Shane O’Donnell doesn’t normally settle for a point but these were exceptional circumstances.
Goals populate the Éire Óg Ennis club man’s mind even in the most improbable and unlikely of situations, but when Tony Kelly sent a long, deep ball over the Clare full forward line against Dublin on Sunday, not even the most forewarned and diligent defender would have been fearing the worst.
As Michael Carton told on Monday’s GAA Hour podcast, Dublin goalkeeper Alan Nolan was left in a state of awe and shock when Clare’s magical inside forward managed to manipulate it down from the sky.
“I was chatting to the Dublin keeper Alan Nolan this morning and he said he was in shock when he touched it. Under pressure, it was brilliant,” said Carton.
Brilliant is an understatement. Colm Parkinson deems O’Donnell’s over the head touch from the Gods to be up there with some of the best he’s seen.
“I was just looking at that thinking, that’s one of the most underrated pieces of brilliance I’ve ever seen. He couldn’t see that ball until it came over his head…He had eyes on the back of his head, I just watched that and went, how the?”
JJ Delaney meanwhile, referred to it as a ‘phenomenal’ piece of play.
“He had a split second to even just know where the ball was going to go, and then to control the ball. Usually corner forwards let it over their heads and let it bounce, but the skill and composure to control it over his head, was absolutely phenomenal, and then to swing it over the shoulder…”
Sit back, and enjoy the instinctive touch down, the point over the shoulder from Clare’s danger man courtesy of TG4. How he manages to keep his balance, and the ball is incredible here.
Shane O'Donnell…
What even….?
?
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) March 2, 2020
“He’s that sort of player, he has these phenomenal touches,” added Carton.
Scorer of 3-3 in the All-Ireland final as a teenager, O’Donnell has lit up the hurling landscape over the years that followed with some tremendous goals and pieces of individual skill, none-more-so, than this stunner against Galway in the 2018 All-Ireland semi-final.
'I think we have seen one of the goals of the Championship Brendan' – Ger Canning was rightly impressed by this Shane O'Donnell goal. Game on! Highlights 9.30pm on @RTE2 #RTEGAA https://t.co/SlPERfO9xW pic.twitter.com/lS4fV2nodp
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) August 5, 2018
He’s one of the sharpest forwards in the game and is in red hot form under Brian Lohan right now, having hit Kilkenny for 2-1 in Nowlan Park last week.
“Shane O’Donnell is back to himself. When he gets the ball, he’s just lethal. He either wants to score a goal or make a goal. I love to see Shane O’Donnell playing, he’s just so quick, so accurate and such a natural corner forward, he’s brilliant to watch,” added JJ.
“He takes a lot of punishment, when the ball comes into him, it sticks all the time. If you were a back playing with him, you’d hit him the ball all the time because you know it’s going to stick…”
Give him any sort of ball, and Shane O’Donnell will have it won in an instant.
You can listen to the most recent episode of The GAA Hour Hurling Show here.
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