BOYLAN TALKS SPORT: Through Paddy I found Con and the rest is history

“And he’s saved it, he’s saved it. Oh Paddy Cullen! The penalty incident from the 1974 All-Ireland SFC final, as per Micheal O Hehir’s commentary on the Decade Of The Dubs video. Paddy got smartly down to his left and with a strong left hand pushed Liam Sammon’s penalty away to his left and thus putting the seal on Dublin’s first All-Ireland title in 11 years.

Not only that of course, but it was the beginning of Kevin Heffernan’s second revolutionary contribution to Dublin football. Which, in turn, changed the face of Gaelic football forever.

In that, from 1975 for a period of 10 years Dublin and Kerry engaged in a rivalry which not only lit up that particular era of football, it sparked a flame for the game in the capital that had rapidly been losing oxygen up to that point.

And even at that, by Heffo’s own admission on the same tape, if he hadn’t persuaded his fellow St Vincent’s legend Jimmy Keaveney out of retirement, they may not have been in the final at all. So, you could say the Dublin manager first altered history by bringing Keaveney back and then Cullen added just another curve ball to it by stopping Sammon’s spot kick.

Though the Dubs themselves were thrown off course the very next year when Heffo’s old adversary from his playing days, Mick O’Dwyer, boarded the train to the big smoke with a team full of upstarts and returned home with Sam Maguire in tow.

Thereafter, the pair of them biennially took control of football’s top gong. With Brian Mullins, John McCarthy and Keaveney bagging the goals that gave player/manager Tony Hanahoe the first of a unique couple of entries on his sporting CV.

The second coming the following year when, again with the dual mandate, he not only steered his charges and teammates to a retention of Gaelic football’s most sought after trophy but, in a playing sense, made a huge contribution to their ‘77 triumph.

Him kicking three points as goals from David Hickey, Bernard Brogan and John McCarthy set Dublin on their way to a 3-11 to 1-13 over their great rivals in what is, or at least was, regarded as one of the greatest games ever played. After which Keaveney produced one of the great All-Ireland final displays when clocking up 2-6 against Armagh.

And so we arrive at 1978. The reason for all that has preceded what are you are reading. The other chapter in Paddy Cullen’s career that is enshrined in GAA folklore, albeit for less flattering reasons from the perspective of the legendary former custodian who was called between the posts far away during the week.

For what I think was the 25th anniversary of the particular incident, in 2003, one of the papers carried Con Houlihan’s original match report.

To fill in a bit of background here, the incident in question related to a free being given against Dublin for the ball being handled on the ground.

Now, Paddy’s vehement disagreement with that verdict led him to depart his post to remonstrate with the match official. The only problem with that was, while Paddy was peacefully protesting, Mikey Sheehy was putting the ball down and lobbing it towards the unguarded goal. What follows gave rise to one of the greatest pieces of sports journalism ever encountered. The original King Con captured it thus:

“Paddy dashed back like a woman who smells her cake burning… But ended up slumped like a fireman who returns to find his station ablaze”. Picture that. Drink it in. You can nearly see yourself in Cullen’s boots. Flopped by the side of the goal. Wondering ‘Why me?'

Thus, that scribed mental masterpiece not only gave me a first insight into Con’s mesmeric penmanship, but opened up a whole treasure chest of GAA history that (a) I hadn’t previously a great knowledge of and (b) was the foundation stone for the road which has shaped my life from that time onward.

That road, you see, began in earnest in 1991. Yes, there were the four matches between Meath and Dublin and nine out of Meath’s 10 outings in total, but before any of that, I’d been in Croke Park three times to see my mother’s county, the Lilywhites, play in the quarter final, semi final and final of the National League against Donegal, Kerry and Dublin respectively. That being at the height of the hysteria surrounding the first coming of Micko into the white corner.

However, almost certainly due to the euphoria (on one side at least) surrounding the four matches against Meath, it sometimes can get overlooked that Paddy guided the Dubs to that league title and an All-Ireland final appearance the following year.

A record of distinguished service as both player and manager to stand comparison with the very best. And an utter gentleman to boot. May you rest in peace Paddy.

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SIDELINE CUTS:

With all the new fangled committees and the technologies now available to assist them, is it not slightly odd that we have divisions in the NHL with odd numbers of teams therein? Considering that all 32 counties plus London now partaking, would it be that difficult to have, say, three divisions of eight teams and one of nine? Rather than having a certain number of teams idle every week.

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I read in one of the National papers recently where it’s recommended that you channel your “anger, frustration and disappointment through sport”. But what happens when it’s the very arena that’s the proffered release valve which is causing the aforementioned emotions?

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As if to almost immediately contradict the above, it’s only sport. So the horse you backed mightn’t have won, the player you were hoping to see mightn’t have got a run or the match report you put in mightn’t have read exactly as you’d like, but you know what? So what.

Sport is cyclical, these things will eventually turn your way. For those most brave warriors often putting their lives on the line for our entertainment, there are no such guarantees.

In recent days, there’s been the tragic deaths of boxer John Cooney and his fellow Galway man, former hurler Michael Coleman, as well as jockey Michael O’Sullivan ending up in ICU. Don’t sweat the small stuff, tomorrow is promised to nobody.