‘The way I describe it is it's everything I imagined it would be,’ says All-Ireland winner Saoirse McCarthy

THE first image Fiona Keating thinks of when her mind drifts back to Cork’s perfect All-Ireland final day is the main photo on this page.

When the final whistle announced the Rebels as champions, Keating and her Courcey Rovers club-mate Saoirse McCarthy made a beeline for one another on the Croke Park pitch.

Two friends from the same parish who hurl with the same club shared a magical moment.

‘We both just looked at each other and were both like “we actually did it, we got over the line”,’ Keating tells this week’s Star Sport Podcast.

‘After losing the last two, to look at each other and know we had won this one was really special.

‘That photo is one to be framed.’

Keating and McCarthy travel to training together every week, and on Thursday, days out from the showdown with Waterford, they both said to one another that they had to get the job done this time. The Rebels had lost the previous two All-Ireland finals in 2021 and ’22, and the group was determined to end the hurt this year.

‘We knew ourselves that we were capable of it and it was up to us to perform on the day,’ Keating explains – and Cork hit all the right notes in a 5-13 to 0-9 demolition of a shell-shocked Waterford.

‘It’s very special. It's my first senior All-Ireland so to win it beside a club-mate is fantastic.’

All-Star McCarthy has been one of Cork’s standout performers in this All-Ireland winning campaign, and was able to soak it all up in those final few minutes; the outcome was known well before the final whistle went. The Courceys ace – player of the match in the semi-final against Galway – was subbed inside the last ten minutes, and could enjoy the game from the sideline.

‘We had the privilege of knowing we had done it before the final whistle,’ McCarthy says.

‘I got the unique experience of having that on the sideline, myself and Laura Hayes were standing by the subs bench, soaking it all in for the last couple of minutes. I waved up to the parents behind us, we were able to look at the cup saying we have actually done it, and when the whistle goes that 20 seconds is just carnage.

‘I said it when we went up the steps, I have done this in my head, probably 300 times, you dream of this, and when it actually happens it takes over. You don’t think much, you just enjoy it.’

So what exactly is that moment like when dreams become reality and you know you are an All-Ireland champion?

‘The way I describe it is everything I imagined it would be,’ McCarthy says.

‘Because it has been so long coming, everyone is making the most of it and of every single moment. Monday was hectic, but everyone was buzzing, and then we got the train back to Cork and met everyone; it feels like a dream but when you look back at the pictures, that was us, we actually did that and that’s class.’

‘Nobody could have written this script, McCarthy adds, that Cork would turn in the complete performance on All-Ireland final day to blow the opposition out of the water.

‘Five goals in an All-Ireland final …. We have been saying all year that one day we are going to click and everything is going to go right for us and we will hammer a team. For it to happen in the final is nuts,’ she says, and one of those goals – Cork’s fifth – was scored by Keating.

‘I just got the ball, looked up, saw the gap and it opened up. I put my head down and nearly ran into the net! Before the game Amy O’Connor was saying to get the ball and run it into the net. The way it happened I almost ended up in the net! It was fantastic. Hearing the crowd after that, it gave me the chills,’ Keating explains.

The Courceys duo also hailed the role of the Cork management team and boss Matthew Twomey. On Friday he held what he described as an ‘unbelievable meeting’ with the players. McCarthy fills us in.

‘Matthew had this amazing slideshow, going through all the hardship that we have had over the last couple of years, and even this year. But we bounced back, we kept the belief the whole time. He was saying it was in our hands to just go and do it,’ she says, and McCarthy adds, ‘We didn’t feel pressure, we knew we had all the hard work done and it was just down to us to go and perform on the day. We have such a good team behind us and great players, this is a fantastic bunch. The management team this ear is absolutely unbelievable, they didn’t leave a stone unturned and that group of people was a massive factor for us.’

All that hard work led to this glorious triumph, captured by the photo of two club-mates celebrating their biggest win on the biggest stage together. It’s a photo for the scrapbook.