Cork's Sporting Legacy Still Intact

6th Sep 2010

Kilkenny Lose

Fair play to Tipperary - who Cork beat back in May. They are now fully deserving All-Ireland champions and took the long-long way, through the backdoor, back to Tipperary with Liam McCarthy in tow.

We salute you.

Kelly speaks about honesty. Making the man behind him look visibly uncomfortable.

It takes a lot of balls to leave Cork with one of the worst beatings in Munster championship history in May and end up holding Liam McCarthy in September.

In one sense they didn't have to do much yesterday as Kilkenny imploded without the services of hurler Henry Shefflin.

Kilkenny's reign began with the stopping of Cork's three-in-a-row in 2006 during the infamous long-grass final and ended just after a mysteriously awarded penalty in the 2009 final.

They are certainly a good team and will be remembered by many people as one of the better teams to play the game of hurling particularly when compared with the record of Kilkenny's footballers.

Cork, Kilkenny, Galway and Kerry are now the only counties that have won a four-in-a-row.

It'll be at least another five years again before any county can threaten that record.

The words "work rate" and "intensity" were used repeatedly by both Tipperary and Kilkenny in post-match interviews yesterday.

Something Tipperary clearly had Cork to thank for as the Rebels crushed them in Pairc Úi Chaoimh in May with an intensity that hadn't been seen this side of the Nore in years.

They might not be the greatest team of all time but to be fair they have a few lads who can play a bit.

Tipperary also learned vital lessons about their full back line that day as Aisake O hAilpin ran riot, setting up two goals and scoring one himself.

Without this lesson from Cork, Kilkenny would most likely have won another title and may have, on paper at least, been deemed to be the most successful hurling county.

There is no longer a threat of this and Cork can slap themselves on the back for helping Tipperary along the way.

Unfortunately Denis Walsh's men couldn't repeat the intensity of the performance of the Munster quarter final and Cork eventually bowed out to yesterday's losers.

One wonders if Henry Shefflin's knee had packed up earlier in the championship would Cork have beaten the Cats too despite their touch and intensity deserting them for large parts of that game (we're still calling for a Maor Uisce Public Inquiry to see if somebody dropped some sleeping pills into the water!)

Losing by 25 scores to 19 isn't the end of the world either.

Cork County Board may try to force the appointment of Perky Bear as a Cork bainisteoir for 2011

Cork clearly have work to do for next year's championship.

Whether new talented players should come in, whether they even exist or whether older players can be spruced up once more to regain the hunger of old remains to be seen.

With a bit of luck the Cork County Board will not provoke controversy by trying to appoint Perky Bear to any pivotal managerial positions and both hurlers and footballers can build on the relative peace of 2010 despite the re-emergence of prominent County Board figures on the sidelines.

Hopefully Shefflin will recover from his injury which may have long term implications for his career. Kilkenny are obviously heavily dependent on him and we in Cork would have concerns if Kilkenny were to follow the Irish economy into total recession. We

We've seen what has happened with disheartened Kerry fans being picked up by farmers in West Cork*.

And the poor aul Cats don't have any football to look forward to either.

Ahem. Unlike us.

* we will have a full report from West Cork on incursions by Kerry Animals within the week