All Ireland Final Preview

11th Sep 2003

All Ireland Final Preview

Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny. No Comment required.

Sunday, as every good citizen knows by now, is All-Ireland Final day. Cork take on Kilkenny at Croke Park in a clash of the country's two hurling giants.

This is the Big One. Cork v Kilkenny. Rebels against Cats. You have to feel a bit sorry for a proud hurling county like Kilkenny for being saddled with such an unfortunate nickname. In Cork our "Rebel" tag sits easily with our healthy romantic notion of ourselves as mavericks.

We set ourselves apart from the rest of the country, living life at our own pace and pursuing a revolutionary agenda of a People's Republic. Our hurling team symbolises Cork's identity and defiance - a rebel team for a rebel people. So what does that make Kilkenny? A feline team for a catlike people?

In America they name sports teams after creatures like lions, panthers, falcons, eagles, hornets. These are animals with qualities that come in handy during matches, like speed, courage and unbridled bloodlust. Cats play with balls of wool, balm out purring next to the fire and run away in terror when you try to touch them. An unusual choice of creature for a hurling team to align itself with.


Kilkenny's jerseys meanwhile are the cause of many a spectator migraine on match day, in true Leinster style. When RTE first began broadcasting hurling in colour, they had to flash a "Do not adjust your set" message onscreen every time Kilkenny played.

Many viewers assumed that technical gremlins were responsible for the horrific bands of clashing colours moving across their screens. They didn't realise that Kilkenny had actually chosen to look like that. Black and amber is the sort of colour scheme you'd choose if all the good ones like red and white had already been taken by other, superior counties.

Even the most casual listener can recognise a sharp difference between the Cork and Kilkenny accents. We need look no further than the insufferable Kilkenny dirge "The Rose of Mooncoin" for evidence of the unusual way they speak in the county. Both "shine" and "entiwne" are used to rhyme with "Mooncoin". As Corkonians, we find this hilarious. It seems any vaguely similar words can be made to rhyme perfectly if they're spoken in a thick Urlingford accent.

Up in Kilkenny much is expected from their team on Sunday. The way they talk about themselves you'd swear they fancy themselves as "Cork without a coastline" or something. The cheek of them. All eyes in the county will be focussed on the double-act of DJ Carey and MC Shefflin, Kilkenny's veteran duo. These days Carey is regularly mentioned in the same breath as Christy Ring, but we would prefer not to dwell on this blasphemy and sacrilege here. It is a crime perpetrated mainly by the Dublin media, who have made Kilkenny their darlings because of their own realisation that they'll see Cork play in blue before they ever see Dublin beat us at hurling.

Anyway, Carey will be one to watch, despite his senior citizen status and very mediocre Championship year. He seems to have at least temporarily escaped from the exhausting retirement/comeback merry-go-round he became trapped on a few years back. Shefflin is current "Hurler of the Year" as Ger Canning is blue in the face from telling us, but we'll see how much that counts for on Sunday, won't we?

How welcome will we be on Sunday night?

Cork sensation of 2003 is Setanta ” hAilp'