The John Horgan column: Ticket hunt is on after Cork hurlers' heroics

IT’S difficult enough to win an All-Ireland semi-final at any time but having to do it twice on the same day represents a monumental achievement.

Well, that’s what Cork did in Croke Park last Sunday when they killed off the Cats in extra-time of an epic encounter.

It reminded this observer of a day long, long ago when England won the World Cup against West Germany after extra-time again when the Germans had equalised at the death in regulation time.

The English manager Alf Ramsey’s message to the players before they began the extra-time period was very simple, ye have already beaten them once today, now go out and do it again.

That they did, romping home in the end and whilst Kieran Kingston’s utterances to the Cork players in the dressing room before they went back out for the extra 20 minutes might not have been those words, there is every likelihood that they might have been something similar.

There is no doubt that Kilkenny’s last-gasp goal from Adrian Mullen, the score that levelled it all up, might have swung the pendulum in Kilkenny’s direction When a team levels the game seconds before the full-time whistle to take it to extra-time the perception might be to suggest that the momentum was now behind them.

And Kilkenny had history this season of being involved in a game that lasted the 90 minutes plus when themselves and Wexford could not be separated in regulation time.

We all remembered what transpired that day, they ran away from Wexford in the end to reach the Leinster final which they subsequently won.

So the portents might have been pointing towards them and we recalled too how Cork fared out the last time they were in a semi-final against Limerick in 2018.

That day they again gave up a six-point advantage before bowing out in the added 20 minutes.

Was history going to repeat itself? Not this time because Cork returned from what might have been an anxious dressing room and did what they probably should have done in normal time.

But when you engage any Kilkenny team you can never, ever count your chickens and they deserved immense credit for taking the game the extra mile when all hope looked like it was lost.

This was a game for the ages, that’s something we have said before and and, no doubt, will again in the future because this great game of hurling just never ceases to amaze.

In this season’s championship, Cork have developed a habit of making life difficult for themselves, something we witnessed against Clare and to a lesser extent against Dublin.

For the neutral observer that makes for compulsive viewing but it’s nerve-jangling for the supporters clad in red.

The end result justifies everything, of course, and this was one of Cork’s great victories at headquarters and one that will battle harden them all the more for the biggest test of all that Limerick will provide next Sunday week.

When Cork lost that 2018 semi-final to the Shannonsiders it was the Limerick bench that sorted the issue, Shane Dowling in particular. Last Sunday it was the Cork bench that changed everything, the introduction of Shane Kingston to a huge degree and his Douglas clubmate Alan Cadogan.

They contributed 10 points between them, Kingston with a remarkable seven.

It was a big call to omit Kingston, all the more so when his father is the team boss and, whilst he had not been at his best recently, he was still delivering big goals.

But sentiment never comes into the equation and the young man answered any critic that might have been hanging about with a display that surely now makes him a definite starter for the final.

Eoin Cadogan showed off his vast experience when he replaced Ger Millerick and Deccie Dalton’s sublime point upon his introduction showed everybody that he too has a role if called.

Going up to Croke Park last weekend the records showed how poor Cork’s record had been in recent semi-finals, just one victory since 2008, defeating Dublin in 2013.

In the past, Cork’s record at the penultimate hurdle had been far, far better, winning 28 and losing just 10 before the 2008 loss to last Sunday’s opponents.

But that dismal stat is now consigned to history because this Cork squad, and we emphasise the squad is one of sheer grit, determination and an abundance of character The squad’s youthful exuberance is taking it to a place that a Cork team has not visited since 2013.

The pace of some players is just electrifying and it electrifies the support in the stands and elsewhere.

A couple of players, Seamie Harnedy and Jack O’Connor had not set the world alight in the opening half but by game’s end they had 1-6 between them, a huge contribution from the great St Ita’s warrior and from the young Sarsfield’s flier who is surely destined to have a lengthy tenure in the red jersey.

Patrick Horgan’s contribution was again gargantuan, isn’t it nearly always.

Defeating Kilkenny in such an absorbing encounter and the manner of it will deepen the resolve that this team possesses all that bit more. Rob Downey, Tim O’Mahony, Mark Coleman to name just three are growing in stature week by week.

But the most important thing of all, all these players have put the spring back in the step of Cork hurling.