Some Cork-Kilkenny scars will never heal

“They don't like what was said. It's a reflection on a team that has broken all sorts of records. It's very disrespectful."

Wed, 07 Feb, 2024 - 07:32

John Fogarty

Fifteen years on, it’s a league pasting that stains the Cork record books and tattoos the brains of those visiting supporters who lay witness to it in Nowlan Park.

It had been on the cards. Over the two previous weekends in 2009, three-in-a-row All-Ireland champions Kilkenny had smashed Tipperary and Clare by 17 and 13 points respectively.

Following Gerald McCarthy’s resignation and under interim manager John Considine, Cork’s striking players had returned to action with two wins against Clare and Limerick but on that early April Sunday they didn’t stand a chance on Kilkenny soil.

This was pre-Stepford Wives – Dónal Óg Cusack's caustic remark about the Kilkenny players would come in his book later that year – but in late February captain John Gardiner indicated Cork would have stood a better chance of outdoing Kilkenny had Gerald McCarthy not been at the helm the two previous years.

On Noreside, that was perceived as a slight.

“Cork's announcement that they would have won more All-Irelands with a different management has bitten into Kilkenny, and they'll be out to disprove that on Sunday,” said Kilkenny great Eddie Keher in the build-up to the game.

“They don't like what was said. It's a reflection on a team that has broken all sorts of records. It's very disrespectful."

Denis Walsh couldn’t have asked for a more onerous first game as manager. Almost 15,000 turned up to see Kilkenny’s Romans massacre the Cork’s Carthaginian barbarians 4-26 to 0-11. “There you go now Cusack, 27 points, take that home with ya,” was how the Cork goalkeeper imagined Henry Shefflin was thinking as they shook hands at the final whistle.

Shefflin later felt Cusack misinterpreted him and Kilkenny that day as Richie Power helped himself to a hat-trick of goals. At the same time, he acknowledged there was intent to respond to Cork’s bark with bite.

“We were a three-in-a-row team, they were coming back from yet another civil war,” he mentions in his autobiography. “Planets apart. As we set about them that day in Nowlan Park, Dónal Óg read things into our body language that didn't exist.

“I'll admit we were as psyched that day as we would have been for a championship match. This was no run-of-the-mill league game. There had been massive media focus on it because it was Cork's first day back from a strike. We knew it was different.

“Then again, nothing specific was said in the dressing room before or after. Nothing was necessary. When it was over, the attitude of the players was very simple. 'That's us, that's Kilkenny, that's how we do our talking!'”

Jackie Tyrrell’s recollection of the day was different. “There was a genuine disdain for Cork and what those players stood for,” he recounts in his autobiography, 'The Warrior’s Code'.

“We didn’t want to just beat Cork that day – we wanted to trample them into the ground like dirt.

“Before we left the dressing room, someone encapsulated the cold-blooded and clinical feeling in our collective heart. 'If we get a chance, let's bury these fuckers.' Once we got on top early, that impulse and desire to keep nailing them was propelled by the crowd who were baying for blood. They kept pushing us on for more and we gladly responded to the mood of the mob.

“Another county would have let up. We never would. We took great satisfaction out of hammering Cork but we wanted to beat the shite out of everyone. We wanted to embarrass players. To mentally dominate them.”

Leading by 15 points at half-time, the players were treated to a standing ovation as they left the field. They had been shown the same fanfare two weeks earlier when they were 20 points up on Tipperary at the break but the cheers were greater this time around. This was perceived as a righteous punishment.

Fifteen years on, Patrick Horgan is Cork’s sole survivor from that day, TJ Reid Kilkenny’s. The rivalry that exists between them amounts to who will end up the all-time top scorer in the championship (Reid currently leads by 14). The bitterness between the counties has thawed to such an extent that Keher praised Cusack’s comments about the promotion of hurling last May.

Yet traces of animosity linger. When their county’s Division 1 final against Limerick was fixed for Cork last year, some boycotted it not because of the commute but their belief stemming back to their strikes in the 2000s that Cork had broken a common bond.

They won’t be travelling on Saturday either. Some scars never heal.