Feast or famine - Cork's Liam MacCarthy Cup wait now their worst in over a century
"There are many counties enduring a far drier spell but, in truth, it’s different when it’s one of the big three."
What's another year? Well, quite a lot, actually, when adding to an unwanted record. John Fenton, who captained Cork to the centenary All-Ireland title 40 years ago, pointed out recently that, along with the prestige of that win, it was Cork’s 25th in the 100 years of the GAA, equating to one in four.
Now? That average has broadened and their 19 years without an All-Ireland is the longest that they have endured, outdoing the 1903-19 fallow period. Of course, there are many counties enduring a far drier spell but, in truth, it’s different when it’s one of the big three.
Kilkenny went 10 years without an All-Ireland from 1922-32 and again from 1947-57, while their failure to bridge the gap to 2015 this year means that they’ve endured another barren decade.
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Tipperary won the first All-Ireland in 1887 and at least one in every decade thereafter. But that proud record was on the brink as they headed into the 1989 Championship, 18 years after their last title.
“Whether we like it or not, it does weigh heavily,” says Ken Hogan, their goalkeeper that year as they finally went all the way, beating Antrim in the final.
“There was this thing in Tipp that we were the only county that has won an All-Ireland in every decade and that still stands actually, so we won in ‘71 and it was nearly a bigger issue that we had to win it because it was the last year of the ‘80s, so from that perspective there was an added pressure in the final.
“We were poor enough now for 20 minutes until Declan Ryan got a speculative goal from the middle of the field and then things took off but with this so-called traditional county, which is Tipp, Cork and Kilkenny, there is added pressure when teams haven’t achieved for quite a time.
“I remember we used to meet in the Park Avenue House after training and you’d walk in and there would be former Tipperary hurlers there and you would feel a little bit inferior, the fact that these guys had All-Ireland medals in their back pocket.
“They were looking at you as if to say, ‘Well, you have to earn your corn now, you have to win your Celtic Cross’ so no matter what you think, it is in the background that Cork need to win, they need to break the hoodoo and they need to do it now.”
Once Aghabullogue claimed Cork’s first title in 1890, they won at least one in every subsequent decade up until the 2010s.
Speaking ahead of the 2019 Championship, former defender Diarmuid O’Sullivan commented: “It would be a shame if that goes. This is a massive year of all years. It's the last year in the decade so we want to protect our history and what's gone before us by winning one this year.
“Time is running out, rapidly. Hoggy, Lehane, Joycey, Harnedy, Nasher, there's not too many more opportunities are going to come their way if it doesn't come right over the next four to five months.”
That record fell later that summer with a quarter-final defeat to Kilkenny and while Patrick Horgan, Christopher Joyce and Seamus Harnedy remain on board five years later, Christopher Joyce and Anthony Nash have since moved on.
Nash retired after the 2020 Championship, their last chance before the record 16-year slump was equalled. By then O’Sullivan had returned as a selector as part of Kieran Kingston’s management.
“He would never have brought that up,” says Nash. “When you’re talking publicly and you’re not involved, it’s easier to say things and when you’re involved it was always about the next game and we wouldn’t have even thought like that either and there’s no player on Sunday going, ‘Lads, we have to bridge a 19-year gap’, they’re going out saying, ‘We have to win an All-Ireland for ourselves’ because the team is different every year.”
Nash first came into a Cork dressing room straight on the back of that last win in 2005 and by the time he left all of that All-Ireland winning pedigree was long gone.
“It didn’t make a difference to us, maybe it helped other teams get over us but that team that I joined had multiple All-Irelands in 2006 and all of a sudden that team never reached an All-Ireland again, even with all the experience.”
The Cork hurlers of 1999 will be feted as the silver jubilee team ahead of tomorrow’s final and their victory 25 years ago is one that still holds a special place in the county’s folklore, particularly because they bridged a harrowing nine-year gap.
So, imagine where the current team will stand if they close out a 19-year wait.
“Some players like using stuff like the 19 years, some people just focus on the present,” says former Cork dual star Eoin Cadogan. “I don't think it'll weigh heavily on them in any shape or form. But it would certainly be brilliant for Seán O'Donoghue to go up the steps and give young people in Cork something to aim for and to aspire to as Cork hurlers."
“What they’ll want to be remembered for then is going on to win two, three and not having one win and then, all of a sudden, another few years’ gap,” says Nash.
“Look, what Limerick have done over the past few years, I don’t think it will be repeated but Cork will be hoping for a run of a few competitive years.
“I can see Cork becoming a team that will stay at the top table for another while now, especially if they win on Sunday.”
So there may be a feast, but they’ll have to end a famine first.
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