Breaking Munster’s vicious circle

MUNSTER SFC Quarter-Final

There have been days in 2004 and 2009 when Limerick footballers came tantalisingly close to their first championship since 1896. Then in 2002, Tipperary footballers very nearly had their first day in the sun since 1935 but in recent years the existential angst brought about by the start of each championship year in Munster has been accompanied by a vainly diminishing hope that the predictability of it all would one day be sundered.

For a brief period around this time last year, the romantics still harboured notions of Tipperary being the team to break the duopoly that has existed in Munster football since the Banner breakthrough. This was largely based on Tipp’s successive promotions in the national league and on the sense that both Kerry and Cork either might not value another Munster title or indeed, might not even benefit from winning another. There are however, two related lessons to be learnt from the first and final game of the 2009 Munster football championship: when your county hasn’t won a game in a provincial championship for six (make that seven this year) seasons and secondly, when your county hasn’t won a provincial championship in 113 (make that 114 this year) years it can be an almighty difficult task trying to break through that glass ceiling ignoring the heavy hand of history.