BY TOM LYONS
NO lie, we had a sneaking feeling all the week that Cork were going to do something extraordinary on Sunday in Croke Park. While all around us were predicting a Limerick win, we kept saying not to rule out this Cork team.
It had taken something special to bounce back from losing the opening two games in Munster to save their season with that unforgettable win over the champions in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. We still had to make our way to Thurles but Tipp never stood a chance that day against the Rebel army that descended on their hallowed stadium. But even then we weren’t sure of qualifying and had to wait an agonising week before knowing we were through to the All-Ireland series.
Remember the 65 that Clare got to beat Waterford by a point – never a 65 – and a draw would have sent Waterford through instead of Cork? Cork’s name written on the cup maybe, Lady Luck beginning to look Cork’s way after 19 miserable barren years. One way or the other, we didn’t need to peak to beat both Offaly and Dublin but the lack of real intensity was a bit worrying. Could Pat Ryan get the team back to the standard of the Tipp game again, let alone get them up an extra gear for the clash with Limerick in an All-Ireland semi-final? Beat Limerick twice in the same season, beat the drive-for-five team in Croke Park?
In truth, nobody believed Cork had it in them to repeat the heroics of that famous night in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in early May, except Pat Ryan, his management team and especially his players. The mentality we saw in Croke Park on Sunday was miles from what we witnessed in Walsh Park in the first round of the Munster group series. In the space of three months this team has become a team that fully believes in its own ability, in their capability to beat any team in the championship and, most important, in being the team to end the longest famine Cork hurling has ever experienced.
Vital to this belief is the amazing support this team has received. Croke Park was a sea of red and white on Sunday – a crowd of 82,300 for an All-Ireland semi-final – just as Pairc Uí Chaoimh and Thurles had been. Many of those fans are teenagers and younger, drawn by an influx of young exciting players to the team. Maybe the helmets don’t help in identification but the Downeys, Joyce, Barrett, Connolly and Hayes have drawn a new generation of young Cork supporters to the cause, just as a young Jimmy Barry-Murphy did with the winning Cork football team way back in glorious 1973 when we ourselves were young and looking for heroes.
There is definitely something special about this Cork team, this army of supporters, just as there was in 1966, in 1973, in 1990, in 2004 and 2005. Which is why we kept telling everybody not to write of Cork’s chances of beating Limerick for the second time last weekend.
What a roller-coaster of a ride they took us on again. Glorious to watch in full flight when they play at pace, Cork dominated the first quarter, playing the game on their terms, as Brian Hayes rifled home the only goal of the game. Limerick responded, sublime hurling, taking the lead. Did we doubt? Of course we did. Had Cork given their all in that first half only to find Limerick again unbeatable? Oh, us of little faith. The third quarter, the championship quarter which Limerick always target, belonged to rampant Cork. Ten glorious points from ten efforts, every player a hero, every puck of a ball by a Cork player cheered to the hilt. The chant of ‘Rebels, Rebels’ rocking Croke Park. Patrick Collins, much maligned early in the season, brought off another magnificent save and Dalton hit a boomer between the uprights.
We knew Limerick would respond like the champions they are and they did. Point by agonising point they came back. But there is a God up there and, somehow, their radar was slightly off, two vital chances missed. That last high ball dropping into the Cork square, they couldn’t do this to us, could they? Downey, the hero as he wins possession, passes to Collins, coolness personified as he shifts it out to the unmarked Kingston and it’s all over. Cork in the final, Limerick beaten, again, and the drive for five halted, by Cork.
It’s Clare next and they are rubbing their hands with glee at the knowledge that their nemesis, Limerick, are gone from the race. They know they can beat Cork, they have for the past three seasons, but this is a new, different Cork animal than they faced a couple of months ago.
Roll on the mad scramble for tickets, the fierce hype, the feel-good factor here in Cork. A chance to make up for the disaster of 2021, an ending to the 19-year famine that has plunged Cork GAA to the depths of despair. It must end in Patrick Street on Monday week as the Liam McCarthy Cup is proudly paraded through his native city, clad in red and white as the cheering thousands gather to welcome him home. Nothing less will satisfy the Red Army and nothing less will repay this new, gallant Cork hurling team for their efforts.
