Can too much be read into League success?

KILLINAN END

We may, in time, look back on the current era as one of the golden periods for hurling. Imagine the prospect of a Limerick–Cork league final ahead of us; then consider that the All-Ireland champions of the last two years are also in the province of Munster, and you have to concede that we are indeed living in heady times. Whatever old guff hurling rivalries can throw up among supporters of different counties, it would be churlish indeed not to concede that these two counties, in green and red, have provided a remarkable series of matches in recent years. It has reached a point where we’ve almost forgotten how dominant Limerick have been compared with their southern rivals.

Even with the gathering storm of the Munster Championship ahead, a mere League Final is now a high-stakes match. This sense of consequence is informed by the instinct not to give an inch. Cork, under a new manager who will be anxious to establish his credentials further, will hardly hold back, considering what this opposition can do if you’re not at the full pitch of the contest. Limerick, in front of a home crowd, will scarcely countenance anything other than victory, even if, in the grand sweep of their achievements, it is not exactly the Holy Grail at this point. Suffice to say that the green grass of the Gaelic Grounds will not be a place for those of delicate disposition at the weekend.

It is remarkable to think, considering how few counties dine at hurling’s top table, that these Munster neighbours haven’t met in a League Final since 1980.

That was a year which saw them contest a series of significant games, including a drawn League Final and replay in Cork. This was followed by one of Limerick’s glory days in Semple Stadium, when Cork’s great run in Munster - which had seen them unbeaten for over six years - was brought to an end. Back in those days, a Limerick–Cork League Final was no novelty. They had met three times in the ’70s in finals, as well as in the Munster Finals of 1975 & ’79.

Rivalries tend to need the oxygen of swaying fortunes, and perhaps the Limerick–Cork rivalry of the ’70s suffers in reputation from the fact that Cork won all three League Finals and both Munster Finals between the teams. In the midst of all that, there was a day in June 1971 when another champion Cork team was dethroned by a great Limerick display, but aside from that, the Shannonsiders played second fiddle to the red menace across the decade.

No wonder they might have pulled in Newport in July 1980 to charm the locals with a few bars of ‘Seán South’ before crossing the border to the homes of east Limerick.

Of all those days in the ha’penny place against Cork, none rocked Limerick quite like the defeat—and its manner—in the 1974 National Hurling League final. Despite the prominence of the Gaelic Grounds as a Munster Final venue during the 1950s and ’60s, it is a curiosity that the ’74 final was the first League Final to be held on the Ennis Road in almost three decades.

Limerick entered that 1974 final on a psychological high. Just eight months earlier, they had brought the Liam MacCarthy Cup to Shannonside for the first time since 1940. Now they were facing a fifth consecutive League Final.

The business end of things was becoming routine, and they were favourites on this day too. What ultimately transpired was carnage, as a rampant Cork team moved John D. Hickey to write of “a superb side which on the day would surely have destroyed any opposition you care to mention.”

Even the great Pat Hartigan had a torrid time at the hands of Mick Malone, and Cork had the luxury of achieving an eighteen-point win without Ray Cummins, while only calling Charlie McCarthy from the bench. So comprehensive was Cork’s attacking display that Hickey even questioned whether Cummins would regain his place for the first round of the Championship against Waterford at Walsh Park. He did not play in that game as it happened, and Waterford produced a seismic shock for the hurling world. The team that looked invincible proved to have feet of clay. Where have we heard that before?

Limerick did have an All-Star trip to America in the weeks leading up to the final, as well as a demanding semi-final against Tipp - or so went the narrative around mitigating the nature of the champions’ demolition on home turf. While Cork sat at home looking on, the men in green went all the way to Croke Park in September. Few would have seen that coming in early May. History recommends having a few grains of salt on standby for whatever apparently overwhelming evidence emerges this weekend.