66 MINS: Gerry Carroll launches a ball towards Johnny Mooney in front of goal. Mooney initially goes for the ball, but stops himself from jumping at the last second. Paudie Lynch jumps, and bounces off Mooney. Another free to Offaly, 14 yards out. Lynch shakes his head. Ger O’Keeffe has a word with the referee. Meanwhile, Matt Connor strokes over another free. Kerry 0-17 Offaly 0-14.
John Egan: We never put pressure on referees. I won’t say we were cheated, you’d hate to feel you were. But I felt the referee didn’t give us an even break, especially at crucial stages. The game seemed to be running out to a conclusion and maybe the referee thought in his heart he was going to even it up a little bit. But they got two very dubious frees which brought them back into it. I think he didn’t believe when he gave the two frees that they’d have an impact. I don’t think they were right decisions. I think he was caught himself. It’s hard for me to say but I was captain of that team. It’s only my opinion, but I have to be honest. I thought we were robbed.
PJ McGrath: I had no doubts about those frees. To me, they were pretty clear.
68 MINS: Richie Connor grabs a line ball on Kerry’s 45 metre line with Kerry defenders funnelling back all round him. He passes to Liam Currams, who has time to pause 30 metres from goal. He stands and looks around. He passes the ball to Sean Lowry. Tom Spillane, Tim Kennelly and Pat Spillane converge on him. Tom Spillane touches Lowry’s back with his hand and Lowry falls to the ground 13 metres out. Tom Spillane puts his hands on his head. Everyone assumes Matt Connor will shoot for goal, but instead he taps the ball over the bar. Kerry 0-17 Offaly 0-15. Kerry head back downfield again.
Sean Lowry: Mikey Sheehy had the ball coming out [of defence]. There was Mikey Sheehy, Pat Spillane and Sean Walsh in a line coming at the Offaly defence. The Bomber was behind me with his hands up, looking for the ball. Mikey Sheehy made a fatal mistake. He tried to kick it to him. I just got in front of The Bomber, got a hand to it, and passed it out to Pat Fitzgerald.
Mikey Sheehy: I felt I did a couple of stupid things. I got the ball and I just kicked it. I didn’t have the brains to hold it and look for some fella.
Mick O’Dwyer (from his biography, 1990): We had four men going forward and if I had the choice to delegate responsibility to one man who would take us out of trouble, I would have picked Sheehy.
Sean Lowry: Then The Bomber was coming like a train at Pat Fitzgerald.
Pat Fitzgerald: The Bomber jumped on me. It was a rugby tackle. I never saw him coming. He buried me into the ground with the ball underneath me on my stomach. I was sickened. Winded.
Eoin Liston: Trying to delay time, I threw the ball back under my legs. I was intent on stopping the quick free.
Pat Fitzgerald: I got up, struggling, and Sean Lowry threw the ball back as though to say: kick it. Everyone went up the field, and I’m thinking: What am I going to do with this? I wasn’t able to kick it. I looked and Richie was 14 yards away. So I chipped it to him. I wouldn’t have been able to kick it in, I was so knackered. I just chipped it to Richie Connor because it was convenient.
Eoin Liston: Next thing I saw my man [Liam O’Connor] shoot to the left. He soloed a few times and lobbed in the high ball.
Liam O’Connor: I could say it was a pinpoint pass, but it was just a question of getting it up and into the forwards. That was when the stamina stood to us, that you were up there and able to take a ball. We weren’t going to lose because of fitness.
69 MINS: Having taken the pass from Richie Connor, Liam O’Connor takes a few strides forward and launches a huge kick towards the Kerry goal. It begins to drop short of the small square, a few yards to the left of the goal, near the point where the corner of the large parallelogram and the 13 metre line meet. Standing there are Tommy Doyle and Seamus Darby.
Seamus Darby: I got caught behind Tommy Doyle. Tommy is a lot bigger man than I am, and I said to myself: I’m in trouble here. But Tommy just went that little too far out under the ball and I caught it at the last minute.
Johnny Mooney: Darby and me went to the same school. He’s only a small man, but he had two great feet in an era when you had to be able to kick with both feet. The moment he had it in his hand, I knew he’d go for it. I wasn’t sure when it was up there that he’d be able to catch it, but he did.
Ger O’Keeffe: I was outside Tommy Doyle. I couldn’t get to that position. It was all happening behind me. I saw Tommy jumping for the ball, Seamus Darby nudging him and the ball going over Tommy’s head, yer man picking it and just throwing a swipe at it. Let God direct it. He had no idea where it was going.
Seamus Darby: I held Tommy with my hip and as I turned I knocked him away. I thought Charlie Nelligan was nearer to me. I thought I just had to put it over his head and under the bar, but I didn’t realise Charlie was only a yard off his line. If you asked me to do it again I wouldn’t have done it.
Tommy Doyle (from Kingdom Come, by Eoghan Corry, 1989): I was thinking like a wing-back, not a corner-back. The man in front of the square is much more dangerous than a man 40 yards out. Paudie Lynch and Charlie Nelligan were roaring at me: ‘Come back! Come back!’ I was caught out of position at the end. It was coming straight at me. My face was to it, preparing to catch. In the end, I didn’t go for it. It skimmed off the top of my fingers. Blast it, I said.
Padraic Dunne: I was around the middle. I was looking with my mouth open. I was right behind him. I thought he shot for a point. He just let fly. Just caught it right.
Seamus Darby: I play golf badly, but the odd time you would hit a perfect shot, you don’t even feel it in your hands. It was the same with that goal. I just didn’t feel it. I knew it was good. When I saw it hitting the net, I knew it was even better.
Jack O’Shea: I was within inches of catching the ball. I was getting back, but it went over my fingers. I could feel the wind of the ball going by. Another fraction, and I’d have deflected it. He mis-hit the ball. He hit it with his shin. When you hit a ball like that, it dips.
John O’Keeffe: I was maybe seven or eight yards away and possibly could’ve gone, but Matt was at my side. Lurking. I’ve had nightmares about that. I’ve often thought, damn it, there was so much to win. I had absolutely no sense he was going to score a goal. It was the furthest thing from my mind. I actually thought he was going to pass it. I said: there’s no way he’s going to swing a leg at this. If he does it’ll probably go over the bar. I just thought it’s not possible. There’s too many bodies around here. We have this under control.
Matt Connor: I was closest to the goals if it had come out. But no need. You’re going for it, you’re running for it and hoping it’s going to be kicked into you. It just went the other side of me. A brilliant shot, but he was always good at that. Wouldn’t be the first good goal he scored. People might say it was a fluke, lucky or whatever. But he was good at scoring goals. Once he’d get his hands on it you’d always think goal anyway, because he’d be capable of doing it.
John O’Keeffe: I’ll never forget the feeling. In one split second I knew our dream was gone. It was dashed.
Fr Sean Heaney: It was a bombshell. It was as totally unexpected to us as anyone else. Unbelievable. It was one of those defining moments in sport. You’ll still meet people who know what chair they were sitting in in the sitting room when that went in.
Eugene McGee: The raindrops falling from the net is what I saw. Somebody walked in front of me. I didn’t actually see it go into the net.
Weeshie Fogarty: I saw the high ball coming in, Tommy Doyle coming out and going up for the ball, Seamus Darby behind him. He certainly made contact with him, but it was a combination of mistiming by Tommy Doyle and the slightest touch by Seamus Darby. The way he read the flight of the ball, gathered it, the way he turned and the way he finished it. Poetry in motion.
Charlie Nelligan: I felt the breeze going through my fingers. I was a bit out, but not that far. After it hit the net, the wind was blowing back out towards me. I felt the spray from the net just slap me in the face.
Liam Currams: I was over on the left-hand side of the field. I saw the ball going over Charlie Nelligan’s head, but I couldn’t believe how it got over his head. It dipped down, like a soccer player would put cut on the ball. Then I heard the crowd erupting.
Sean Grennan: When we were coming out we heard a huge cheer. We met a Kerry woman and she asked what was that? We said: ‘Kerry must have got a goal. That’s that anyway.’ We drove out the road back to Balbriggan where my father was. The radio wasn’t working right, so until we got there we didn’t know Offaly had scored.
Ger Power: You could see Tommy Doyle was pushed from a mile away. The next thing the ball was in the back of the fecking net. But I’d blame nobody for it. Whatever happened, happened.
Mikey Sheehy: I’ve seen that clip. You couldn’t say to this day whether he was pushed or not. If he was, he was.
Ger O’Keeffe: There’s no doubt he nudged him. Whether it was a foul or not isn’t an issue, but he nudged him. Players do the same today and get away with it. But he had no idea where the ball was going. He just drew a kick at it. God directed it, and it rattled the net.
Tommy Doyle (from All-Ireland Football Captains, by Brian Carthy, 1994): Whether I was pushed or not, I’m not prepared to say. All I know is the ball wound up in the back of the net and Offaly won. Good luck to them. The goal was a goal. I was very disappointed. I wished the ground could have opened up and swallowed me. I took it too much to heart.
Matt Connor: I didn’t see it at the time. I’ve seen it a thousand times since, but it was a hard one to call. Some refs would give it. Others wouldn’t. I’d say if it happened out in midfield there wouldn’t have been a word about it. But it was such a vital thing. If it happened in the first minute, there wouldn’t have been a word about it. If it had been given, I don’t know. It was touch and go.
Charlie Nelligan: I’ll never say whether it was a push or not, or what I thought it was.
John Egan: [The push] made no difference. I’d have done the same thing myself. It was the referee’s call. If the referee said it was a free, it was a free. From Tommy Doyle’s point of view, it was definitely a push. He would say it was a push. Seamus Darby would say it wasn’t. But it’s the referee’s call.
Johnny Mooney: There was definite contact. Whether it was legitimate, it’s hard to tell. He didn’t actually push him, but he might have used his elbows on the way up. He definitely made contact. But PJ McGrath allowed it.
Seamus Darby: I held him, and as I took the ball I arsed him out. People say to me, even to this day, ‘I saw your hands on his back.’ But my hands weren’t on the man’s back.
Sean Walsh: If it was a push, a traditional corner-back would’ve been ready for it. Tommy Doyle played very natural football and played like a wing-back would. That’s no criticism of him. It just happened. Nobody could make the switch.
Eugene McGee: The reaction of the Kerry people was very significant because they were extremely sporting about it. There was no great whingeing.
Weeshie Fogarty: From a referee’s point of view I wouldn’t have given a free out. First of all, you couldn’t see the push, if there was a push, because you’d be out the field. It was the slightest of slightest nudges. It was the nudge of a highly experienced player. At the end of the day it came down to PJ McGrath and what he saw, and what he didn’t see.
PJ McGrath: I had a clear view of it. Offaly people call it the goal of the century. Kerry people probably call it the greatest fluke of the century. I don’t care what they call it. My only worry was whether or not it was a goal. And it was. There was no one talking to me [about the alleged push] that evening. The papers picked it up. I spoke to the umpires about it, but none of them saw anything that would warrant any sort of a free. If you look at Darby’s hands in the frame, he didn’t touch Tommy Doyle at all with his hands. He never pushed him. He pushed out his backside and Doyle backed into him. He never touched him with his hands.
Mikey Sheehy: What a shot it was! Charlie Nelligan was at the top of his game in those years. It took a good shot to beat him.
David Walsh: I was in the Cusack Stand. I was absolutely thrilled. A complete stranger tapped me on the shoulder after the goal and says: ‘To think you trained with them!’
Padraic Dunne: I remember at the time being very aware of what to do when the goal was scored. I dropped back straight away. I was very aware not to get wrapped up. It wasn’t over. By Jesus, it wasn’t.
Eugene McGee: My first reaction was the time that was left, knowing Kerry – and they only needed a point to save it.
Richie Connor: When we got the goal, I went through a few minutes of absolute hell. I could see us throwing this thing away. I found out how much time was left. Three, maybe four minutes. I just wanted players back in their positions. I couldn’t believe what was going on. Matt was doing the same thing as me. Calming things down. Lads were jumping around. Seamus would’ve done his bit. Gerry Carroll was caught in the moment. There was a bit of that going on.
Matt Connor: You’re happy but it’s not over. Mick Fitzgerald was five yards away from us at the time and he was corner-back. Mikey Sheehy was there. It was just total concentration. He was marking him. No emotion whatsoever. That’s the type of fella he was anyway.
Mick Fitzgerald: Everyone else was jumping up and down. Nelligan had the ball and Pat Spillane ran out to the side. Spillane wanted Nelligan to put down the ball quick and kick it out to him. I said to myself: if Nelligan puts that ball down, I’m gone in to kick it away. That’s what was going on. That’s why I wasn’t paying attention to anything else. I was watching the quick kick-out.
Brendan Lowry: Mick walked out as though he was strolling around the town. I was over to Darby, celebrating.
Michael Lowry: Only that you went over to him, he would’ve jumped out of the park.
Charlie Nelligan: The head was down. I took the kick-out. I might have aimed it at Paudie Lynch but an Offaly man intercepted it.
Johnny Mooney: The very first night I met McGee, he talked about loads of things, but just when he finished up he made one point. He said no matter what happens in a game, carry on. Get on with business. Don’t get carried away. Don’t get sucked in. There was a bit of celebrating going on, but I was thinking: next kick-out. I went out and won it. The only reason I did that was because I’d been told six or seven years before at the tail-end of the first meeting with McGee. I remember telling him. He just smiled.
71 MINS: Mooney’s pass found Gerry Carroll, whose kick drifted wide. Nelligan’s next kick-out found Tim Kennelly who lashed the ball out of defence, only for Carroll to gather the ball at centrefield. He heads for the Hogan Stand, soloing the ball on his left foot. He meets Pat Spillane, and turns to head back infield, where Jack O’Shea is waiting. He turns back towards the Hogan Stand, but O’Shea flicks his hand in and gets the ball away.
Eugene McGee: I had said to Gerry: ‘Look, Gerry, you’re not to go on a left-footed solo run. I’d prefer you kicked the ball into the Hogan Stand.’ Everybody knew he only had a left foot and could be blocked. He did exactly what I was afraid of. He headed off on a left-footed solo run towards the Hogan Stand. Jack O’Shea came in and steamed him out of it. I could’ve strung up Carroll. It was madness.
Gerry Carroll: I was trying to kick a low ball into the corner because I’d been boxed in. Afterwards I thought if they’d have scored a point I could make up for it the next day. If they’d scored a goal, I’d have been in America the next day.
71 MINS: Having regained possession, Jack O’Shea found Tom Spillane racing towards goal. He had options closer to goal, but Spillane attempted to go past Sean Lowry. Instead, Lowry knocked the ball away near the endline, where Martin Furlong had raced out in support.
Tom Spillane: The ball came down the side [of the field]. Maybe a more mature player might’ve said: I’ll look and see who’s around me. But when I got the ball there was only one thing on my mind: beat my man and get into a scoring position. Someone said
afterwards: Did I not see The Bomber unmarked? I don’t know whether he was marked or not. I was probably hard on myself. I was there. It was me carrying the ball. It didn’t happen. End of story. I tried my best.
John O’Keeffe: I think if we’d been a little more composed we could’ve worked the ball into a scoring position or a free, and he [referee] would’ve happily given us a free for a draw. But we went mad helter-skelter down the field.
Eugene McGee: I was certain they were going to get the equalising point when Tom Spillane went down. He had opportunities to cross the ball and the referee would certainly have given a free in because he must’ve known he owed them a favour. Plus, there was a natural tendency to draw matches.
Richie Connor: Then Furlong fucked up. He was out exposed near the corner. I was down beside him that time. He could’ve been blocked down. The ball could’ve been taken off him.
John Egan: There was a ball up on the endline. I went down on it and Martin Furlong came out and gave me a push in the back. The referee gave me no free. I didn’t feel it at the time, and I won’t cry about it now.
As he fell, Egan looked to the referee, but play went on. Furlong slung a pass towards Brendan Lowry, who was standing 25 yards from the endline, but as the ball hung in the air, Mikey Sheehy stepped in and regained possession. With Furlong out of goals, and the Offaly defence in disarray, Kerry had one last chance.
Mikey Sheehy: At that stage there was nothing much to do but I kicked it in high.
Sean Lowry: Any time I played in Croke Park I looked at the clock at the throw-in. I said to myself that day that at 4.35pm it was going to be over. When Furlong got that ball I headed back towards the goal and I glanced up at the clock. It was 4.35pm. I said: if I get this ball I’m giving it to no one, I don’t care who it is. Mikey Sheehy kicks this ball across and there was snow on it. It went up into the clouds. I was waiting for someone to hit me in the chest. I was thinking: Will I catch it over my head or into my chest? I had so much time. The Bomber was there, Paudie Lynch, they were all there. But no one came. I couldn’t understand it. Then, at the last second, I heard a voice: ‘You’re on your own, Jack!’ So I caught it into my chest. I let on to pass but I had no intention of passing. With that, PJ McGrath had his hand up. I was going to go to Hill 16 with that ball. I saw the video a few days after the game, and who was standing behind me? Padraic Dunne. After running in from the middle of the field. It was great work for a lad like him.
Kings of September Page 20
