Damian Young never stood a chance.
For more than twenty years he’s been the Drom and Inch goalie. He still hasn’t quite figured out a way to stop the shot loaded with top-spin and driven with power, but nor has any other goalie either.
And don’t expect a genius formula any time soon. Hurling goalkeeping is a refined art based on intense levels of sharpness and confidence as well as cat-like reflexes.
With eyes like hawks, heads like mad men and hands like silk – the best goalkeepers in hurling a la Eoin Murphy will back themselves to get their hurls or their bodies to bullets travelling at 100 miles an hour, but when it comes to the well placed unpredictable, dipping and swerving bullet – it’s becomes a guessing game, even for men like Eoin Murphy.
Toomevara defeated Drom and Inch in the quarter final of the Tipperary senior hurling championship on Sunday. Two quickfire first half goals turned this game in Toome’s favour and now they’re asking why not about their first Dan Breen since 2008.
Jack Delaney’s first was scrappy but Mark McCarthy’s second was a work of the most beautiful north Tipperary art. When Toome’s lively county minor Kevin McCarthy took a ball in his stride near the Drom goals, drawing three Drom defenders, there was a smell of the inevitable.
When his namesake Mark ghosted into space around the 21 yard line, the goal was on. He was picked out sublimely and Toome couldn’t have picked a better man to stand up and pick his spot.
McCarthy didn’t disappoint. He exuded composure as he set his radar for the net behind Damian Young. He realised he had time and like every class player he’s dangerous with time and space.
And with one quick look at the goals, he decided to top-spin it like a Rafael Nadal forehand off the left. Swinging his hurl up from low, he caught the ball high and sent it dipping towards the corner.
It hopped just before the goals making it even more unstoppable.
You can watch the beautiful goal from 0.32 here.
GAANOW takes a look to the @TipperaryGAA hurling club scene as Drom-Inch took on Toomevara! Watch it here! pic.twitter.com/ufpoMbvOkw
— The GAA (@officialgaa) October 2, 2018
It’s one of those strikes that hurlers usually only take on at training or when pucking around. You don’t usually get the time to do it in a game because most goals are scored on the run and it’s borderline impossible to top-spin it on the run.
Keepers can’t deal with it because the combination of power and swerve makes it almost impossible to judge, and even they do get their hurls to it, it usually spins away anyway.
That man McCarthy has a penchant for a cracking goal though. He was the main man on the Tipperary minor team that won the All-Ireland six years ago in 2012, scoring goals in the quarter, semi and the Irish Press Cup decider.
He was tipped for big things in the Premier County from then on and though he hasn’t hit the heights in the blue and gold since, he’s still only 23 and he’s been a consistent performer for Toomevara over the last while.
He was in for trials last year and he may be a man for Liam Sheedy to look at this year as he selects his panel for the year.
