Hunger is Cork’s key

THANK GOD for the back door, it gives weaker counties like Cork and Kilkenny a chance to qualify for the All-Ireland final!

Only 56 senior titles between them, God love 'em.

My first All-Ireland was in 1972, and what a vintage year it was. Cork and Kilkenny, the first of many I saw between these two, but it remains the best. Certainly far superior to their two most recent September meetings; last year was poor fare, too tension-ridden by far; 1999 was memorable only because a young Cork team overcame the odds. On neither occasion did the hurling rise above mediocrity and nowhere near what you'd expect from two such outstanding traditional hurling counties.