Mayo's victory over Dublin on Saturday evening in this year's first All-Ireland SFC semi-final included many memorable moments.
Diarmuid O'Connor's amazing, astonishingly acrobatic assist, flying through the air to keep the ball in play, his full stretch roundhouse volley turning a potentially galling miss into the opportunity for a score, taken by Kevin McLoughlin.
Rob Hennelly completing his own transformation, from villain to hero, not just from one major match to another but within a minute, scoring the re-taken last-gasp '45' to force extra time.
A referee actually sending a slice of luck in Mayo's favour - and, mon dieu!, against Dublin - by ordering that kick to be taken again after the first effort had been sent wide, on the basis of off-the-ball shenanigans from the Dubs.
Tommy Conroy's series of brilliant points.
Dublin losing a senior football championship match for the first time in seven years.
Yet although there was another incident which might not best be described as unforgettable, it certainly shouldn't be forgotten:
John Small brutally taking Eoghan McLaughlin out of the game - and surely out of the All-Ireland Final too.
The Mayo man will miss out on a huge occasion after suffering a double fracture to his jaw, while the Dublin defender could escape without any punishment whatsoever.
Bizarrely, in an alternate universe where Small had, quite rightly, been sent off but Dublin had held onto their lead and advanced to a seventh consecutive final, there would still be widespread debate going on about that red card decision.
There'd be the usual tripe talked, saying that the culprit 'isn't that sort of player', that 'it's not right for a man to miss an All-Ireland Final because of one mis-timed challenge', and so on and so forth.
Indeed, even though Small wasn't even penalised for a foul, never mind shown a card of any colour by referee Conor Lane, there were still plenty of attempts to downplay the severity of what he'd done to the opposing defender.
RTE co-commentator Kevin McStay, a former Mayo star himself, once again tried so hard to appear balanced, and certainly not biased towards his native county, that he tipped way over into what my young children call 'topsy-turvy world', saying the opposite of what is actually true. Perhaps he really loved his time playing club football in Dublin with Ballymun - *checks programme* - the club of John Small. To be fair to McStay, he went onto 'The Sunday Game' to reverse his opinion, but few could hear him over the sound of a stable door slamming.
Referee Conor Lane deserved plenty of criticism for his calls but he did not have a particularly good view of the incident, and only one look at it; he should have received more help from the experienced Maurice Deegan on the line, who was nearer to it.
However, anyone who saw replays should surely acknowledge that it was a terrible challenge.
Yet attempts to lessen the severity of what happened continued. There was some distraction going on, with some pointing out that still photographs made the incident 'appear worse than it actually was', that Small hadn't struck with his elbow, just his shoulder.
Just his shoulder…
While I disagree with that old school line of thought that it's somehow more 'manly' to punch someone in the mouth rather than to insult them or their relatives (sticks and stones and all that…), there's definitely little debate to be had about whether it's worse to receive an elbow to the jaw or a shoulder to the jaw.
McLaughlin suffered a double fracture from Small's shoulder, so his elbow could hardly have done any more damage.
The argument that Small was somehow entitled to 'go for' McLaughlin is utter balderdash.
This column is all for physicality in contact sports. Big hits are essential drama.
Yet while hard challenges should remain part of the game, they must be hard but fair.
It may not have been totally impossible for Small's shoulder to connect with McLaughlin's shoulder, but it was highly improbable given their respective angles of running.
Instead, it was a frontal assault.
At the very least McLaughlin was going to sustain an unfair shoulder to his chest. At worst, who knows?
A fracture to some part of his skull was sadly predictable.
All the apologists talking about it being 'mis-timed' are wrong; it was totally mis-directed.
We cannot declare definitively that what Small did was deliberate, but it was downright dangerous, reckless.
The duty of care is on the challenger to tackle cleanly, not on the player in possession to protect themselves from being hurt.
There was a certain irony that Mayo denied Dublin their anticipated win with scores taken in the time added on after McLaughlin's injury.
That doesn't do poor Eoghan much good, but it's not too late for appropriate punishment to be issued to Small.
The GAA has shown over the years that it's prepared to take retrospective action to deal with unsavoury incidents which were missed by the match officials.
The Association must do so again.
The message must be sent out that such challenges are unacceptable.
The GAA probably isn't going to consider bringing in video reviews during matches, as happens in rugby and soccer, or allow teams to challenge certain decisions, as in cricket or tennis. In truth, worries about the amount of time to be added on would be irrelevant in such instances, given that the game would have to be stopped anyway to allow for treatment of the injured player.
Yet even now it can still look back at this horrific incident and decide to do something about it.
Just because Dublin lost shouldn't mean it's the end of the matter.
