When Cork and Clare clash in this evening’s All-Ireland final replay, it will be the sixth time the sides have met in competition this year. The players know each other like parish rivals.
Many of the players mix at college level, too. When Mary Immaculate College lost to University College Cork in the Fitzgibbon Cup final in March, Clare’s John Conlon and Colm Galvin soldiered alongside Cork’s Luke O’Farrell in their team.
Three of Cork's starting XV from its senior side – Séamus Harnedy, Conor Lehane and William Egan -–lined out for UCC. Clare substitute Shane O'Donnell is also a UCC player. Clare's manager Davy Fitzgerald trained Limerick IT. Several more of his players are scattered among the other colleges' teams.
University digs
The world is a smaller place than it was 50 years ago. Rival intercounty players didn't tend to share university digs together.
Tipp versus Kilkenny in the 1960s was possibly hurling’s greatest rivalry. They met several times, in league finals, and All-Irelands. Tipp had a hoodoo over the Cats, going back to September 1923, which was finally broken in the 1967 All-Ireland final.
"They were real tough games, deadly," says Kilkenny's six-time All-Ireland winner Eddie Keher. "There was an investigation into one of them. It was fairly horrific, a lot of injuries, as there was during in 1967 final.
“We never met these guys – only on the field of play. We didn’t know them. That increased the tension. We were All-Ireland champions in 1963 and Tipp were league champions. They brought both teams out to New York to play what was loosely termed ‘a World Cup’. Tipp arrived in the city before us. We were staying in the Manhattan Hotel. We came in at night.
“The next morning Sean Buckley, the fella I was sharing a room with, and myself came out and pressed the button on the elevator. When the doors opened John Doyle, Babs Keating and a heap of the Tipp lads were coming down in the lift.
“When the doors opened and we saw them there, we said, ‘Oh, hello lads’. We were met by stony silence. We had to get into the lift with our backs to them while it went down 40 floors or something, and no word spoken.”
The battles between Tipperary and Galway in the late-1980s have been the game's most toxic in recent times. The two counties divvied up seven All-Ireland under-21 titles from 1978 to '86 before they met four times over a couple of years at senior level. After a cracking semi-final clash in '87, which Galway won, they met in the 1988 All-Ireland final. Galway won again. Their half-back line was imperious and Conor Hayes kept Tipp's star forward Nicky English quiet.
Another year
There is a story told that English asked the ref how much time was left towards the end of the match, and that Galway's corner back Sylvie Linnane interjected: "At least another year for Tipperary".
When asked about the sledge, English says: “Maybe he did say it, but I didn’t hear it.”
The following year, Galway beat Tipp again in the league final.
Their centre back Tony Keady took off to the United States while his county waited for their annual All-Ireland semi-final in August.
Keady, however, incurred a ban for playing hurling with Laois under an alias (Bernard Keady) in New York. After a failed appeal, he watched the All-Ireland semi-final against Tipp “boiling with anger” from the dugout. Galway had two players sent off, and lost 1-17 to 2-11.
“There was a horrible atmosphere at that match,” says English. “As important as the game was, it became more important because Antrim had beaten Offaly before it so it became an All-Ireland final.
“Tipp had been beaten the previous two years, Galway were going for a three-in-row, you had the Keady affair, it all heightened the tension.”
English also took part in some epic encounters with Cork, including three drawn Munster finals in 1984, 1987 and ’91. The two games in 1987 are remembered for his soccer-style goal with the boot while he looked Cork goalkeeper Ger Cunningham (a current Cork selector) in the eye.
It’s not as easily remembered that Cork’s Teddy McCarthy, who had a poor showing in the drawn game, won the man of the match award in the replay.
It was a notable accolade, given Tipp had just won their first Munster title since 1971, something that inspired team captain Richie Stakelum to make his “famine is over” speech.
“You’ll actually find that players who have played badly in the drawn match are likely to play very well in a replay, like Teddy McCarthy’s performance in the replay at Killarney,” says English.
It's a point that eight-time All-Ireland winner Eddie Brennan – who retired before last year's replayed final between Galway and Kilkenny – endorses.
“We were a little bit concerned in the county,” he says, “because our forwards played poorly on two occasions against Galway. Without Henry in the drawn All-Ireland we were in big, big trouble.
"For Kilkenny, it was very, very simple for them in the replay because they had to just work on the forwards. If two of the Kilkenny forwards can click on the day, and one or two more weigh in with a couple of scores, that will be the difference.
Forward unit
"It bears a lot of similarities with the position Cork find themselves in with Clare. Their forward unit made no impact the last day bar a few individual moments of brilliance. It's obvious that Clare are going to perform on the day.
“The occasion did not faze the Clare boys at all. The winning and losing of the match will be a question of whether the Cork forwards turn up; the last day every one of them got polished off by the Clare defence.”
In theory it’s easier for defenders than forwards: they get to attack the sliotar head on. Knowing their man better, meeting him for the fifth or sixth time this year in case of Cork and Clare’s defenders, ought, with a diminished element of surprise, make it easier again. English refutes the notion.
“You can’t worry too much about your opponent beforehand,” he says. “A forward in hurling is more about instinct. You have to take it as you find it. For defenders, it’s about concentration.
“In the month building up to the All-Ireland final, there was a lot of talk about tactics, and about how Cork were going to deal with the sweeper, and on the day it wasn’t about tactics at all. In hurling, it’s about touch, getting to the ball first, finding good positions and doing the right thing with the ball. It doesn’t matter who you’re marking.”
Dan Shanahan was in the middle of the most remarkable hurling rivalry in living memory. Over a five-year period from 2002 until 2007 Waterford played Cork nine times.
Four points
Only four points separated the sides over those encounters, excluding a replayed Munster final in 2010, which went to extra time. Shanahan came off the bench in the replay to score Waterford's goal, which was the difference between the sides.
Interestingly, it was the first Munster final to be played under floodlights, a factor that could have a bearing on this evening’s match.
“It’s a serious factor,” says Shanahan. “I don’t see how the biggest game of the year should be under lights. Football is different because it’s a bigger ball, but in hurling going up there and trying to catch sliotars under lights can be extremely hard.
“It’s difficult enough to catch a ball as it is without a glint catching you in the eye as well. It could be distracting for some players.”
The three-week wait will have seemed interminable for both sets of players based on the experience of last year’s finalists.
"The first week was recovery, the second was all hurling and the last week was just rest again," says Anthony Cunningham, Galway's hurling manager.
“The hardest part of it was the last week. There was a lot of waiting. I’d say Cork and Clare can’t wait to play now,” he concluded.
