On this see-saw, neither of them can let go. Cork won barely when it looked for a while like they would win easily and just like every game that has mattered in this rivalry over the last seven years, they looked each other in the eye and held the stare. Nobody blinked. Nobody would dare.Nothing was resolved until the eighth minute of stoppage time. Galway won a free outside the Cork D and Sarah Healy was summoned from the Hill 16 end with her shooting hurley. Just like in the Hollywood Westerns she was faced with the gunslinger’s imperative: one shot.Galway trailed by two points and every outfield player was massed between her and the Cork goal. From where Healy stood, about 33 metres out, no route was coming up on sat nav. The ball left her hurley with force but it flew over the bar. Finally, that was it.It had been an extraordinary endgame. Cork led by six points with three minutes of normal time left, and having controlled the second half, the game was in their palm of their hand. But they couldn’t make a fist and Galway kept coming.As the game swooned into five minutes of indicated stoppage time, Galway rattled over four points in as many minutes and didn’t give up on a goal. Carrie Dolan, Galway’s outstanding captain, tried to manufacture a chance with a short free to Niamh Niland and a couple of minutes later Dervla Higgins came up from wing back and fired a shot that whistled across the Cork square.Cork’s game management in the last 10 minutes was loose, and their decision making was clouded. They played short puck-outs to open targets inside their own 45, but they carried it into congested areas, and some passes didn’t go to hand. Those turnovers renewed Galway’s momentum.Galway's Carrie Dolan comes up against Izzy O'Regan and Méabh Murphy of Cork. Photograph: Grace Halton/Inpho Ultimately, though, the game swung on two second-half goals. Just like hurling, camogie is full of short passes now and premeditated means of managing the ball, but both of Cork’s goals came from massive deliveries by their goalie Amy Lee. Both times, she played a one-two with Libby Coppinger and let fly.For the first goal, Saoirse McCarthy made a terrific catch about 40 metres out and ran straight for the Galway goal. She bounced the ball once off the ground to put a few coins in the meter and then hit a shot that might not have beaten Sarah Healy every time.For the second goal, Healy had no chance. The outstanding Sorcha McCartan deflected Lee’s towering delivery into the path of her clubmate Orlaith Cahalane and she found the net with a fierce drive that bounced into the far corner.Galway had not conceded a goal in this year’s championship, but Ger Manley said that Cork had goals on their mind. In last year’s All-Ireland final, all three of Cork’s inside forwards were replaced by the 48th minute, but this time they were the difference.“We were disappointed in the first half that we didn’t get the ball into our full-forward line,” said Manley. “We have an exceptionally good full forward line. McCartan is not far off Player of the Year, she’s been so good. Amy O’Connor is lethal. Orlaith Cahalane we call her Messi, she has time on the ball constantly. You saw the goal she got – did she panic? No, she sauntered in and flashed it into the corner.”Cork's Méabh Cahalane lifts the O'Duffy Cup. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho McCartan played the game with a broken finger that she had picked up in the opening 10 minutes of the semi-final a fortnight ago but it was no impediment. Each of her four points was struck from distance and from an angle and with elegance. By a mile, she was the outstanding player on the field.Cork won the tactical battle too. At the beginning of the second half Ashling Thompson was switched to centre forward where she reduced Ciara Hickey’s influence. Young Millie Condon, starting her first All-Ireland, picked up Dolan and didn’t take a backward step. Laura Hayes, though, bestrode the middle third with her athleticism and her drive. She scored two points, but made an assist for four others, an astonishing contribution from a centrefielder. As a spectacle, it was a vivid specimen of the modern game. It is only eight years since an All-Ireland final was strangled by thirty-six frees and by then the game had evolved beyond the competence of its rules.Some of the rules are different now but nothing has changed more than attitudes. The referee, Gavin Donegan, ignored obvious fouls in a way that often happens in the biggest hurling championship matches, but nobody was giving out or screaming for frees. For a referee, that is always a high-wire act. Both teams were conditioned for contact and were steeled for a fight.The ferocity that has characterised this rivalry in recent years was evident from the beginning and never abated. Dolan should have been booked for a frontal tackle on Laura Hayes after a few minutes when, perversely, not even a free was awarded. Midway through the half, though, she was booked for a tackle on McCarthy and in the end, there were five yellow cards.Nobody stopped. Nobody blinked.