Christy O'Connor: The stakes have never been higher for Wexford against Kilkenny

GAA talking points: The biggest struggle Cork have faced has been trying to survive in that vortex of physicality and savagery that Limerick always bring

WEXFORD WIN: Liam Ryan of Wexford in action against Conor Delaney of Kilkenny during the 2022 Leinster SHC clash at UPMC Nowlan Park. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Kilkenny-Wexford normally save the best drama for the last day 

In the history of the GAA, the most dramatic 30 seconds in living memory was the spine-tingling wait for HawkEye to declare John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer’s late free in the 2014 drawn All-Ireland final either a point or wide.

Just five years later though, that kind of oppressive and nerve-wrecking tension was extended to minutes at the end of the 2019 Dublin-Galway and Kilkenny-Wexford final Leinster round robin matches.

For those handful of moments after the final whistle in Parnell Park, Dublin players and supporters were the only ones that could relax as the most dramatic and on-edge couple of minutes imaginable was played out. Dublin were through, but Galway would have been too if either Wexford or Kilkenny won in Wexford Park.

Listening attentively to what was still happening in Wexford Park, Galway were still safe after TJ Reid edged Kilkenny ahead in injury time. After Lee Chin nailed an equalising free a minute later, players, managers and supporters were frantically seeking results and clarification, uncertain whether they would be in a Leinster final, a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final or simply redundant for the rest of the summer.

Galway soon realised that they were the first team to be dumped out of the championship on scoring difference. Wexford only won one game, but it was still enough to carry them to a Leinster final. Kilkenny were also in a Leinster final, when defeat that evening would have seen them eliminated from the championship.

Two weeks later, Wexford won an epic Leinster final against Kilkenny to secure a first provincial title since 2004. It was the third enthralling Kilkenny-Wexford match in as many seasons. In 2017, Wexford beat Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final to record a first championship victory over their rivals since 2004. A year later, the counties played out a pulsating final round robin game in Nowlan Park, which Kilkenny won by one point.

By that stage, Wexford supporters had been firmly liberated from the hurt and pain and tyranny of more than a decade spent tied up in Kilkenny chains.

After that championship win against Kilkenny in 2004, Wexford lost their next seven championship meetings by an aggregate of 90 points. Kilkenny had damaged Wexford’s soul, and deeply wounded their spirit.

Wexford had never known such hardship in the counties’ storied relationship. Kilkenny had dominated the rivalry but they had never trampled down on Wexford like they routinely did in the late 2000s, and the first half of the last decade.

Kilkenny did beat Wexford in five successive Leinster finals in the 1970s but they were still mostly epic matches. The 1972 final went to a replay. Kilkenny won the 1974 decider by one point, 6-13 to 2-24. That was one of Kilkenny’s greatest teams but Wexford finished that side when hammering them by 17 points in the 1976 Leinster final.

When Wexford went into a barren period after 1977, it was Offaly, not Kilkenny, who administered most of the pain. Wexford remained competitive against them but when Kilkenny produced their greatest team in the late 2000s, they rolled over Wexford.

The dynamic completely changed after the 2005 Leinster final, which Kilkenny won by just three points. In the next three provincial finals, Kilkenny won by an aggregate of 42 points. Kilkenny went to a whole new level afterwards and Wexford couldn’t live with it. Psychologically, Wexford were on the floor anytime they faced Kilkenny.

Kilkenny and Brian Cody always had the same ruthless approach against everybody but Cody’s history with Wexford put him even more on guard. He played in the 1976 Leinster final hammering, when he was taken off. Wexford were also heavy underdogs in the 1984 Leinster semi-final, when they stopped Kilkenny going for three All-Ireland triumphs in a row. Kilkenny were chasing the same target in 2004 when Wexford caught them in Leinster. Again.

Davy Fitzgerald’s arrival in Wexford in 2017 really brought the spice back to the rivalry. When Wexford defeated Kilkenny in the 2018 Walsh Cup final at Nowlan Park, the match was marred by a brawl. When the sides later met that spring in the league semi-final at Wexford Park, Kilkenny smashed them.

Wexford took down Kilkenny again in the 2019 and 2020 league before the sides played out another brilliant championship clash in the 2021 Leinster semi-final, which Kilkenny won after extra-time. A week after drawing with Westmeath last year, Wexford went to Nowlan Park and beat Kilkenny in a championship match there for the first time in their history.

The counties have always played out classic matches in their final round robin games (2018, 2019, 2022) but this is the first time there isn’t something at stake for both sides as Kilkenny are already in a Leinster final.

For Wexford though, this is probably the biggest game they have ever played against their great rivals, with potential relegation to the Joe McDonagh on the line, if Antrim beat Westmeath.

Wexford are on the floor but they won’t get any grace or charity from their arch rivals. “Kilkenny will be out to bury Wexford,” said former Kilkenny player Paul Murphy on The Hurling Pod on Off the Ball this week.

Wexford are used to playing out epic final round robin games with Kilkenny for a place in a Leinster final. There is no provincial final on the table now but the stakes have never been higher for Wexford against Kilkenny.

Can Cork finally turn it around against Limerick?

In so many ways, last year’s round robin performance from Cork against Limerick was different from the horror show of the 2021 All-Ireland final - and in so many other ways, it wasn’t. If anything, it was probably worse.

Unlike that 2021 final, Cork were still in the game at half-time. Cork were level three minutes into the second half. Cork’s resistance may have been more sustained and prolonged until early in the third quarter, but the same deep-seated issues which led to the collapse in 2021 saw the roof cave in again.

Limerick physically bossed and hustled Cork players in possession. They bullied the contact zones. Limerick won 24 Cork puckouts, some of which were turned over on the second or third ball, with Cork mining 0-9 from that possession. Limerick bagged 2-16 off Cork turnovers. Limerick had 18 more shots at the target.

Up front, not enough Cork players were willing to break the tackle and take on Limerick players. Limerick had it too easy, just as they had in the 2021 final. In those last two championship meetings, the aggregate score from play was Limerick 5-48, Cork 2-20.

The physical make-up of both sides was a factor in that Limerick dominance but the biggest part of it appeared to be psychological. During the week, John McCarthy, the former Newtownshandrum All-Ireland club winning captain, told John Fogarty in these pages that he didn’t think Cork could win an All-Ireland while Limerick are still around. “Until this Limerick team regress or somebody knocks them out Cork won’t win one because they are capable of beating everyone else,” said McCarthy.

That is just one man’s opinion but, deep down, these Cork players feel that they can beat Limerick. The biggest struggle Cork have faced has been trying to survive in that vortex of physicality and savagery that Limerick always bring. Cork may not have the same physical power and strength but they have been too passive and not aggressive enough in taking on Limerick in that combat zone.

Cork may not have that same aggressive level of physicality in their make-up, which means they have to try even harder again to compensate for that deficit, which Cork haven’t done enough in big games against the All-Ireland champions.

Last year, Cork gave Limerick the short puckout and then effectively conceded it higher up the field because they applied so little pressure on that second or third ball. Limerick just walked the ball past them, often because Cork had completely switched off on their defensive set-up on the Limerick puckout.

After one Cork score in the first quarter, Cork had five players inside the Limerick 45. And yet, Limerick still had three players free in their half-back line. Nickie Quaid was able to ping a ball to a free Darragh O’Donovan in the middle of the field. One pass later, Limerick had a score.

Cork can’t allow that to happen again on Sunday. If it doesn’t, and Cork engage Limerick in the physical battle the way they need to, the psychological challenge will not be as great. The counter-argument is that a more aggressive approach from Cork will be fundamentally tied into Cork’s mental state in the first place.

Cork just have to find that psychological flow of being completely absorbed and focused on marrying their class and pace with engaging Limerick in a level of ferocity and savagery that Cork haven’t brought against Limerick since the 2019 round robin game in the Gaelic Grounds, which Cork won.

If Cork do, all bets are off.