THE LAST POINT: Tipp tops of a magnificent sporting week

When asked what exactly we sports fanatics love about our passion, whatever it may, it can often be hard to define; to find the words that capture why we are so all besotted by the endeavours of our sporting heroes but after an overload of sport last weekend, I'm not sure there is an adequate answer to that vexing question.

Be it the captivating penalty shootouts from the Women's European Soccer Championships  in Switzerland or Ireland's young athletes landing a shed-load of medals in Norway on the international stage to the mad-cap LGFA Senior Semi-Finals in Tullamore to a quite unbelievable All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final in Croke Park, we might not be able to express in words what it means but we know exactly what it does to our emotions and heart-rates.

Granted, not everyone shares the same sporting passions and the momentous battle in Croke Park might leave some feeling cold, their attention might be diverted to Oz where the Lions are doing battle or up in  Portrush for the golf but whatever your particular poison, in a sporting sense, you'll agree that there is nothing in life that has the singular capacity to drive so many of us to the heights of ecstasy or depths of despair.

However ephemeral those feelings are, be it glorying in triumph or wallowing in defeat, there is no doubt that the memories collectively made by so many people in just the last week will last a lifetime, warming them on cold winter evenings many years from now or causing an involuntary shudder of regret - that is the true magic of our sporting passions.

To be fair, I'm not exactly sure where to start when considering the events of last week but, perhaps, it is best to start with a stark contrast because two penalty shootouts couldn't have been more different if they had tried as England and Sweden produced a calamitous, almost comical shootout on Thursday before Germany and France displayed the exact opposite - clinical and deadly efficiency under immense and almost unbearable pressure.

THE LAST POINT: THE UNINTENDED POWER OF WORDS

Credit where credit is due, these games had everything with missed penalties, botched leads, crazy red cards and perhaps one of the greatest saves a goalkeeper has ever made when Ann-Katrin Berger produced a stupendous acrobatic effort to claw a misplaced header from one of her defenders out of the German net.

Berger, who has overcome potentially much bigger hurdles in life by twice coming through treatment for cancer, encapsulated every cliche we have about German football - unyielding, focused and seemingly invincible in penalty shootouts, the German women produced a heroic backs against the wall performance to take the game to extra-time before getting the better of an extremely talented French team who just can't seem to get across the line.

There's often a sneering attitude about women's sport but the quality of the football at the Euros is incredible and I know I'm not alone in making plans to watch the semi-finals and final. Certainly the packed stadiums in Switzerland back up the notion that the Women's game is growing in popularity but there are still challenges to be overcome.

You only have to look at the paltry turnout for the LGFA Senior Championship Semi-Final double header in Tullamore last Saturday to realise that - the semi-finals featured the last three champions and last year's beaten finalists in Galway but you couldn't help but notice the empty seats and oceans of space on the terraces in Glenisk O'Connor Park.

I'm not going to go over old ground here, wondering why people don't give the same backing to women's county teams but all I'll say if David Clifford, deified by the masses as the greatest gaelic footballer ever to lace up boots, had scored the goal that Carla Rowe did for the Dubs last Saturday evening in Tullamore, we'd be talking about it  until Kingdom come.

Don't believe me? Check out the video and watch as the Dublin captain back-heeled - yes, back-heeled - the ball into the Galway net in extra-time with the match on the line. It was an act of such brash opportunism bordering on genius that it left me speechless, a moment of magic that was unfathomable with Dublin finally, just about, getting the better of a Galway side who looked the best team for long periods of Saturday's contest.

A year on from Leitrim's epic All-Ireland IFC Final victory in Croke Park, the county will still be represented on All-Ireland Final day with Ballinamore's Eilish O'Dowd starring for the Dubs while Niamh Gallogly, daughter of Aughavas' Frank Gallogly, has been one of Meath's leaders on their march back to the Final - so plenty of interest for Leitrim fans.

Leitrim almost played a part in bringing down an Irish team at the World U20 Rugby Cup with Annaduff's Liam McNamee starring for Spain against Ireland in Italy last weekend, the 6 foot 8 inch lock almost helping his adopted country Ireland who needed a late try to secure a face saving 38-37 victory in the 11th place playoff. 

I've not really chatted about Irish athletes winning five medals at the European U23 Track & Field Championships including a gold and a bronze for Anika Thompson, another of diaspora who have enriched our sporting history by committing to the country of their parents - it certainly made for distracted viewing with an iPad on the knee for the athletics and TV on for the soccer and Ladies football.

But capping it all off was a truly remarkable All-Ireland Hurling Final - to be honest, I've found the myth making surrounding hurling a little tedious as if the small ball game was the only suitable expression of Irish sporting identity. But I've got to admit that there is something elemental to the All-Ireland Hurling Final, something that speaks to us deep inside - even those who wouldn't normally cross the road to watch a hurling game in person.

Hurling pundits have been getting a hammering since Sunday for their predictions thanks to Tipperary's emotion packed win but in fairness, few foresaw what transpired in the second half. I don't think I've seen a destruction as complete, nor as unexpected as what was inflicted on the Rebels - Antrim in 1989 and Waterford in 2008 were bulldozed by Tipperary and Kilkenny but both those games were long over by halftime.

THE LAST POINT: ONE SHOT IS ALL IT TAKES FOR LEITRIM

Cork looked set to end their 20 year Liam McCarthy famine as they led by six points, having not played particularly well, but Tipperary caught fire in such spectacular fashion that the final ten minutes was merely an exercise in prolonging Cork's agony - a transformation so complete as to defy reason.

Maybe the Premier stickmen had one of those days when everything went right or maybe Cork imploded under the weight of expectation and maybe it was a mix of both. But whatever it was, it was both captivating, almost hypnotic, and terrible to watch as Cork fans got a dose of what Dublin's hurlers endured just two weeks previously, a brutal exposition of limitations they didn’t know existed.

Credit Tipp for the wherewithal to find that reservoir of talent and belief deep within themselves, 2025 will rank right up there with their best ever and no doubt my former colleague Donal O’Grady was a very happy man on Sunday afternoon watching his fellow Thurles Sars clubman Ronan Maher lift Liam MacCarthy.

I’ll not term the hurling the 'icing on the cake' for the sporting weekend, given the wondrous feats we witnessed from Thompson, Rowe and Berger but it was a hell of a way to finish it and it has left the footballers of Donegal and Kerry with a herculean task ahead of them next Sunday to top Tipp in the drama stakes - they can’t better that, can they?