Captain Shane Mulligan couldn’t even bring himself to look at the penalty that eventually won Leinster for his club.
The 58th minute of a Leinster final, Mullinalaghta are trailing by two points and Kilmacud Crokes, playing with the wind, look like they’ve done enough.
But Mullinalaghta aren’t spent yet.
David McGivney bursts onto a pass from Jayson Matthews and he looks like he means business. There could be an opportunity here. He breaks one tackle, then another before laying the ball on to Aidan McElligott who’s on the penalty spot.
He’s takes the ball in his chest and tries to step back to find space for a shot. This is the chance.
That’s when Cian O’Sullivan catches him with a trailing leg and the referee awards the penalty.
Mullinalaghta players are already fist-pumping but there’s work to be done yet.
Shane Mulligan is down the other end of the pitch and he knows that.
It’s do or die at this stage and Mullinalaghta need this to go on.
Unfortunately, their first choice penalty taker Donie McElligott can’t take it because he’s carrying a knock, so it’s all in half forward Gary Rogers’ hands.
Mulligan can’t bear to look at it so he turns around and waits for the cheer.
“I heard the cheer but sure I didn’t know if it was for a save or a goal,” he said on Monday’s GAA Hour Show.
“So I had to turn around but there was a green flag flying anyway…After that I asked, ‘what way did he go?’ He put it to the bottom right and I said, ‘sure that’s the wrong way, he was supposed to go the other way, they were like, ‘yeah I know but it went in anyway!’
Gary Rogers with a penalty for Mullinalaghta St. Columba's! pic.twitter.com/UiObG8SSLE
— The GAA (@officialgaa) December 9, 2018
He was supposed to go the other way because Mullinalaghta had heard David Nestor’s interview after his penalty save from Portlaois’ Craig Rogers’ in the semi-final.
We’ll let Colm Parkinson take it from there.
“David Nestor said, look at my age, ‘I can only really dive one way,’ I was like, ‘Jesus Christ,’ and then Gary just stuck to the same way that Craig Rogers went and David Nestor maybe talked himself out of it and went the other way, thinking Gary would go the other way too,” said Wooly.
Mulligan acknowledged that the Mullinaghta lads had heard that interview, and that there may have been a chance Nestor double-bluffed himself.
“Yeah, we had heard that interview, we had heard that! That’s going to be talked about alright in some meeting now after this, because I don’t know was that in the script to go that way…I don’t know, Gary just took ownership or maybe he seen something in his eyes that said ‘this lad’s going the other way, I don’t really know!”
Either way, he doesn’t reckon Nestor would have saved it, so well Rogers dispatched it.
“I don’t think he would have got to it anyway,” said Mulligan, “It was a brilliant penalty, tucked nice and low.”
You can listen to the Mulligan interview, and much more here from Monday’s GAA Hour Show.
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