Tennis, like cycling and Formula 1, is a sport that I do not get to watch very often, but it has provided me with some excellent reading material.
Andre Agassi’s autobiography is heralded as one of the best by any sportsperson, while The Rivals, about the battle for supremacy between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, is a compelling tale.
Then there is String Theory, a series of essays by the late David Foster Wallace. A novelist and short-story writer, he was a talented tennis player in his youth and that deep interest in the sport, coupled with his linguistic flair, make for a marvellous end-product.
The pick of the bunch in String Theory is a review of Tracy Austin’s autobiography. Austin won two US Opens before her teens were over and Foster Wallace was keen to find out exactly what drove that – but he was left disappointed.
Ultimately, he concluded that, while the spectators will be left watching on in awe and wondering about the ‘how’ of sporting brilliance, the practitioners cannot explain it – it’s just what they do.
To that end, Clare captain Tony Kelly provided a better explanation than one might expect for how his wonder-goal materialised in last Sunday’s All-Ireland final – albeit with a modest coda.
“It’s often that you take what is in front of you, really,” he said, “so, when the defender came, I didn’t want to get blocked down so I had to sidestep him and then another defender came so I had to sidestep again.”
“And once you’re through, you have to have a rattle off a goal. Yeah, look, fortunate enough that it hit the back of the net.”
Great things happen
Was it the best goal ever seen in an All-Ireland final, or the best scored at Croke Park or even the best ever?
That doesn’t hugely matter, but it will of course be a matter for debate.
What matters is that it happened and any true lover of the sport – or any sport – could not but appreciate it.
On Sunday, when I arrived at Croke Park, I tweeted a panoramic picture of the stadium along with the message, “On this day, in this place, great things will happen.”
It’s a fairly safe bet for All-Ireland final day but I could not have imagined that we would be witnessing such a piece of majesty.
In the biggest games, we want the biggest players producing the biggest moments and Kelly did that. Absent for the first few games this year, he has taken time to come to the fore but he was prominent in Clare’s comeback against Kilkenny in the semi-final.
Sunday was not his best match for Clare in overall terms – he was unusually quiet in the first half of normal time – but it would not be a stretch to say that his 1-4, all from play, brought a hugely efficient influence to proceedings.
Not just that – it was a deluxe offering, with each score of the highest order.
While the goal was being replayed on the big screen at Croke Park, there were collective ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ at each pivot and dummy before the deft finish. It was a goal that few other players, if any, could conjure.
It was far from a one-man effort, of course, and it was a victory a few years in the making.
That Kelly, John Conlon, Shane O’Donnell, Mark Rodgers and the rest end up victorious means that the wait goes on for Cork’s Patrick Horgan and Séamus Harnedy.
Unfortunately for them, partaking in a classic doesn’t provide much solace when they are the ones with one point fewer on the scoreboard.
Cork will have regrets about how their seven-point first-half lead was not capitalised upon and there will also be misgivings about a few refereeing calls. Still and all, Clare were in control of the game from the time they wiped out that early deficit.
Such is the constant nature of the GAA season, there’s not a lot of time to process it all – some Cork players are in county football championship action with their clubs this weekend – but there is plenty to unbox over the autumn and winter.
For now, Clare are top of the tree and the chasing pack must try to reel them in.
Pádraic Joyce: ‘We will meet again in Croke Park’
Stefan Campbell of Armagh scores the equaliser against Galway in the All-Ireland SFC game at Markievicz Park in Sligo last month. \ Brendan Moran Sportsfile
After Galway drew with Armagh in Sligo in the last round of the round-robin stage of the All-Ireland SFC, Pádraic Joyce texted Kieran McGeeney.
The pair have been friendly since their playing days, having soldiered together for Ireland in the International Rules Series, and the Galway boss shared a prediction with his Armagh counterpart.
There were still 12 teams left in the football championship at that stage but Joyce made a brave prediction – he told McGeeney that their respective sides would be meeting again, in Croke Park on All-Ireland final day.
“He actually predicted two or three things that have all come true,” McGeeney said after the semi-final win over Kerry. “I have asked him who did he see winning the final, but he hasn’t told me that one yet.”
After a year in which football has been the focus of plenty of criticism for negative tactics and the quality of the spectacle, or lack thereof, the novel final pairing should at least raise the collective mood for Sunday.
Whoever wins, there will be a gap of more than two decades being bridged – McGeeney captained Armagh to glory against Kerry in 2002, which was the year after an inspired second-half performance from Joyce saw Galway past Meath.
It may not prove to be as mesmerising a spectacle as the hurling final, but we can at least hope for an absorbing encounter with positivity to the fore.
Tennis, like cycling and Formula 1, is a sport that I do not get to watch very often, but it has provided me with some excellent reading material.
Andre Agassi’s autobiography is heralded as one of the best by any sportsperson, while The Rivals, about the battle for supremacy between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, is a compelling tale.
Then there is String Theory, a series of essays by the late David Foster Wallace. A novelist and short-story writer, he was a talented tennis player in his youth and that deep interest in the sport, coupled with his linguistic flair, make for a marvellous end-product.
The pick of the bunch in String Theory is a review of Tracy Austin’s autobiography. Austin won two US Opens before her teens were over and Foster Wallace was keen to find out exactly what drove that – but he was left disappointed.
Ultimately, he concluded that, while the spectators will be left watching on in awe and wondering about the ‘how’ of sporting brilliance, the practitioners cannot explain it – it’s just what they do.
To that end, Clare captain Tony Kelly provided a better explanation than one might expect for how his wonder-goal materialised in last Sunday’s All-Ireland final – albeit with a modest coda.
“It’s often that you take what is in front of you, really,” he said, “so, when the defender came, I didn’t want to get blocked down so I had to sidestep him and then another defender came so I had to sidestep again.”
“And once you’re through, you have to have a rattle off a goal. Yeah, look, fortunate enough that it hit the back of the net.”
Great things happen
Was it the best goal ever seen in an All-Ireland final, or the best scored at Croke Park or even the best ever?
That doesn’t hugely matter, but it will of course be a matter for debate.
What matters is that it happened and any true lover of the sport – or any sport – could not but appreciate it.
On Sunday, when I arrived at Croke Park, I tweeted a panoramic picture of the stadium along with the message, “On this day, in this place, great things will happen.”
It’s a fairly safe bet for All-Ireland final day but I could not have imagined that we would be witnessing such a piece of majesty.
In the biggest games, we want the biggest players producing the biggest moments and Kelly did that. Absent for the first few games this year, he has taken time to come to the fore but he was prominent in Clare’s comeback against Kilkenny in the semi-final.
Sunday was not his best match for Clare in overall terms – he was unusually quiet in the first half of normal time – but it would not be a stretch to say that his 1-4, all from play, brought a hugely efficient influence to proceedings.
Not just that – it was a deluxe offering, with each score of the highest order.
While the goal was being replayed on the big screen at Croke Park, there were collective ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ at each pivot and dummy before the deft finish. It was a goal that few other players, if any, could conjure.
It was far from a one-man effort, of course, and it was a victory a few years in the making.
That Kelly, John Conlon, Shane O’Donnell, Mark Rodgers and the rest end up victorious means that the wait goes on for Cork’s Patrick Horgan and Séamus Harnedy.
Unfortunately for them, partaking in a classic doesn’t provide much solace when they are the ones with one point fewer on the scoreboard.
Cork will have regrets about how their seven-point first-half lead was not capitalised upon and there will also be misgivings about a few refereeing calls. Still and all, Clare were in control of the game from the time they wiped out that early deficit.
Such is the constant nature of the GAA season, there’s not a lot of time to process it all – some Cork players are in county football championship action with their clubs this weekend – but there is plenty to unbox over the autumn and winter.
For now, Clare are top of the tree and the chasing pack must try to reel them in.
Pádraic Joyce: ‘We will meet again in Croke Park’
Stefan Campbell of Armagh scores the equaliser against Galway in the All-Ireland SFC game at Markievicz Park in Sligo last month. \ Brendan Moran Sportsfile
After Galway drew with Armagh in Sligo in the last round of the round-robin stage of the All-Ireland SFC, Pádraic Joyce texted Kieran McGeeney.
The pair have been friendly since their playing days, having soldiered together for Ireland in the International Rules Series, and the Galway boss shared a prediction with his Armagh counterpart.
There were still 12 teams left in the football championship at that stage but Joyce made a brave prediction – he told McGeeney that their respective sides would be meeting again, in Croke Park on All-Ireland final day.
“He actually predicted two or three things that have all come true,” McGeeney said after the semi-final win over Kerry. “I have asked him who did he see winning the final, but he hasn’t told me that one yet.”
After a year in which football has been the focus of plenty of criticism for negative tactics and the quality of the spectacle, or lack thereof, the novel final pairing should at least raise the collective mood for Sunday.
Whoever wins, there will be a gap of more than two decades being bridged – McGeeney captained Armagh to glory against Kerry in 2002, which was the year after an inspired second-half performance from Joyce saw Galway past Meath.
It may not prove to be as mesmerising a spectacle as the hurling final, but we can at least hope for an absorbing encounter with positivity to the fore.
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