PLAYER REACTION CORK:VICTORY CAN hit you in strange ways. Graham Canty, battling through the tumult of an injury-blighted summer, sat slumped in a chair in a windowless room underneath the Hogan Stand. He held a tiny trophy in his hand.
Fifteen minutes earlier, he had achieved a long-standing ambition in lifting the Sam Maguire and then gave one of the more gallant captain’s speeches of modern times. He sat alone in front of dozens of blinking eyes. No tap dancing on the table. No table-thumping speeches. The Bantry man seemed tired and a little overwhelmed. After all the years of trying, he had finally got there. “Ah, it feels all right, now,” he said. “It is very humbling being captain of a bunch of players. I don’t understand why I am in here just because I am captain.
“I kind of knew last weekend when I didn’t make the 15. I just missed too much football and I wouldn’t be on a par with the lads who were training. You were miles off the pace, like. Even if I played last weekend, I wouldn’t have had enough. Just about. I was still a small bit off it. But you rely on a small bit of experience and things like that.”
Canty was the embodiment of that experience. He came in when this championship was still very much up for grabs but his appearance on the field coincided with a growing certainty that the Rebels had the know-how this time.
They were down by 0-5 to 0-8 at half-time but fired 0-11 in the second half. It was enough to get them across the line with a single point to spare.
“Things were pretty calm at half-time. Frank (Cogan, team masseur and member of Cork’s 1973 All-Ireland vintage) usually takes charge and he is a very calm man and that transfers to the players. We hadn’t played very well and made mistakes and that was partly because of the Down intensity. We had chances too and just didn’t take them. It wasn’t too hard.
“You just go back to basics and play every ball as the next ball. There is no point in looking ahead to the 70 minutes. The lads around you are calm anyhow. There is no point in panicking. We were behind for most of the game. It was important going into the second half – the last 15 minutes. A lot of the team had played in All-Ireland finals and we lost them. It probably counts for a lot.
“I started a number of the games and even at half-time if you’re behind – or even if you were ahead – you knew the management would unload the bench anyway. It is great to know that as well. It keeps you calm.”
So it went. Even when Down, wobbling in the close of the match, had the bravery to narrow it to a single point, there was the sense that Cork were had a grip that they would not relinquish. Someone asked Canty what his first thought was after that final whistle went.
“First thing I did was commiserate with Benny Coulter. Benny is an outstanding player and I know what it is like to lose finals. Benny is outstanding – and I am not trying to write him off, he has a lot of years left in him. He is a tremendous leader of that team.”
To the end, Canty maintained the fine line between intensity and modesty that has defined his long career. Before he headed back to his friends, he made an interesting observation.
“There is pressure in football and pressure in life and there is no comparison. The pressure we experience is when we are playing the sport we love and that is a different thing. But all the work we have done over the past few years, it is good to get a reward for that.”
