Cork still scarred by 2018 semi-final defeat to Limerick

Newtownshandrum’s 2004 All-Ireland senior club winning captain John McCarthy believes the 2018 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Limerick left an indelible mark on Cork

CRUCIAL SAVE: Limerick goalkeeper Nickie Quaid of Limerick makes a save from Seamus Harnedy of Cork in the final moments of the 2018 All-Ireland SHC semi-final at Croke Park. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

In the most unforgiving terms, the signpost on Charleville’s Old Limerick Road turning onto the new one tells the story of August 22, 2021.

One man’s enterpriser, another’s vandal, the sign across the road from the Kerry Agribusiness building was amended to include the emphatic scoreline from that year’s All-Ireland final lets everyone know just how good Limerick had it over Cork that day.

Akin to the rock face Mount Misery that is situated in Kilkenny but overlooks Waterford city and the Tipperary county line sign just outside Urlingford, the small landmark has been the canvas for local bragging rights. The week that’s in it, perhaps a Cork follower will or has restored the sign to its original state but that nobody had bothered to do so for quite some time is extraordinary.

Just as it was two years ago, Charleville will be the fighting front these coming days with possibly more tension than excitement this time around given that not just a championship, but a summer is on the line.

In conversations and deeds, the demarcations will be reiterated but in reality they are blurred. Local car dealers Cavanaghs have been supplying Limerick’s senior hurlers with a Ford Transit as their kitvan for years. They have also sponsored local hero Darragh Fitzgibbon whose homeplace skirts the border close to Willie Burke’s Mid-West Farm mill where Newtownshandrum’s 2004 All-Ireland senior club winning captain and farmer John McCarthy buys his feed.

REMINDER: The Cork - Limerick road sign in Charleville. Pic: John Fogarty

McCarthy has no doubt that the 2021 result still haunts Cork – nine of the starting team began against Clare last weekend, two more came off the bench and Mark Coleman and Robbie O’Flynn are out injured. But he believes the one that left an indelible mark on the group was the 2018 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Limerick – 10 of those that saw action that day remain in the squad. It’s what makes this Sunday and the possibility of pushing Limerick out of the championship a heady incentive, McCarthy argues.

“Things like 2021 rattle you. There are still scars there and only something big is going to heal them. I go back to the year Dublin’s footballers made the breakthrough in 2011 when Kerry were four points with six or seven minutes to go. The next thing, a breaking ball and a goal. The next thing, a point and Dublin had the momentum. Sometimes, you just need a freak of a moment to get over the line.

“I think Cork need Limerick out of an All-Ireland to win one. The damage they did to Cork was not so much in 2021 but the ‘18 All-Ireland semi-final. That’s the one that broke them. What happened in 2021 was the result of ‘18 when they were six points up with 10 minutes to go and Limerick came back at them not with goals but point after point after point and that killed them in extra-time.

“Hurling-wise, there isn’t a problem but until this Limerick team regress or somebody knocks them out Cork won’t win one because they are capable of beating everyone else.” 

Edging out Limerick as they did in the dying embers of this year’s league opener having been eight points down at half-time, up until last weekend Cork have made a habit of springing late this season to carve out results.

Cormac Beausang’s late goal earned them a league win over Wexford and then Conor Lehane and Conor Cahalane sent over points to secure a draw away to Clare. In the Munster SHC, a point was snatched against Tipperary who had led by five points up to the 64th minute and another draw was almost grabbed against Clare having been down by nine points.

Few are questioning Cork’s character at the moment but many are wondering if they are leaving themselves too much to do. The way McCarthy sees it, they’re not bearing their teeth when they need to. 

“If I’m honest, there’s a question around the place that there’s not enough dog in them. It’s an inconsistent trend with them, they’re going in and out of matches.

“If you look at La Rochelle last weekend, they would be under the definition of dog in the dictionary. Once they got a foothold in the game, they were like a tank that kept trundling on. Cork don’t show enough of the dog.”