Larkin: Cats and Rebels thrive on pressure
Fan won the first of five championship medals in 1963 and the last in 1979 the year after Cork recorded the last treble by beating Kilkenny.
Brian Cody, a clubmate, played in that final in what was for him the unusual position of full-forward and Noel Skehan was the goalkeeper. At the end Cork were winners by a margin of four points, their only goal, scored by Jimmy Barry-Murphy late in the game, proving decisive.
Larkin, recognised as one of the great characters of Kilkenny hurling (as well as being a keen and knowledgeable fan of Gaelic football), has always regarded the 1978 final as one that slipped through their fingers: "We thought we'd beat Cork that day. The three-in-a-row was going to be hard to get and there was a lot of mileage on some of the Cork lads. After the match we still thought we should have won," he recalled.
If Barry-Murphy's goal proved vital, another major factor in Cork's win was the display from Martin O'Doherty at full-back against Cody.
Larkin pointed out that while he had played at centre-back in 1977 against Wexford, he spent the last 15 minutes at centre-forward getting two points "which could just as easily have been goals".
"What everybody forgets about Cody in '78 was that he had been our top scorer against Offaly, Wexford and Galway!"
In Larkin's view, even with so much at stake for both teams, neither will be under additional pressure. The way he sees it, the pressure is automatically there.
"In Cork they expect their team to win no matter who they're hurling and it's the same in Kilkenny.
"When, we're playing, there's no one in Kilkenny can see the team being beaten. Personally myself I could never see them beaten, even though it happens. Anyone who'd ask me about the All-Ireland, I'd say Kilkenny will win by ten points.
"I wouldn't say we were lucky in last year's final, but Cork had no established free-taker. Young Gardiner, good hurler and all that he is, reminded me of Ger Fennelly in 1987 playing Galway. He had an outstanding game, but every free he took, he drove it wide. And Gardiner was the same last year.
"You take Henry Shefflin, a brilliant free-taker when you want him, and the same with Carey. Joe Deane went to pass a ball to Timmy McCarthy in the second half, but it went too high. If he was to have caught that, it would have been curtains for Kilkenny!"
It was 'curtains' for Kilkenny in this year's Leinster semi-final, for which when he credits Wexford with a simple tactical approach. "They never played it high into our lads, they played it low and kept the ball away from our centre-back. And they beat Kilkenny in the last minute which is the right way to beat any team because there's no recovery.
He believes Cork have learned from last year's experience, rating Sean Óg O hAilpín as probably the best wing-back over the last four or five years and describing centre-back Ronan Curran as a fabulous hurler.
"Diarmuid O'Sullivan has got caught for scores but if he can produce the form he produced early last year and if Mulcahy is back they'll take fierce beating," he added.
"Cork are very strong in the middle of the field. Kenny has a fierce engine and if the two O'Connors get the ball, they know where the post is. They proved that in the club final."
Interestingly, he draws a comparison between Cork's current style of 'possession hurling' and the way Dublin footballers played when they burst on the scene in 1974.
It leaves him in no doubt that it will seriously trouble Kilkenny unless it is counteracted.
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