90 minutes, 83 points, four red cards and Brian Carroll was in the thick of it all.
Well, for 85 of those minutes anyway.
If Coolderry were ever to have a chance of beating Ballyboden St Enda’s, then the 5/2 underdogs would need Brian Carroll to hurl out of his skin.
That’s what everybody was saying going into this game and by the end of it, anybody who had doubted Coolderry’s chances should have been asking themselves how they actually contrived to think there was a chance that Brian Carroll wouldn’t hurl out of his skin.
Because he always does it for Coolderry. He scores so much in every game and he wins so many games for his club that the phrase hurling out of his skin just doesn’t do it anymore.
This is just standard Brian Carroll stuff.
This is a man who’s won four county championships with Coolderry, a man who’s been front and centre for every one of those wins. He won a Leinster title with them in 2011 too, his three points from play crucial on the day the Offaly men stunned Oulart the Ballagh.
He retired from the county three years ago now but Brian Carroll is still only 35 and he’s still the best hurler in Offaly.
Only a couple of weeks ago, he hit 1-5 when they took care of Mount Leinster Rangers in the quarter final that brought them into this semi against Ballyboden.
The Dublin team got off to a cracking start and there’s no doubting the fact that they were the better team in Parnell Park. But Coolderry had Brian Carroll and when you’ve Brian Carroll you always have a chance.
Ballyboden – who drafted Dublin senior football panellist Collie Basquel in for an explosive senior hurling debut – led from minute one all the way up to minute 60 only for a Brian Carroll goal to level it in injury time.
By that stage, he’d scored 1-10. But he wasn’t finished there and neither were Coolderry.
If there was ever any doubt that hurling wasn't the best game in the world, Parnell Park on a November Sunday has evidence @coolderrygaa @Bodengaa
What a game 👏
https://t.co/9IG2lwoggT— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 18, 2018
Extra-time and Ballyboden look home and hosed again, holding a three point lead with 20 minutes of extra-time played. Not with Brian Carroll around. For the second time in this game, he scored an injury time goal to force extra, extra-time.
That’s the stuff heroes are made of but his day would get even more eventful when he was controversially sent off in the sixth half of the day after a clash with Dublin legend Conal Keaney.
Ballyboden went onto win it – renowned footballer Basquel’s 3-3 from play doing the damage, but Carroll and Coolderry can hold their heads high.
He ended his day with 2-16, 2-5 of it coming from open play.
An Offaly legend, a Coolderry legend.
