{"id":241342,"date":"2026-01-12T17:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/241342\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T17:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:39:09","slug":"why-saturdays-all-ireland-finals-double-header-was-the-best-weve-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/241342\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Saturday&#8217;s All-Ireland finals double-header was the best we&#8217;ve ever seen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Late on in extra-time of Saturday\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/sport\/gaa\/arid-41773385.html\">All-Ireland Club Intermediate Hurling Championship final<\/a>, the match had effectively evolved into a game of pinball, the sliotar flying from end-to-end in a crazy fusion of chaotic excitement and Hitchcockian drama. Goals. Saves. Constant attacks. Manic defending. A Hollywood scriptwriter couldn\u2019t have dreamed it up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Upperchurch-Drombane scored two goals in the first half of extra-time but could have raised five green flags in that period. The Tipperary side were hunting goals as much as points when the space opened up before the last five minutes of the second half of extra-time exploded into a shootout unlike anything ever witnessed before in Croke Park.<\/p>\n<p>This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/login\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"IE Logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4633150_1_org_IE_logo_modals.png\" width=\"340\" height=\"41\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\tSubscribe to access all of the Irish Examiner.<\/p>\n<p>Annual \u20ac130\u20ac80<\/p>\n<p class=\"best-value\">Best value<\/p>\n<p>Monthly \u20ac12\u20ac6 \/ month<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Benefits image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4874751_1_org_Funnel_image.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"footer-info\">Introductory offers for new customers. Annual billed once for first year. Renews at \u20ac130. Monthly initial discount (first 3 months) billed monthly, then \u20ac12 a month. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/terms-conditions\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Ts&amp;Cs<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n<p>\t&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late on in extra-time of Saturday\u2019s All-Ireland Club Intermediate Hurling Championship final, the match had effectively evolved into&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4365,1965,61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-241342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gaelic-football","9":"tag-hurling","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}