favourites for the decider on Sunday week and it’s impossible to argue with that assessment. Aspects such as handling the big occasion, playing a game suited to increasingly wintry conditions, even negotiating their way through inevitable fallow periods in front of the posts, all of these are aspects where the men in sash jerseys will feel that they have an edge.

But, and our apologies to Leonard Cohen as we say this, even if it all goes wrong, Cappy will stand before the Lord of Song, with nothing on their tongue but Halleluiah. Because right now, either they are destined to do something special and historic, or else they will be part of a magical day, and will have paved the way for other club teams that will come after them.

So let’s park the poetry, and turn to the more prosaic story of how a hurling match was won, and the different threads that were woven together into a magnificent tapestry.

The lazy analysis will say that St. Thomas’ were complacent, but nothing about the hurling of the South Galway club backs that up. Disrespect of the opposition is not part of their make-up, though it is probably fair to say that unlike the quarter-final against Turloughmore where they were always likely to revel in giving the lie to the premature obituaries that were written for them, there was never going to be any great ‘cause’ in a game against Cappataggle.

Pictured: Cappataggle’s Michael Garvey clearing his lines against Conor Cooney of St Thomas’ during Saturday’s Senior Hurling Semi-Final at Kenny Park. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.