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29th Oct 2017

Five penalties in Connacht final… and it still went to a replay

Crazy, crazy game

Ben Kiely

Sometimes, the result of a game just seems inevitable.

No matter what happens on the pitch, it can be difficult to escape the irrational idea that some cosmic force is in control of your team’s fate. If you come from that superstitious school of thought, you might be able to refer to some incidents to support this theory, but let’s just work under the assumption that it’s all bollocks for the sake of this article.

If our fate is not predetermined and everything that happens is just the result of random choices, then what happened in the back arse of Ballyhaunis on Sunday was truly bizarre.

Or else it was just some almighty entity fucking with us. If that’s the case, well played, because that all powerful being left a lot of people in the Wesht really frustrated.

We’ve all heard the adage ‘the result is right there for the taking’ countless times, but that couldn’t have seemed further from the truth for the Connacht senior ladies final between Carnacon and Kilkerrin/Clonberne.

The score was leveled 11 times in total throughout the duration of the game, so realistically, a draw always seemed to be on the cards.

It gets weirder.

In total there were five penalties and two red cards  in the game which ended as a 5-17 to 6-14 draw. With nothing separating the clubs after an hour, a replay will be required to see who gets crowned the 2017 Connacht champions .

Well, at least they didn’t have to do a penalty shootout afterwards. It’s highly doubtful that anyone in attendance would have had the requisite nerves to go through more spot kicks.

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Topics:

Connacht GAA