Éamonn Fitzmaurice: My fond, and not so fond, memories of facing Cork
Eamonn Fitzmaurice in action against Cork's Don Davis in the 1998 Munster SFC semi-final at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
I am unsure about what kind of a game to expect at Páirc Ui Rinn on Saturday evening.
It is hard to make much of a case for Cork but the cautious Kerryman in me will never trust them. We will always have an innate wariness of our neighbours. Jack O'Connor is sure to have mentioned what happened the last time they played in Cork in a deserted Pairc Uí Chaoimh two years ago during the COVID championship, when Cork’s workrate and physicality and Mark Keane's late goal sunk Kerry.
The competition within the Kerry panel will also mean players that get the nod to start will want to make sure they hold onto to their jerseys. In my own time as a player and in management I was fortunate enough to come up against serious Cork teams on a regular basis and I still have fond and some not so fond memories from those days.
My first Kerry and Cork game was the 1983 Cork win in Pairc Uí Chaoimh when Tadhg Murphy’s famous late goal saw Kerry caught at the death for the second year in a row. I was just about to turn 6 at the time and my late father brought me. I don’t remember too much about the match itself but some other details have stuck in my mind all these years later.
There had been thunderstorms the day before and the morning of the match and there was unbelievable flooding on the Monahan Road as we made our way to the match. I recall my father putting me up on his shoulders as he walked through the floods. I also remember my Dad buying me a Kerry flag which I was waving every second minute, much to the annoyance of the crowd behind us. I do still remember the late goal but I didn’t obviously understand the significance of it.
By the 1995 Munster Final in Killarney the football bug had well and truly bitten. For this one I was on the terrace in Killarney, again with my Dad. At this stage I had won an All Ireland minor medal the year previous and had been centre back for the minors that year when we were beaten by a good Cork team featuring the likes of Seán Óg O hAilpín and Anthony Lynch. Incidentally Tipperary beat them in Killarney that day before the senior final.
There was a huge crowd in Killarney and my clubmate Eamon Breen got an early goal. Kerry contested really well but Cork were better at the time and had too much for them. Colin Corkery got a late free from in front of the stand that more or less finished the game off. The thing that sticks in my head about that game is a catch Darragh O Sé made when introduced as a second half substitute.
A gangly Darragh hovered over friend in foe as he plucked the ball over everyone else. The image was captured by Brendan Moran of Sportsfile and was used on the back cover of the seminal Green Fields. There was something inspirational and defiant about the fetch and I often looked at that picture afterwards.
Cork won the three in a row that afternoon. They haven’t won in Killarney since. I started in UCC the following October as I took the next steps in my education, both on and off the field. The Cork lads loved reminding us at the time that they were on top. I think it definitely fed into our desire to beat them as often as we possibly could.
The next Kerry v Cork encounter in Killarney was my championship debut when I came on as a sub at wing back at half time. It is amazing that there are games I played much later in my career that I don’t remember much about but I remember loads about that day. I spent that summer of 1998 travelling to training with Liam Flaherty who always drove, Eamon Breen and Noel Kennelly. That was a fair education, in many ways!
For me to go to Killarney it would have been easier for me to meet the lads in Tralee but there was so much craic in the car I used to meet them in Listowel at Kennellys which added an hour to my day. An hour well spent though. The great Tim Kennelly would often be floating around and would always have a quite word of encouragement for myself and Noel before we headed for Killarney. The morning of the Cork game I met them as usual in Listowel but Flaherty asked me to drive his car so he could relax.
When we got as far as Farranfore the traffic was stopped as the huge crowd made their way to the game. The lads told me to put on the hazards and pull out and plough away. Which I did. We would have been late otherwise. The next thing I knew as we were coming through Brennans Glen a Garda motorcyclist was coming flying out against us with the blue lights on.
I imagine the Garda Station in Killarney got a call or two giving out about this Audi car on the wrong side of the road passing out all the traffic. I thought we were in bother but when the guard saw Flah and Breen he knew we were legit and he gave us an escort in the road. We got some laugh out of that. Even Páidí didn’t have his own private Garda escort.
The match itself was tight and Alan O Regan got a goal for Cork with less than 10 left to put them ahead. We responded immediately though and Maurice Fitzgerald got a great goal to put us back on track. Things went well for me personally and I was delighted to contribute to the win. Afterwards I remember being surprised at how comfortable I was during the match. I can still vividly remember my first touch in championship football. Donal Daly gathered a kickout and passed it back to me.
I recall the ball being a bit damp which surprised me. I had a quick look up and with nothing obvious on I kicked the ball as hard as I could in the general direction of the goals. Amazingly it nearly set up Maurice Fitz for a goal, with the Cork keeper Maguire making a good save. It settled me immediately.
The other thing I recall about that day was the huge crowd in attendance with nearly 44000 present for a straight knockout championship game, in the pre health and safety days. In the second half the crowd spilled onto the pitch at the dressing room end and this all added to the since of occasion. I was hooked.
We played Cork three times in championship in 2002. We drew with them on a wet day in Killarney the day Ireland lost to Spain in the World Cup on penalties. Between the draw and replay Mike Ó Sé, Páidí’s brother and Darragh, Tomás and Marc’s Dad passed away suddenly. Cork hammered us in the replay in Pairc Uí Chaoimh the following Sunday night.
I and many of the other players felt we had left Páidí and the three lads badly down with our performance. Off we went through the qualifiers playing great football and we ended up meeting Cork again in the All Ireland semi final. The night before the game Páidí had put together a video nasty to remind us of our lack of performance in Pairc Uí Chaoimh a few months previously and to motivate us for the following day.
Diarmuid O Sullivan played football that summer and as they went to town on us in the second half he broke through and shot for a goal but the ball went over. Declan O Keeffe had flung himself at The Rock as he was shooting and was on the ground as the Cork man ran past him. He gave him a little flick on the backside with his boot. When this flashed up on the screen the night before the game John O Keeffe who was a selector with Páidí had a little giggle.
Well if he did Páidí jumped up stopped the video and roared at us that there would be no laughing. We were a laughing stock earlier that summer and a disgrace to the jersey and now we were laughing about it. Silence in the room. I think the funniest thing about it was Johno got such a shock that from his perch in the front row he glanced back over his shoulder shaking his head agreeing with Páidí.
He definitely wasn’t taking the rap for it. Needless to say we played like men possessed the next day and had a big win. While we ultimately lost the final to Armagh by a point it certainly wasn’t down to Páidí who put on a clinic as an intercounty manager that summer.
We had some great battles with Cork in my time in management. They gave us a few right trimmings in the league in 2014 and 2015, but thankfully we always had the upper hand in championship. A game that stands out is our win in 2014. That was the last football final played in Pairc Uí Chaoimh before it was closed for the redevelopment.
Cork were going really well at the time and had lost to Dublin in the league semi final having led well at half time. We were still finding our way a bit with a new team but that was the day we arrived with so many of the team playing really well. The night before we broke with tradition and stayed in Fota because of the 2pm throw in.
Players that would have been travelling from the furthest points of the county would have had an early start on Sunday and we wanted to avoid this. As part of our preparation at the time the players would email me with some visualisations for the upcoming match. It was incredibly powerful stuff and it was amazing how often it came off in the match for them. I had a Eureka moment before that match, thinking that the power from the emails was being wasted as only me and each individual player knew the specifics.
Instead we decided to have a ‘promises meeting’ the night before the match. Rather than sending me their visualisations the players would each make one promise to the group for the match the following day. It was powerful stuff and the players weren’t going to break their word to each other. It worked brilliantly and we used it again for the All Ireland.
Saturday is another chapter in my story with Cork. I expect to be going back home over the county bounds happy that Kerry are in the Munster final. Anything else is unthinkable.
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