Cork and Clare at crossroads
Odd how often Cork and Clare have clashed at watershed moments in the development of each other’s hurling sides.
In the mid-seventies, when Clare threatened to make the breakthrough with that Justin McCarthy-trained side which featured Ger Loughnane, among others, it was Cork who held them in check.
At that time there were no second chances in the backdoor system, and a Munster exit ended your season, so that Clare team never found out what a championship Sunday in Croke Park was like. When Loughnane’s own team broke through in 1995, it was Cork they needed to put away in the first round. Everyone remembers Ollie Baker’s late goal to edge them ahead; hardly anyone remembers the late, late flick that was needed to keep them ahead.
When Cork next asserted themselves with a great team, Loughnane’s Clare side was the yardstick for them. Beating Cork in 1997 and 1998 entitled the Banner to the favourites tag ahead of the 1999 Munster final, but they missed Jamesie O’Connor, out through injury, and Cork were coming with plenty of quality. That decider ushered in Cork’s golden era, which stretched into the last decade.
Manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy was asked last Friday night about comparing then — 1999 — and now, and he sidestepped the question, pronouncing the two eras completely different. He was right, of course, but that doesn’t dispel the sense of destiny about Sunday’s encounter. Clare are now seen as the coming team, with sleek minor sides and All-Ireland-winning U21s; they beat Waterford in their last championship outing with something to spare, and there’s a general sense among the sporting public at large that a Clare-Limerick Munster hurling final would be a tonic for the GAA public.
Last Friday, the Cork management and players in attendance at their press evening weren’t singing from that hymn sheet, obviously, but it’s difficult to see past a Clare win.
One of the reasons for that was in attendance at Páirc Uí Rinn – Cork captain Patrick Cronin, looking a little gaunt after a severe chest infection which saw him hospitalised for several days.
Would you bet against next Sunday marking another divergence in the counties’ fortunes?
