‘There’s a baptism of fire and then there is lining out as a young lad against Tipp’

The roar of 60,000 "possessed" hurling followers rolling onto your shoulders at ground level in Semple Stadium; Johnny Crowley sipping a pint of Heineken through a straw while waiting to have his broken nose attended to following the 1987 Munster final replay and Denis Mulcahy’s "bone-crunching" tackle on Colm Bonnar in 1992.

The wounds from a decade of ferocious battles may have healed, but for three former Cork hurlers — Pat Hartnett, Kevin Hennessy and Ger Fitzgerald — the memories of those jousts with Tipperary remain vivid.

Hennessy made his championship debut against the blue and gold in 1982, “there’s a baptism of fire and then there’s lining out as a young lad against Tipperary”, he laughs.