42 years ago, as Cork GAA tried to alleviate the crippling debt left over from the construction of Páirc Úi Chaoimh, a new club championship format was introduced.
The most competitive club championship in Ireland?
While many different metrics can be used to gauge the competitiveness of the GAA’s club championships, the wealth, or lack of, competition can be ascertained, at least to a certain extent, by examining the spread of finalists in each county.
Club v County: How this year’s championships might provide the catalyst for change
It may have taken a global health crisis and the complete cessation of sport for three months, but maybe the GAA might emerge from its hibernation with a feasible solution to its perennial fixtures problem. Or at the very least, something vaguely resembling a feasible solution.
Just let us hurl
Should training sessions involving a limited number of personnel be permitted, it stands to reason that teams at the lowest rung of the GAA ladder, your Junior B’s and Junior C’s of this world, teams with which ‘training in small numbers’ is usually a given, should be the first to dip their toes into the waters of ‘the new normal’.
10 years on: When Aisake rocked Tipp
Ten years ago this month, an old and unfancied Cork team welcomed the All-Ireland runners-up, Tipperary to the Park. Aided by a man mountain at full-forward, it proved to be the last kick from a dying team.
The summer’s out of reach
John Horan practically dismissed all hopes of an All-Ireland championship last weekend. What are we going to do with ourselves now?
The 1905 All-Ireland Final: How a mole in the camp cost Cork a Championship
115 years ago, hostility abounded between two of Cork's most prestigious hurling clubs. Did this bitterness give rise to the espionage which ultimately thwarted Cork's All-Ireland ambitions?
Finbarr Delaney holds a peculiar place in Cork’s record books.
A dual minor All-Ireland winner, at one time Finbarr Delaney was one of the most prolific forwards in Cork hurling.
Niall Mac, 2004 and that point
Even in times so devoid of sporting commentary and parochial discord, comparing Niall McCarthy to D.J. Carey is probably as futile an exercise as can possibly be conceived. Yet here we are.
“Sleep and not Death”: When the GAA ceased in Munster
The epic story of the 1920 Munster Championship is a timely reminder that sport in Ireland has persevered through testing times before. It will return. At some stage.
When the wall came down: The devolution of Cork’s half-back line
John Gardiner, Ronan Curran and Sean Og O'hAilpin used once reign supreme. Since their departure, they've proved a tough act to follow.
Keep On Keeping On: GAA in a Post-Corona World
It may not be the pandemic the GAA wants, but maybe it's the pandemic it needs.
Corona Chaos: Uncertain times for sport
A nation holds it's breath as the sporting calendar grinds to a halt.
Kearney embodied the saying about the size of the dog in the fight
Unless this Cork team win an All-Ireland, they will eternally be shackled by connotations surrounding flakiness and timidity. As a player who embodied the old saying about the size of the dog in the fight, the same can never be said about Daniel Kearney.
Hurling League Preview: The Cooper Expirement and The Lehane Dilemma
The Cork hurlers 2020 campaign begins in earnest on Sunday. Grounds for experimenation, integration and rejuvenation. But at the end of the day, it's still only the league.
Hurling and Science: Incompatable foes?
Can sporting success coincide with scientific accomplishment? Or is the era off the dual player (specifically that of the scholar-hurler) an idealistic concept destined for failure.
Buds of optimism emerge from Winter of Discontent
It’s been an eventful off-season for many of the Championship’s main contenders. Amid the madness, tenuous buds of optimism can be drawn.
Dissecting the Decade: The changing face of Cork football
75 players have played championship football for Cork this decade. After years of anguish, a revival is finally in sight.
The decade that’s been: Ten years of false dawns
We were back, we were miles off, we were back again, we were years away. Cork's hokey-pokey decade.
Patrick Horgan and the Eternal Quest
Continued excellence against the backdrop of perennial underachievement. Patrick Horgan’s twelve seasons in the Blood and Bandage.
Remembering 2013: The Revolution Year
The 2013 All-Ireland Hurling Championship brought excitement and unpredictability, not seen since The 'Revolution Years' of the mid-90's.
Four Kings: The Class of ’08
In June 2008, Patrick Horgan, Seamus Callanan, T.J Reid and Joe Canning all made their intercounty debuts. Since then, they have been at the forefront of hurling's golden age of scoring.
Dissecting the Decade: Feeding grounds for Cork hurling (2010-19)
Since 2010, 64 players have hurled for Cork in the heat of championship, representing a total of 32 clubs.
