In John Quane’s triangle victory over Cork will always mean the most

Limerick’s John Quane in the 1999 Munster SFC semi-final against Cork at Páirc Uí Rinn. In 2003, Limerick beat Cork in Quane’s fourth match in championship against the Rebels. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Bragging rights went the way of John Quane in Mitchelstown last Saturday as Limerick dismissed Cork to reach a third straight Munster senior hurling final.

Watching the game in the yard of his cousin John Cleary’s Walsh’s Bar, he wasn’t piping up too much about it. Not because he was on enemy soil but because the job is only half done.

From his playing days right through to today as his Galtee Gaels clubmen Robbie and Tommie Childs line out for the county, Cork has been the rivalry. Not that he ever achieved the success Rathmore’s Aidan O’Mahony or Tom O’Sullivan did with Kerry against Cork but he could understand their frontier attitude being situated in Kilbeheny.

“We’re probably unique, Tipp would be close to us, John Kiely would only be over the road from me. Our club is in that triangle surrounded by the two other counties. As somebody once said, you could kick a football into Cork and puck a sliotar into Tipperary. It means more to us than say if you were from the city where it would mean more to beat Clare, or Newcastlewest where it means more to beat Kerry. But if you don’t have that, I think you lose the GAA.”

Often it was Quane who delivered the words in the Limerick dressing room when Cork provided the opposition and while it was one-way traffic for the majority of his career, he had the last laugh with the 2003 Munster quarter-final win in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

During those fallow years of the 1990s when Limerick were twice on the receiving end of 16-point shellackings by Cork, it was suggested Quane was the subject of Larry Tompkins /Shea Fahy-like overtures, but he never budged.

“I don’t remember anybody ever contacting me,” he insists. “It’s the GAA and once you’re in a county that’s the way it is. The club here as well is a great one. No, no, that never materialised. Any player in that situation, there is always talk like that but it didn’t happen to me anyway.”

The unavailability of Mitchelstown pair Mark Keane (AFL) and Cathail O’Mahony (injury) deprives the border area of “some more spice”, as Quane describes it. Both of their fathers hail from Limerick, Quane having played with O’Mahony’s dad Pa to win Limerick county titles at senior, intermediate, and junior level and he is friendly with the Keanes.

“Mark lived for a while just on the border but he would have gone to school in Mitchelstown. Eamonn, his father, is a Limerick man. I was only talking to him the other night. I went to school with Mark’s mother who’s from Anglesboro.

“A real good guy, Mark. He came to our school in Anglesboro when he was home for a couple of weeks from Australia and he talked to our kids and everything and that was great. I would have been delighted for them, for Mark when he scored that goal against Kerry. It was fantastic to see him come home and produce that.”

The 2003 victory over Cork was at the fourth time of asking for Quane and 12 years after he made his debut season, which had begun when Limerick reached the final when they lost out by two points to Kerry.

“It was kind of unusual,” he says of 1991. “When I came in, it was into a good team but an old team. A lot of lads left the squad and there were very few young lads coming through at that time. We went through the doldrums for maybe four or five years and Cork were a good team at the time. Coming towards the end of my career, Liam Kearns brought through that U21 team and I was lucky for that four or five-year period where we played a lot of good football and weren’t that far off.

“In 2003, we actually played a league final against Westmeath the Sunday before it, again a game we probably should have won because we played really well and I just felt after it you could see everybody had their eye on the Cork game. Everyone was ready for it and we went there confident we could get a result and everything clicked. It was one of our better performances under Liam.”

Current manager Billy Lee was a selector with Kearns and Quane had been quietly confident he would make an impact as manager.

“He’s direct and honest and as a player that’s all you really want. He probably had to face up to a few battles at the start, the profile of Limerick football had gone down an awful lot and he probably had to lock horns with the county board for a little while just to move forward again.

“He got a small bit of pride back in the jersey and got lads around the county back playing football for Limerick. He’s a nice blend of experience and young lads coming through and in fairness there has been a good bit of work done at underage with the academies and ex-players like Stephen Lavin and these lads have been heavily involved.

“With a county like Limerick, you’re hoping to get one or two players every year. It’s very unusual to get a bunch like we did with the U21s. That will happen once in a blue moon but if you can continue to bring in new players, I think that’s what you’re looking for.”

All he wants from Limerick on Saturday is a display. Cork, he senses, require something more.

“Mitchelstown is a good old town, a lot of good lads are there and they understand the game and they’re a bit wary and unsure about what Cork team is going to turn up. They’re a bit inconsistent, it’s a big year for them and there’s pressure on their management who have been there for a while. Most of the pressure is on them so that might work to Limerick’s advantage.

“Cork are going to be favourites and if they play to their potential they’ll be hard to beat but they’re a bit inconsistent. We’d hope to bring our A game and if Cork are a bit below par, you never know, especially with the fact we’re home. Limerick are on an upward curve, they’ve a nice, settled squad and Billy has been doing a really good job. The most important thing is a big performance, see where that takes us after that.”