

I have a habit of saying nothing about referees. “Ah Marty, please! Give me a break, will you? The referee? We are supposed to say nothing about referees. “In terms of the referee, were you pleased overall? I’m sure you are now since you have won the All-Ireland, but did you think he left a lot go?” Did you check all the other frees as well to see if they were dodgy as well? Maybe you should, maybe you should.” “Well, I wasn’t too sure, but it just seemed a little bit dodgy in the replay.” Did you think yourself it was a penalty, Marty?” “If you were to start wondering about all the frees in the course of a game, you’d have a fairly busy time. “Well, Diarmuid Kirwan certainly gave a penalty.” He laughed. “And was it a penalty, Brian, do you think?” He talked too about Henry standing up and taking what he described as the toughest penalty he ever had to face. and you can’t do it with just skill, you can’t do it with a decent panel, if you don’t have the thing that binds the whole thing together. It’s difficult to win one, to win two, madness to win three, but to try to come back to do it again should be impossible really.

Our spirit was tested to its limits there but came shining through. “The team is built on spirit, and spirit brings you just anywhere you want to go really. Brian talked about how the spirit of the team came through when the going got tough.

On this occasion Tadhg, with his big headphones and crackling walkie-talkie, went off to find Brian Cody and ask him to join us in the newly built but far-from-complete TV interview rooms. I’ve already mentioned the floor manager, the late Tadhg de Brún, who was always by my side on the sideline. In 2009 the Liam MacCarthy Cup was presented to the winning captain on the steps of the Hogan Stand.
