All-Ireland Hurling Final: Limerick vs Cork By The Numbers

Malachy Clerkin opens the record books ahead of the meeting of Limerick and Cork


0

Times Limerick have won back-to-back All-Ireland titles in the history of the championship.

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Goal-less games in the 2021 championship so far. That’s down from three in 2020.

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The only All-Ireland winner in the Cork squad is Eoin Cadogan, who was the starting corner back with the footballers when they beat Down in 2010. If Cork win here, he will become the first male player in any county to win All-Irelands in both sports since Teddy McCarthy and Denis Walsh in 1990.

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Cork players who have played in an All-Ireland hurling final before – Patrick Horgan and Séamus Harnedy, who both featured in 2013 against Clare.

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Times Declan Hannon has been the winning captain. If Limerick are victorious on Sunday, he will become the first hurler since Christy Ring to captain three All-Ireland winning teams.

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Quarters Limerick have lost in the 2021 championship. One against Cork first day out, two against Tipperary in the Munster final.

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Sets of brothers with the potential to be involved in the final. The Morrisseys will start for Limerick, while it's likely that both Cadogans will take the pitch at some stage for Cork and possible that both Cahalanes will appear too. The last final with no brothers on the pitch was 2010, when Richie Hogan came off the bench for Kilkenny but his brother Paddy was an unused sub.

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This will be the fourth time two Munster counties have met in the All-Ireland final. Clare beat Tipperary in 1997 and Cork in 2013 and Limerick beat Waterford last year.

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Goals scored by Cork on their way to the final. The last time they made a final in 2013, that number was one. The time before that in 2006, it was three.

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Points Patrick Horgan needs to score to pass Tony Kelly and finish as the leading scorer in the 2021 championship. Throughout his storied career, he has finished second three times – to TJ Reid in 2019, to Colin Ryan in 2013 and to Paul Ryan in 2011. He has never finished first.

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Different clubs represented in Limerick’s likely starting line-up. Patrickswell will have three players on the first 15, Na Piarsaigh and Ahane will have two.

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Days to wait for a replay, if one is needed. If the teams finish level on Sunday, there is no extra-time. Everyone packs up and goes home until Saturday, September 4th.

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Different clubs represented in Cork's likely starting line-up. Only Glen Rovers have more than one – Horgan and Robert Downey.

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Years since Cork last lifted Liam MacCarthy. This equals the longest spell without an All-Ireland in the county’s history.

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Cork's Shane Barrett will be the first hurler born in the 21st century to start an All-Ireland final. Alan Connolly (Cork) and Colin Coughlan and Cathal O'Neill (Limerick) are the other post-Y2K babies who could potentially take the field.

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Years since any team has won the All-Ireland final having had a player sent off. Éamonn Scallan got the line for Wexford in 1996 and Liam Griffin's side still went on to win. Since then, Benny Dunne (Tipperary 2009), Cyril Donnellan (Galway 2012) and Richie Hogan (Kilkenny 2019) have all been red-carded and their teams have all lost.

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Nickie Quaid is the oldest player on the Limerick team, having turned 31 in June. None of the rest of them will turn 30 before the 2023 championship.

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Points needed by Patrick Horgan to pass Joe Canning at the top of the all-time scoring charts. He will definitely need a replay. And probably extra-time. Otherwise, he'll have to wait until next summer.

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This will be the 33rd unique pairing in an All-Ireland final since the first hurling championship was played in 1887. It will be the eighth different county Cork have met in a final and the sixth different county Limerick have met.

40

Thousand. As in, there will be 40,000 people inside a stadium in Ireland watching a hurling match for the first time in two years. It’s the biggest crowd at any sporting event in the country since Ireland played Wales in the 2020 Six Nations, when 51,000 were in the Aviva. Since then, well, you know what happened since then.