“How long must he wait, one more time for a simple twist of fate.”
The underdog gets only one chance for an upset. The minnow has just one rock with which to slay the giant. There is no second chance for the little guy.
For almost 62 minutes of the AIB Munster senior club football final, Clonmel Commercials stuck to the tried and tested routine of clubs from Tipperary facing one from the big two of Kerry or Cork in a Munster final.
Play well, put up a decent show, but ultimately eat the dirt kicked up by the boots of your “superior” opposition.
They had given the Cork side Nemo Rangers a scare for over an hour, but still a moral victory parade was being readied as the green and black hordes looked set to celebrate another provincial club success.
Michael Quinlivan thought otherwise.
The forward was not prepared to read from a pre-rehearsed script. Instead he ad-libbed in the most thrilling way possible.
Thirty seconds from full-time the full forward did what he had been taught since an underage player – keep your shot low, make it hard for the goalkeeper and then see what happens.
His shot crept beyond the despairing grasp of Nemo’s Michael Martin, and the Tipperary side got the fairytale finish they had deserved.
But now the Tipperary and Munster champions want to write their own epilogue in the AIB football All-Ireland senior club championship semi-final against Ballyboden St Enda’s on 13th February.
When Clonmel beat Tir Chonaill Gaels two weeks after their inaugural provincial title was won, manager Charlie McKeever had just one thing to say to the media afterwards.
“They took us as a Tipperary team coming over here, but I think the scoreline reflects the performance.”
The implied snarl in his comments suggested the London champions would expect lots of huff and puff from a “Tipperary side”, but Clonmel would lack the ability, the hard edge, the sheer bloody determination to record a 2-12 to 0-9 win in Ruislip.
Playing an entire half without talisman Michael Quinlivan, they produced a performance that any club side, past or present, would have been proud of.
The form book has not been torn up this season, Clonmel Commercials are writing their own.
Tipperary football has waited 46 years for a team from the Premier County to represent them in the wild confines of the provincial series.
Forty-six years of hurt, of near misses, of losing to Dr Crokes in Killarney in 2012 and being told, they had done well…for a team from Tipperary.
But no more. Ballyboden have been warned – instead of a forward blasting a goal chance high and wide, it will be low, into the corner and hard to stop.
This is no ordinary team from Tipperary. This is a new breed of club footballer, who cares not one bit about the All-Ireland senior medals or reputations of their opponents.
This will be no hard luck story of a team falling at the penultimate stage. Too many of those have been told, and repeated before.
The words “bonus territory” will not be uttered by anyone in the Clonmel camp ahead of Saturday week.
This is not some sort of amusement park ride where if you collect five tickets you get a shot at Croke Park.
The bonus is getting up the steps of the Hogan Stand on St Patrick’s Day.
This is the script they are reading from now, with every player ready to fulfil their role on the biggest stage of all.
They will not fluff their lines. There is no time to wait for another twist of fate.
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