“Jeez, I’m downplaying this a lot, amn’t I?”
Michael Quinlivan was nothing but class in is assessment of Tipperary’s last-gasp victory over Armagh at the weekend.
Liam Kearns’ men needed to beat Armagh at the Athletic Grounds, on Sunday, to ensure promotion to Division 2 and reach a final against Louth. They gave it a rattle but were second best for long tracts. Still, Tipp clung on and Quinlivan’s hat-trick goal in the closing stages clinched it.
“Daylight robbery,” he admitted during his Performance of the Week interview on The GAA Hour Football Show. Quinlivan was asked by host Colm Parkinson [from 1:03:10 below] to describe each of his three goals.
Quinlivan’s response was as GAA as they come. He said:
“You’re putting me on the spot. The first one was a high ball and it just kind of broke… to be honest, I didn’t really have that many of them under control. There were two kind of [ones] where I nearly just threw my leg at the ball and it ended up in the corner on both sides.
“The last one was a long kick-out and it broke past the midfield. Bill Maher and Josh were breaking towards their defence and I sort of wheeled out. They carried it forward and I made a run past Josh. He put it into my path and it was sort of hit it as hard as possible, and it ended up in the far corner thankfully.”
After admitting he would make a horrible GAA analyst, the 24-year-old explained his goals were ‘split second stuff’. When Parkinson described the matchwinner as “a screamer”, he demurred.
“I wouldn’t say that. It wasn’t that far out… It was great work by the two boys.
“I was running in on my bad leg and it was just [about] hitting it as hard as I could and, thank God, it does go into the far corner. It could have easily crept wide.”
Classic GAA stuff there from the Tipp star – downplay your own achievements, praise teammates, thank God.
We think Quinlivan is selling that third goal short, judging by this clip from the stands:
