Christy O'Connor Talking Points: Clare hoping to borrow from history in Cork opener
READY TO GO: In attendance at the launch of Bord Gáis Energy’s continued sponsorship of the GAA All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship is Bord Gáis Energy ambassador and hurling star Shane O’Donnell with Logan Clifford Hegarty, aged 6, at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
In Limerick’s rich and glorious modern history, the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kilkenny represented a defining moment in shaping their future dominance, similar to the way in which Kilkenny’s 2001 All-Ireland semi-final loss to Galway steered Brian Cody and his players on a crusade of supremacy and superiority.
Limerick were unlucky that day against Kilkenny. They were even more disappointed again when watching the Tipperary team they’d hammered in the 2019 Munster final go on and win the All-Ireland. Still, Limerick were beaten three times in that championship, which softened their claims around ill-luck.
If anything, the dye had been cast in their opening game. Cork had been well beaten the previous week by Tipp, while Limerick had just impressively won the league title and were heavily fancied to do a number on Cork. But they didn’t. And, on one of the rare occasions, John Kiely publicly displayed his frustrations with his players afterwards.
“Clearly we are not where we need to be,” said Kiely.
“We’ve got to have a good hard look at ourselves because what we did outside there today wasn’t good enough.” It was more of a shock again because nobody saw it coming, especially when All-Ireland champions always carry that confidence into the following season’s championship."
In the last 50 years, only seven other All-Ireland champions lost their first match the following summer; Tipperary (2017 and 2020), Clare (1996 and 2014), Kilkenny (1994 and 2004) and Galway (1989). Five of those defeats (including Limerick’s in 2019) came in the qualifier era but none of those teams retained their All-Ireland.
Some of those defeats do carry an asterisk; Galway’s opening game in 1989 was an All-Ireland semi-final against a rampant Tipp team, while Clare (1996) and Kilkenny (2004) were beaten with the last puck of two outstanding matches against Limerick and Wexford.
In that last half-century, there were only three occasions when the All-Ireland champions went into their opening game the following season less fancied by the bookies; Galway (1989), Clare (1998) and Tipperary (2020). Still, the All-Ireland champions have never been such underdogs as Clare are now.
“I can’t remember an occasion when the All-Ireland champions were 11-4 in their opening game in their own field,” said TJ Ryan on Dalo’s roadshow in Cork city on Thursday night. “There’s a touch of an insult about it.”
The historians in Clare will hope for a repeat scenario of 1998, when the conditions are similar to what they are now; Cork were league champions, having convincingly beaten Clare in the league (semi-final) a few weeks beforehand. Cork were favourites. And Clare turned the gun on them.
Back then, Clare had Cork in a headlock; that win in 1998 was Clare’s fourth successive championship victory, with all of those wins coming in a six-year period. Almost three decades on, Clare now harbour hopes of beating Cork in the championship on five successive occasions for the first time.
Despite all the doubts and uncertainty, Clare will be borrowing from that recent history – and how the All-Ireland champions have had an 84 per cent success rate in their first championship game of the following season.
In the aftermath of Wicklow’s impressive performance against Dublin last weekend, one of the discussion points on ‘The Sunday Game’ was the unexpected trend of the lower ranked teams being far more competitive than expected against the top sides.
Along with Wicklow, New York hadn’t rolled over against Galway, Antrim pushed Armagh hard, while Sligo nearly caught Mayo. “It’s a trend we wouldn’t have expected,” said Enda McGinley. “Previously, these teams would have parked the bus because that’s how they would have stayed in the game.
"When you remove that ability for them by only being able to keep 12 players back there, you were thinking there’s going to be unmerciful hammerings. But New York, Antrim, Sligo and Wicklow didn’t have the option of parking the bus.
"They went and had a go. And every one of them emerged with credit.”
They did but there is real dread around the potential outcome of Saturday’s Mayo-Leitrim game. The last time these sides met in the championship, Mayo doled out a record-breaking 24-point hammering. And after a spring of shipping beatings, three of which were by 22 or more points, a young and inexperienced Leitrim team is even more exposed now to another bad beatdown now.
“We will set ourselves some performance targets,” said Leitrim manager Steven Poacher this week. “That's all we can really do - it's just about trying to focus on what we can do ourselves and not be worrying so much about the outcome.”
It is.
There was a photograph taken of Jim McGuinness amongst the crowd on the Clones pitch after the 2013 Ulster final defeat to Monaghan where the Donegal manager is dejectedly looking at the Monaghan players celebrate on the podium as a Monaghan flag flutters directly behind his head.
McGuinness was devastated but he was also privately seething as he felt their preparations for that championship was completely compromised; Donegal were the only Ulster county to schedule club fixtures during the provincial campaign, with McGuinness’s players club-tied for three weekends of the Ulster championship.
That hadn’t happened before, while it didn’t happen in 2014, when Donegal beat Monaghan in the Ulster final. The split season put paid to it happening in McGuinness’ second coming but that 2013 defeat to Monaghan remains McGuinness’ only defeat in 18 games as a manager in the Ulster championship.
And yet, while McGuinness is desperate to maintain that run, Rory Beggan, Kieran Duffy and Darren Hughes will be looking for an extremely rare achievement on Sunday – a second Ulster championship win against McGuinness.
When Westmeath sensationally beat Wexford in the 2023 Leinster hurling championship, the shock was exacerbated by Wexford having led by 17 points at one stage, and particularly when the match was on in Wexford Park. A week later though, when Wexford were dicing with relegation from Leinster, they beat Kilkenny in Wexford Park.
In the five year history of the Leinster round robin, Wexford have only lost three matches at home – against Galway in 2018, Dublin in 2022 and Westmeath the following year. And in a massive game against Antrim now, Wexford will be looking to tap into the luxury of those home comforts.
Again.
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