Cats legend Larkin isn’t a fan of comparisons

SO MUCH for this being regarded as one of the greatest Kilkenny teams of all time! The accolade is certainly flattering to the players and manager Brian Cody but in the opinion of many shrewd judges, it’s hardly justified.

Former star Fan Larkin is one of them, saying that it’s unrealistic to compare teams from different eras. You won’t hear him making any claims about the combinations he played on over an inter-county career which spanned nearly 17 years – and which brought him the first of his five All-Ireland medals in 1963 against Waterford.

He points out that the present team doesn’t have a Carey or a Keher – or, going back to Cody’s own playing time, a Ger Fennelly.

“They’re the best team around at the present time,” he commented. “That’s all you can say. When people talk about this team they’re forgetting that the likes of Willie O’Connor (winning captain in 2000), Peter Barry, Brian McEvoy, Philly Larkin (his son) and Andy Comerford were all involved.

“Just a few of them have been there from the start (only Michael Kavanagh, Noel Hickey and Henry Shefflin from the starting 15 eight years ago). The team is changing all the time.”

Larkin fell out of favour after the 1964 defeat to Tipperary before his career was revived six years later and he went on to play in seven more finals up to 1979.

He is also one of the rare breed of Kilkenny men — a football fan – and agrees the almost total concentration on hurling gives Kilkenny an advantage over most counties. By way of example, he points out that his own club (James Stephens) qualified for the county football final in July but the decider may not be played until October. The reason for the hold-up is the involvement of some of their key players (and others from opponents Castlecomer who were part of the intermediate squad) with Kilkenny.

“Jackie Tyrrell is a flaming footballer and so is Eoin Larkin. They are as good as the footballers in a lot of other counties. You could say the same about Noel Hickey and Michael Kavanagh. Most of the good footballers in this county are the hurlers.”

That apart, he accepts that Cody is blessed with the array of talent he has at his disposal. “Kilkenny have an U21 team and I’d say there are three or four waiting to get on. There are a lot of players knocking on the door. The work is done at under-age level. Cody moulds them well but the talent is there.”

His abiding member of the 1963 final is that nobody expected Kilkenny to win. “Waterford were the form team. They were after winning the League and we were all young men,” he recalled. “Kilkenny had five or six of the ‘57 team, Ollie (Walsh), (Sean) Clohessy, Johnny McGovern, Denis Heaslip and Billy Dwyer, while the rest of us were nearly playing our first All-Ireland bar Keher. He had come in as a sub in the ‘59 final.

“We had hoped to win and the lads over the team felt we would.”

His reasoning for Waterford fading into the background in subsequent years is that they had won the 1959 All-Ireland with an ageing team.

“The team changed and they hadn’t the talent coming up. Tipp had a massive team coming through and after being out of it from 1956 to 1966, Cork were on the way back.

“I always felt Waterford were a bit unlucky in 1998. That year, Kilkenny only beat them by a point in the semi-final. They weren’t good enough for Offaly, but Waterford might have been. They had a lot of the lads who had beaten Offaly in the U21 final in 1992.”

While admitting that he thought Tipperary would be the team contesting Sunday’s final, he’s far from dismissive of Waterford’s chances of causing an upset, adding that their win over Kilkenny in last year’s NHL final will give them confidence.

“Every final is there to be won. On the day Waterford were that little bit better. They hadn’t a good Munster championship this year, but there was something in them that you felt if they got it together they’d be as good as anybody. They have played in six semi-finals and that will stand to them. But you ask yourself the question, if we got a start like we did last year against Limerick would Waterford fail?

“That’d be the trouble Waterford would be worrying about, I feel and that’s what we’d be looking for. If they can stay near enough and we’re fighting to get ahead of them, I think we’d have better scoring forwards. And our backs are very good. Then again, Waterford are a funny team. On a given day they could beat anyone.”