The old ones are the best ...
THE BUILD-UP
“IT WAS like everything in life I suppose, the whole three-in-a-row thing kind of jumped up at you before you knew it — God lads, we’re after winning two, now we’re going for three. I’m a driving instructor now (the John Horgan School of Motoring) and was working as a driver that year as well, delivering milk all over the city.
In the weeks coming up to the final I’d meet a lot of talk about the three-in-a-row. Fr. Troy was the coach, Kevin Kehilly the trainer, Christy Ring was a selector on that team as well. They didn’t try to downplay the talk, but didn’t make too much of it either. One game at a time, that’s all it was really. We enjoyed it all, it was far more relaxed than today. It’s all a lot more professional now, which is fine, but that’s definitely taking from the fun aspect of hurling at inter-county level.
Training wasn’t that much different in the weeks beforehand, but then Kevin had us in good shape anyway. There was no question of postponing the club championships, as has happened for this game. We actually won the county that year (Blackrock) and went on to win the club All-Ireland as well.”
“I’M struggling to remember the game itself, but I do remember I was marking Mick Brennan, so I had to be on my guard. Mick needed a good bit of watching: a good player. I had marked him already in one or two league games; he was the ideal right-corner-forward — a bit like Charlie McCarthy actually, you couldn’t take your eyes off him. He liked to hit off his left a lot, so you had to allow for that in your positioning. You’d have a day when you were marking a good fella, would have to stay tight, then days when you had the upper hand, could play with a bit more freedom. In the Munster final that year, against Clare, there was a big wind with us in the first half — I could step out a bit (John scored four points of Cork’s first-half total of 0-5). Ah, happy days! It was close enough in the finish, but Barry-Murphy got a goal that swung the game for us, a deflection off Dick O’Hara that deceived Noel Skehan.”
“THERE was an official function, but it wouldn’t be unusual for a couple of fellas to get waylaid, not turn up — there was a big gap between 5.30 and 9.30. I only missed one, can’t remember which; I do remember Jack Lynch giving a great rendition of De Banks at one of them — a lovely man. We used to stay in the Skylon. I had a friend from Passage, Denis Hooper; I put him up in the room the night before the All-Ireland. He went away, had a couple of pints, came back, threw a pillow on the floor, snored the night through. Three players to a room. One particular player didn’t take too kindly to that, didn’t sleep a wink, but I won’t say who it was!
Came back to Cork on the Monday, it was fabulous — open-topped bus, 60,000 people, over the bridge, wonderful. It was then that it really hit you — the speeches. Christy Ring came out on the balcony in the Imperial Hotel, got a huge ovation. There was a hint at the four then, but Christy died shortly after, and he was a big loss. A very quiet man, would say only a few words, but there’d be massive meaning attached. He’d size up very quickly, sum up very quickly — a huge loss. I was actually captain in 1979, but we were beaten by Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final, a big surprise. I don’t think about it any more; I won four altogether, won the Texaco award that year, won my third All-Star, but you know what? There was nothing like winning the first one in 1970 — I never again got that feeling.”
— Diarmuid O’Flynn
“THAT year, there was an air of uncertainty around the camp. We’d been beaten by Waterford in the first round of the Munster championship in 1974 and the following year Galway caught us on the hop in the All-Ireland semi-final. A few of us were beginning to push on, while players like Con Roche and Tony Maher had faded from the limelight.
“You could say Cork hurling was at a crossroads — it could have gone either way afterwards. We were very lucky to beat Tipperary in the opening game of the Munster championship. We were leading by two points when they hit the butt of the upright with time almost up.
“Looking back our team spirit was crucial in winning Munster and propelling us into the All-Ireland final against Wexford; but we also had a wonderful group of selectors in the late Christy Ring, Jim Brohan, Frank Murphy, Tim O’Mullane and Denis Hurley.
“Apart from 1966 when there was also great camaraderie, I played on a lot of Cork teams that were very fragmented, primarily because of the players’ respective club loyalties. Because of the influence of the selectors all that changed in 1976 when we all played for one another regardless of what club we were from.
“We knew we were facing a very formidable Wexford team in the final. They had some great players like Tony Doran, Mick Jacob and the Quigley brothers Martin, John and Dan.
“But we also knew that Wexford loved to handle the ball, so we devised a simple game-plan to keep the ball moving as quickly as possible.
“I was fortunate enough to win five senior All-Ireland medals and to captain the team in 1966, but I will never forget the start of the 1976 final.
“We had a dreadful start, a nightmare really, and found ourselves eight points in arrears after as many minutes. But we never allowed ourselves to be rattled and fought back to level things at half time. That put us back in the driving seat, but two things happened in the second half that sealed victory for us.
“Just after the re-start Brendan Cummins connected with a long ball out of defence, and moving in from the corner Charlie McCarthy hit the ball on the hop to score a really fantastic goal. It was a brilliant strike — one worthy of winning any All-Ireland.
“Wexford came back at us, but seeing that Mick Jacob was beginning to tire, our selectors switched Jimmy Barry-Murphy to centre forward and he proceeded to hit three points. It was a master-move if ever there was one and copper-fastened our victory.
“THERE was an unbelievable feeling of elation in the dressing-room after the game particularly as most of the lads, apart from Charlie and myself, were winning senior All-Ireland medals for the first time; remember Cork had gone six years without winning the McCarthy Cup. The team stayed in Dublin on the Sunday night and were treated to a magnificent banquet by the Corkmen’s Association who took on the responsibility to organise the event every year the county reached a senior All-Ireland final.
“However the best part in winning an All-Ireland is the homecoming. As was the custom the first stop was Mallow were a massive crowd had gathered, but it was nothing like the crowd that greeted us at Kent Station. We were paraded on an open top bus up McCurtain Street and when we rounded Paddy Barry’s Corner it was a sea of people all the way down to Patrick Street.
“I was captain in 1966 when we won the title for the first time in 12 years and the crowd that came out that year was incredible, but I would say it was possibly bigger in 1976.
- Michael Ellard and Brendan Larkin.
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