Sunday’s Cork/Tipp showdown another hurling milestone

As well as representing the first meeting of Cork and Tipperary in Croke Park, Sunday is an historic day in that it will mean all five of the traditional Munster hurling counties will have met in the All-Ireland series (i.e. from the quarter-finals on, as opposed to the qualifiers).

Of the nine other possible pairings, only Cork and Limerick have yet to meet in Croke Park. Their 2006 quarter-final took place in Thurles.

Otherwise, there have been 16 all-Munster ties at GAA headquarters since the initial introduction of the back-door system in 1997.

Incidentally, the two finalists that year, Clare and Tipperary, have yet to meet outside of Munster since then.

The Banner have the best overall record in these games, winning four out of seven – including the only two all-Munster finals – and without a defeat since 2007.

Sunday’s opponents approach the game with contrasting fortunes against the other Munster counties in Croke Park.

Cork have the second-best record to Clare, with only two defeats from seven matches, but they haven’t beaten another Munster side in Croker since the 2006 semi-final against Waterford and haven’t won any of their last four games.

On the other hand, Tipperary lost their first three games against Munster opposition in Croke Park but have won their two most recent ties, the 2009 semi-final against Limerick and the game against Waterford at the same stage the following year.

Also in Tipp’s favour is that the ’09 win is the only time since 2006 that the Munster champions have beaten a fellow provincial side at the last-four stage.

That stat is counter-balanced, however, by the fact that Cork are unbeaten when playing teams from within the province in semi-finals.