Life, Death & Hurling, The Michael Duignan Story

[muppet]

"My first instinct when I saw it was, 'Send him [Duignan] off', " recalls Cooney. "But as I came over to him ? and this is the truth ? I looked at the score and said, 'Oh God, there are nine points between them. If I do this I'm only making trouble for myself. It will be gone out of Offaly's reach at so early a stage and they'll only get negative in their hurling.' It was the wrong decision. He should have gone. I saw the incident clearly. If David Forde had stayed down, I would have had no hesitation in putting him off, but David jumped up and ran off."

Dear God! This confirms the worst case scenario of how I thought referees might manage big games.

[Bord na Mona man]

Yeah, Duignan said that a few minutes before that he was marking Jamesie O'Connor. O'Connor caught him with a dirty one when he pulled over the ball and hit him on the shin, chipping the bone. He was livid and was adamant he was to level up the score with O'Connor as soon as the next chance arose.

Then to his dismay, Clare switched David Forde onto him. He was wound up at this stage and when he felt a clip of Forde's hurley on the head, he turned around and caught him.

He admitted it should have been a sending off and that Cooney, thinking as a hurler rather than a referee would have known that a stroke like that was not going to injure anyone. He gives credit to David Forde for getting up and not making a meal of it.

For the rematch Michael Bond told him beforehand to expect a rough time from the Clare yahoos. It had never crossed Duignan's mind, but sure enough the boos rang out whenever he got the ball. He reckoned Bond was fairly astute to anticipate it.

I see no contrition in that series of self-serving excuses.

I'm not sure what contrition he was supposed to show. An open letter of apology to Forde, with some Gerry Collins like pleading. He gave some background for what was a bizarre thing for a seasoned player to do on the hurling field. If he'd said he did it for no reason, other than 'just because' it would be more alarming.

The stroke itself was madness in that was almost begging the ref to send him off for it. The impact of it was moderate at most.
If he'd opted to clatter Forde on the wrist as he caught a ball, it mightn't have even been spotted by the ref and it might have left the Clareman in far more bother.

[Bord na Mona man]

"My first instinct when I saw it was, 'Send him [Duignan] off', " recalls Cooney. "But as I came over to him ? and this is the truth ? I looked at the score and said, 'Oh God, there are nine points between them. If I do this I'm only making trouble for myself. It will be gone out of Offaly's reach at so early a stage and they'll only get negative in their hurling.' It was the wrong decision. He should have gone. I saw the incident clearly. If David Forde had stayed down, I would have had no hesitation in putting him off, but David jumped up and ran off."

Dear God! This confirms the worst case scenario of how I thought referees might manage big games.

It's somewhat surprising that he'd admit to it.
I also remember in the drawn game that preceded this replay, he also pulled the classic refereeing stroke of inventing a Clare free to make the game a draw.
Had he played it straight that day, he would have avoided the early whistle debacle which ended his refereeing career.

[johnneycool]

Very strange indeed for a referee to be so open in his warped decision making in such a big game. Cooney and other referees are human after all and are open to irrational logic and bursts of madness in the heat of the moment as any of the rest of us. Doesn't make it right though.
Ger Lock must have went into a fair rage after reading Cooney's account of it.


I liked the hurling the Offaly of that era played, it was tough but mostly fair and no doubt about it some of the best wristy hurlers of that era in Brian Whelahan and John Troy in particular.
Certainly they had their fair share of luck, with the inexplicaple collapse of Limerick to the Cooney incident when Clare were on the home straight and wouldn't have been caught. So there's two AI's they in most circumstances they shouldn't have won, but they did and the history books reflect that.
My Da always said it was a Kilkenny man who changed the way Offaly hurled in the early 80's, Diarmuid Healy, is that true?

[Lone Shark]

It is indeed, though Brother Denis Minahane in Birr, a Corkman, can take a fair share of the credit too for doing so much work in the school.

Diarmuid Healy changed the approach to hurling in the county though. He stripped away some of the hellfire and brimstone element (Offaly hurling finals in the sixties and seventies used to draw massive crowds, all baying for blood and they inevitably went home sated), gave lads lighter hurls and most of all, gave them belief. He was crucial to the whole thing.

As for the luck element, the funny thing about the 1990's was that with the exception of Limerick, every county got their bit of luck at some stage and the final tally of All Irelands was probably fair. Okay the Jimmy Cooney affair was fortunate from an Offaly perspective, but most of us still have occasional nightmares about David Hughes in 1995 batting down Anthony Daly's free. If that ball is left go over the bar, Clare get a draw at best, and given how badly we underperformed that day due to complacency or whatever, my personal opinion is that we'd have won the replay handy and the Clare revival might never have happened. Of course we don't know that, but Offaly were 1/4 in the betting to win the 1995 final and the replay would have been no bigger than 1/3 or 2/7.

Now go to 1998. Five minutes of hurling left, one team three points up, but that after leading by ten earlier in the game. What price are Clare? Probably 2/7 or 1/4.

Luck has a way of evening itself out really. 

[Tony Baloney]

Michael Duignan on the repeat of The Saturday Night Show. Must get the book for Christmas.

Refreshing to see someone on a chatshow not breaking down in tears and God knows he has reason to.

[Doogie Browser]

Michael Duignan on the repeat of The Saturday Night Show. Must get the book for Christmas.

Refreshing to see someone on a chatshow not breaking down in tears and God knows he has reason to.

Seen that on sat night, very refreshing to see honesty on a chat show interview.

[Tony Baloney]

Michael Duignan on the repeat of The Saturday Night Show. Must get the book for Christmas.

Refreshing to see someone on a chatshow not breaking down in tears and God knows he has reason to.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsGcp-hNdfg
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ZfwwXb2OU

[Asal Mor]

I'm only reading this book now and so far (about 70 pages in) it's f**king brilliant. I was in tears at the parts about his late wife Edel and laughing out loud at a few other parts. There have been a lot of great GAA books - it seems that the honesty, humor and personality of our players make for some great stories.