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KEITH BARR refers to it as the granny bet: Kilkenny for the hurling, Kerry for the football and you couldn’t go far wrong.
It has been a particularly sound investment since 2000. Only three times — 2001, 2005 and 2010 — have neither of them won an All Ireland. Only once — 2001 — was there a year that neither of them made the final. Should Kerry win on Sunday, it will be the fifth Kilkenny-Kerry double since the turn of the millennium.
In fact, there are so many parallels between the two teams in that time, they’re worth expanding upon. While Kilkenny are universally recognised to be the greatest hurling team of all time, Kerry’s pantheon in the greatness stakes hasn’t been quite solidified, or in the case of some eccentric critics, not even recognised. There’s a strong case though, that this Kerry team rank as not just one of the two greatest Kerry teams of all time, but one of the two greatest football teams of all time, period.
Put it this way: should Kerry win on Sunday, it will be their fourth All Ireland title in six years. Considering all the laurels thrown at Kilkenny for winning five in six years and that football is essentially a 31-county sport compared to the 10-county code that hurling is, it would be an achievement commensurate with Kilkenny’s September strike rate.
There are, of course, some notable differences between both teams. Kerry have had Páidí, Pat and Jack at the helm in that time; Cody has been there and will be forever, amen. Kilkenny have never won an All-Ireland through the back door; Kerry have done so twice. Still, they have much more in common, such as...
1. THE GINGER GENIUS FACTOR
A couple of weeks ago when we were interviewing Henry Shefflin, conversation came round to the previous day’s action from Croke Park. Shefflin had watched all of the Kerry-Mayo semi-final and could only shake his head and smile at the play of one particular player.
“Gooch is unreal. No one thought he was going to go for the goal that time; I just thought like everyone else he was going to come out and go onto his left and put it over the bar. He was the only one who thought, ‘No, I’ll spin back in here, the two Mayo boys won’t be expecting it, and I’ll finish the game right here and now’. Brilliant.”
Shefflin is no slouch himself. Just like Gooch, there have been only two seasons in which he hasn’t played into September. Only twice has he missed out on an All Star. Next month will mark the 10th time he will be honoured by that scheme, going ahead of even Pat Spillane. Spillane, meanwhile, has described Cooper as the best player he has ever seen. When you’re beating Spillane’s records and winning his approval, you must be something else. In their ginger geniuses up front, Kerry and Kilkenny have just that.
2. AUGUST IS A GIVEN
Even in the couple of years BC (Before Cody for you blasphemous folks who thought it ever meant anything else), Kilkenny had made it as far as the All Ireland semi-final. Under Cody they have always reached that mark. In other words, you have to go back to 1996 for the last time Kilkenny weren’t playing into August — easily the longest streak in hurling history.
This Kerry team owns the equivalent record for football with 10. In every year of the Noughties they made the All Ireland semi-final, an incredible record when you consider there were eight All-Ireland quarter-finals to be negotiated in that time. In his 15 years as a starter with Kerry, only once — in 1999 — did Darragh Ó Sé not know what it was like to be playing in an All-Ireland semi-final. His colleagues slipped up last year but they have got back to old habits since.
3. COME TO THINK OF IT, SO IS SEPTEMBER
Being a Kilkenny player under Brian Cody, All-Ireland final day is a bit like Christmas Day — you know the big day is going to happen, it’s just part of your annual routine. Kilkenny have made it through to 12 of the last 14 All-Ireland finals, winning eight of them.
This Sunday will be Kerry’s ninth final in 11 years, in which they will be bidding for their sixth title. By reaching the 2009 final, they reached their sixth consecutive decider, a sequence only the Dublin team of 74-79 have ever matched.
4. BREAKING BACK-TO-BACK HOODOOS
Over the last 21 years only one team in football has managed to put back-to-back titles together — Kerry, in 2006 and 07.
In hurling, it is forgotten that for 10 years, from 1993 on, no defending champion could repeat, with Ger Loughnane noting that an element of softness seemed to creep in which would ultimately be exposed at the All Ireland semi-final stage — every defending champion from 1996 to 2002 fell at that hurdle. Kilkenny themselves fell victim to that sequence in 2001 but then they broke it in 2003. And even when Cork then went and put back-to-back titles together, Kilkenny upstaged them once more, famously reeling off four titles on the trot.
5. DJ WHO? SEAMUS WHO?
It used to be said that the basis of Liverpool’s dominance throughout the 70s and 80s was with their two in, two out policy, all the time gradually refreshing and updating the team to the point a decade later, almost an entirely new team was doing the winning for them.
So it has been with Kilkenny and Kerry. In 2000 Kerry had such a forward line, Maurice Fitzgerald couldn’t make the starting line-up. By 2006 Mike Frank Russell was the only surviving member of that forward line. Since Seamus Moynihan, Dara Ó Cinnéide, Liam Hassett and William Kirby all retired, Kerry have either reached the All-Ireland final or at least won Munster. Kilkenny have lost only one championship match since DJ Carey retired. Henry Shefflin is the only player who started both the 2000 and 2011 All-Ireland finals for them. The players change, but the winning habit remains.
6. ALL SEASON MEN
For all the talk about how they have it easy for most of the year and can leave it until August to peak, Kerry and Kilkenny play a lot of good stuff all year round, including the spring. Only twice in the last 10 years have Kilkenny failed to reach the knockout stages of the league. They have contested seven finals, winning five.
Since Jack O’Connor took over for the 2004 season, Kerry have contested four league finals, winning three, and would have made this year’s too only for a tweak to the scores difference regulation. In all, they have done three league and championship doubles under Jack, while Kilkenny have done four in hurling.
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