Hope is returning thanks to superb U-21 football side

Date Published: {J}

FRANK FARRAGHER

IT’S the dream of every young Gaelic footballer . . . to play in an All-Ireland final in Croke Park and to end up in the winning dressingroom after hearing your captain make the victory speech.

For the vast majority of young players it never happens. The glory moments are hard to capture and a walk under the edifice of Croke Park’s giant stands around 3.45 last Sunday told its own story.

Six or seven Cavan players stood motionless and expressionless beside their team bus. It was as if their world had stopped . . . people passing by them, although only a few feet away, just didn’t exist in their world. This was the lonely world of defeat . . . that awful place to be, after losing an All-Ireland final.

Later on that evening, Alan Mulholland, acknowledged that a visit to the Cavan dressingroom had taken its toll on him. Always a gentleman, both in defeat and victory — and like every manager he knows the taste of both emotions — the Salthill man couldn’t but feel for the Cavan cause.

The men and women from Breffni Country had come in their thousands to Croke Park. A whole generation of Cavan people have grown old cradling a lingering hope that they would have one great day out in Dublin . . . to stroll down the North Circular with the cup in tow.

Royal blue decorated the streets of Dublin from O’Connell Street to Dorset Street as the hordes of Cavan supporters gathered outside the different hostelries. All week, Alan Mulholland knew that Galway would not only be facing 15 Cavan footballers but also this blue wave of emotion and passion.

But a bit like the boxer with all his handlers and trainers in the pre-fight build-up, when it comes to the bell, there’s only two fighters in the ring. And when it came to using the open spaces on the green sward of Croke Park, maroon jerseys seemed to make it first to nearly every ball. When the chances came at either end, Cavan dithered and fluffed their lines. Galway never hesitated and their forwards never needed a prompt.

“Of course my heart does go out to Cavan but I’m delighted for this Galway team that they have come to Croke Park and expressed themselves through a great performance.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.