Talking point: Should Cork be feeling the fear?

Clare have beaten Cork 16 times in championship hurling and nine of them have come in the 31 years since 1993.

Clare’s David Fitzgerald celebrates scoring his sides third goal during the Munster SHC victory over Cork. Picture: ©INPHO/Ken Sutton

In May of 1993, the diet of an 11-year-old Cork supporter was all milk and honey. If life on the terraces is akin to a form of addiction, then those first hits that you had been exposed to from 1988 onwards were on par with a famous Irvine Welch novel. Spectacular lows would follow, of course, but that's the thing with addiction, nobody tells you there’ll be days like those.

1991 was the only year that hadn't ended with an All-Ireland final. You were living through a golden epoch, no the golden epoch of Cork football, and the hurlers were the hurlers. Even while rebuilding they could come good, quickly, dare I say it, like… You had seen it all. Munster titles, All-Ireland crowns, a couple of leagues and even a once in a century event, the double.