Fogarty Forum: Cork and Limerick can’t kill each other
In Cork-Limerick, the Munster SHC has a rivalry that more than papers over cracks. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
In the history of film, there are umpteen heroes and villains who simply refuse to die. On one side, you have your Bonds, your McClanes, your Kents. On the other, your Kruegers, your Jasons, your Chigurhs.
If there were to be a movie made about Cork and Limerick’s rivalry (and there might well be if they keep up this habit of meeting each other), they would be immortals. Which bracket they fall into probably depends on your affiliation.
When Limerick beat Cork, it’s often with much to spare. That 16-point trimming in the 2021 All-Ireland final felt like it would resonate and so it turned out as Limerick won by 11 in the following year’s Munster championship.
Another 16-point scutching followed in last year’s provincial round robin game but the psychological wounds were healed by the time the Munster final came around.
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John Kiely mightn’t say it publicly but Cork’s Lazarus acts have knocked them out of the last two championships. That thrilling May evening in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 2024 lay the groundwork for what was to follow in the All-Ireland semi-final. Suddenly, nothing was impossible against Limerick.
Last year, it was Dublin who landed the ultimate blow but Limerick were mentally lame after the penalty shoot-out defeat to Cork 14 days earlier. Standing alongside the Limerick players as they listened to Rob Downey’s speech from the bottom of the Mackey Among the Cork fans, some wore faces of thunder but most were simply crestfallen.
“I always felt that Limerick wanted to put us away or put us out of the championship as quickly as they could,” was former Cork manager Pat Ryan’s assessment in an interview with in February.
“The way we viewed it, if we wanted to win the All-Ireland, we were going to have to beat Limerick.”
In such an attritional relationship, the victors have suffered too. As Ryan told last month, “Unfortunately, the days we beat them, it always took everything we had to beat Limerick. I think it always left its mark on us.
“That’s not making excuses; it just does. There are probably only one or two days when you can give 100% of your performance. In the 2024 All-Ireland semi-final, it took everything from our fellas to win that day.
“They’re (Limerick) just a fantastic group, a fantastic management team. They’re crystal clear in how they do things. It’s amazing how they can keep their standards so high.”
Kiely would too be a member of the mutual appreciation society. In his 10 years as manager, no county has beaten his side more than Cork (five times). Clare are next with four. If Cork win again on Sunday, his SHC record against them will be squared at six wins and six defeats.
At last Tuesday’s press briefing in TUS Gaelic Grounds, he spoke of not having won against Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on their two previous championship visits. For him and his men, there is also the nugget of winning a first Munster title on enemy territory. Four of their provincial successes came at neutral venues and two at home.
Their own undying characteristic is tied up in finals and the fact that in their 16 under Kiely (five All-Irelands, seven Munster and four Division 1) they have yet to be beaten in normal or extra-time. That as much as Cork claimed the Mick Mackey Cup from them, Limerick like La Motta never went down.
Their glories were won without stars too. Through those years, Limerick endured injuries to the likes of Cian Lynch, Barry Nash, Declan Hannon, Seán Finn and the Casey brothers, Mike and Peter.
Cork themselves are rightly being complimented for absorbing injuries while becoming only the second team in the seven-season history of the Munster SHC group format to win all four of their games. Ben O’Connor has started 20 players.
But this resilience is not a new phenomenon. Last year’s Munster final was won without Declan Dalton or Ger Millerick, while Downey and Niall O’Leary were only fit to come off the bench.
Folks, it’s been another poor Munster championship. Only three of the 10 you could class as good games – Cork-Limerick, Clare-Waterford and Waterford-Tipperary. The average margin in the round stages was 8.4 points. Last year was 6.8. In 2024, it was 5.7 and 3.7 in ’23.
It is becoming a less competitive championship that in the entertainment, if not the quality stakes was bettered by Leinster over the six weeks. That’s not to say its teams won’t transcend it for the third year in succession and deliver another all-Munster All-Ireland final.
In Cork-Limerick, it has a rivalry that more than papers over cracks. It plastered over the imperfections in last year’s final and it can again. For that, they are both sets of heroes.
Of course, Dean Rock was going to be asked about Jim McGuinness. The interim Dublin manager was going to be asked about the possibility of Ger Brennan missing another game if their Round 2B game is fixed for Saturday week. For the following day is when the manager’s 12-week ban elapses.
That Dublin chose not to answer those questions or front up after a second successive championship defeat was a missed opportunity for them to control some of the narrative.
It is difficult not to believe that it had anything to do with the fact McGuinness avoided suspension for pushing a player while Brennan missed four games and possibly a fifth for a red card dismissal when he removed a Galway coach’s earpiece in March.
Perhaps an indignant Rock would have spoken about it had Dublin beaten Louth. Coming from a position of strength, his words would have certainly carried further.
Either way, Brennan was harshly treated and in the context of what didn’t happen arising from events in Killarney he and Dublin have even more reason to feel hard done by.
When Dublin have plenty of sympathy, it would seem unusual if they were adopting a siege mentality. You could understand if Donegal were but not when the world and his mother feels Brennan has turned out to be a victim.
If their next game is fixed for Saturday week and Brennan is prohibited from fulfilling his match-day duties, Dublin would be entitled to cry foul. It would add insult to injury. Whatever that fixture is, the Central Competitions Control Committee simply have to arrange it for the Sunday.
Maybe it was simply a form of protest at what they see as the inconsistency in how the disciplinary authorities dealt with Brennan and Murphy. But on this occasion, words, not silence would have meant more.
The possibility that the All-Ireland senior hurling quarter-finals could be staged in different venues on the weekend of June 20 and 21 opens up the idea of a Leinster venue hosting Offaly’s fixture with the Munster runners-up.
The GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) are keeping their options open as the prospect of Clare-Galway and Cork-Offaly pairings would likely bring strong crowds to two venues.
Now that Tipperary are out of the championship, Thurles would seem the ideal “halfway house” if there is to be a double-header. If that’s the case, then hopefully it receives a Sunday billing.
However, the CCCC may yet split the games over two days and somewhere like UPMC Nowlan Park would seem a good neutral staging bearing in mind the strength of the Munster finalists and this being Offaly’s first All-Ireland quarter-final in 23 years.
After counting the cost of giving home advantage to Dublin last year, Limerick mightn’t be too inclined to sacrifice anything should they lose on Sunday. Cork will travel anywhere but they too might be hoping for as soft a landing were they to surrender the Mackey Cup.
With just five senior inter-county hurling games after this weekend, promotion of the game takes on greater significance. The semi-finals – the Munster champions will play on Sunday, July 5, the Leinster victors the day before – and final will take care of themselves but the quarter-finals need the best framing possible.
