GAELIC GAMES:Top of a blank page and Cork and Waterford were level. Half-time and nothing separated them. This dream of a game expired and when the bottom line was filled in they were still tied. We walked out into the evening sunlight thanking the blue skies for days like this and the possibilities of a replay which offers so many fresh narratives.

Some games leapfrog their designation within a season and become defining moments. This was a quarter-final and the other three games played out in Croke Park over the weekend were all accorded the same status. Largely those games were banal and error-ridden. This though was an opera, a symphony, a wonder. Two teams of indomitable character refusing to yield. An uplifting climax to a long weekend. It ended in some controversy but it seems just that both sides can awaken this morning and still tune their ears to the siren song of September.

How high were the stakes? Waterford's current era of happy provincial victories and bitter Croke Park defeats has run simultaneous to a time of plenty in Cork. When Waterford have finished seasons with pats on the head and heartfelt thanks Cork have gone home with silverware.

Yesterday would see either the end of a Cork side, the nucleus of which first tasted success eight years ago under Jimmy Barry Murphy, or the death of Waterford's ambitions, a quenching of a fire which has raged with greater intensity through every season.

The final 10 minutes were filled with enough magic and sorcery to make Harry Potter read like the phone directory. Cork pulled a point clear through a Kieran Murphy goal. Waterford riposted instantly, Séamus Prendergast doing the talking.

In the great cathedral 72,423 souls decided against beating the rush by leaving early and leaned forward in their seats.

Cork, with the greater experience of foreclosing on opponents, danced for a couple of minutes while they examined their options. A couple of points were exchanged warily. Five minutes left. This is a game that precludes the option of playing for a draw.

So? Then? Swoosh! A goal and a point within 60 seconds. Neil Ronan demanding the green flag, Kevin Hartnett prompting the white. Cork four clear. Seán Óg making a circus catch from the second puck-out, the highlight of his sublime performance.

All over bar the shouting. Cork four ahead in the 67th minute. That's an ending right there. Enough drama for everyone.

Waterford have learned never to flinch though. Belief fuels them. Stephen Molumphy, the find of the season, batted a ball to the Cork net. Every nerve in the place jangled. Every throat was hoarse. The gap cigarette-paper thin and time draining away.

Then as the game flipped over into injury time Eoin McGrath, a spring-heeled first-half sub, burst from cover like a startled fox and found himself with only Donal Óg Cusack to beat. In enlightened households his dilemma will be discussed as a party game for years.

For decades your county has been slavering for success in Croke Park. You are through on the best 'keeper of his generation with the ball in your hand. You need a point to level it. Do you take the point or do you go for broke? You have half a second to decide.

Eoin McGrath went for broke. He's a shoot-the-moon sort of character. Justin McCarthy, his manager, said afterwards he would have done the same: "You have to take risks." That's the difference between the elite and the rest of us: the willingness to gamble the collective toil of many seasons on one shot rather than take the safe option.

And this time it didn't pay off. Donal Óg, a force field of energy and cunning, slapped the ball down and fell to the ground to protect it as the ravening pack descended. Brian Gavin, the Offaly referee, blew a free - to Waterford. Eoin Kelly cashed it in. The final whistle blew. The arguments began.

"I'm very disappointed over it," said the Cork coach, Gerald McCarthy. "We are all as entitled to our opinions as the referee is. My opinion is that Donal Óg made a fabulous save and he was descended upon and that if anything it was possibly a throw-in. I couldn't see if it was a free in.

"We feel very sorry that the game ended on that note there. Very, very sorry. We haven't had the rub of the green but we keep fighting away anyway. We got knocked back with a goal at the start of the second half but we worked our way back in. I think it was a joyful display of hurling on the part of both sides. Great passion and great skill.

"It's a bit of a mystery what the free was for. I think you should be asking the referee. He didn't clarify for me."

There's too much of Gerald still in love with the great game though to stay angry.

When he saw Eoin McGrath burst through would he have taken a draw? He smiled.

"Maybe. It was that kind of game. The bravery on both sides was unbelievable. How they can keep bringing the best out of each other I don't know."

Do referees in these instances play for the draw? Gerald wasn't taking the bait: "Ask the referees. I value my position on the sideline." Pause. And a grin: "I really value it."

We smiled back. Gazed up at the vertiginous stands now emptying. We value days like these, really value them.