SPORT can make you cynical.
It is not just the football clubs run with an eye on the stock exchange or geopolitics, the transfers that reference financial fair play, the colossal debts, or the 115 charges.
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Or the bad VAR, bad behaviour, bad divers.
Or the ticket prices, subscription fees, or the mystery of how influencers get tickets and you do not.
Closer to home, the FAI’s appointment of Heimir Hallgrímisson last week when the focus was on the Sunday Independent/RTE investigation about the women’s game left a bad taste.
So did the explanation that it was so he could get to work fast when he then attended the women’s game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh rather than Shamrock Rovers versus Vikingur.
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That is not a slight on Hallgrímsson – a former women’s team manager.
But surely watching players of the gender you can select would be a better use of time if your appointment needed to be done fast is more important than a photo-op?
Especially after his comments about wanting to arrange international games for home-based players?
Were he in Tallaght, he could also have informally caught up with at least two of John O’Shea’s coaching staff as Glenn Whelan and Stephen Rice were in attendance.
Beyond being cynical, sport always has a way of constantly letting you down.
Former Whipping Boy guitarist and Bohemian fan Paul Page tweeted about what he observed last week that highlighted it.
He wrote: “Two German tourists in the toilets at Dalymount before the game last night.
“One of the regulars: ‘Welcome to Dalymount Park – by the time the game is over tonight, you are going to f**king hate football!’ The Bohemian way.”
But thankfully, sport also has a way of washing away the cynicism.
Hallgrímsson was lucky enough to see that for himself on Tuesday in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (that the GAA venue even hosted the game is, in itself, a good sign) against France.
You would want a heart of stone not to appreciate the significance of one of the world’s best players Denise O’Sullivan scoring the opening goal in her hometown.
And Julie-Ann Russell’s return to the squad after a four-year absence, and a year after having a baby, to score twice is one of the stories of the year.
Even then, her daughter Rosie stole the show!
TALLAGHT NIGHT
And as the Girls in Green did a lap of honour after that game, the game in Tallaght between Shamrock Rovers and Vikingur kicked off what turned out to be a night of drama.
By full-time Rovers fans were bouncing as it felt like they snatched victory from the jaws of a defeat in a game where they were on the verge of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
And all because Nikolaj Hansen’s penalty with what was the last kick of the game struck the post that meant they avoided extra time!
It was a special night as Stephen Bradley referenced after the game.
He played against Juventus for the Hoops, and has managed against AC Milan, and in the group stages.
But nothing can compare to the emotion that comes from a game – and potentially season – defining moment in the last second of a game.
It is why we keep coming back no matter how many nights of misery it also brings.